Most Valuable Second Languages to Know

[lazypucker]

For me I would say Mandarin and Spanish - for the coverage and the sheer number of speakers.

Originally Posted by GirlySports

japanese never carried value and neither will mandarin

Speaks like a true Korean!!

[mrdonkey]

I started with Spanish. The nice thing about it is that it makes learning other languages like French, Portuguese, and Italian MUCH easier. The latter two are mostly identical to Spanish, in fact, with only some minor differences; so much so that on my most recent trip to Europe I could speak Spanish in these countries and still have a rudimentary level of understanding with locals. Another nice benefit is that if you ever go vacationing in Mexico or other parts of Latin Central America, the locals will absolutely love you for it.

French is useful here in Canada of course (and will be extremely helpful for anyone looking for a job in government or sales), west Africa, and I found is understood in a large part of Europe along with the obvious France and Switzerland as well. Plus we are fortunate to have so many immersion and schooling opportunities for French here, that will make it by far the easiest for a young Canadian to become fluent in.

I have my doubts about the value of Mandarin since it's a huge time investment to learn, does not have a lot of immersion opportunities (outside of maybe the Greater Vancouver Area), and most Chinese nationals you're likely to engage with will know at minimum basic English, or will speak Cantonese anyway.

The best advice I can give is to start with whatever language you're interested in and go from there. You're much more likely to stick with something you're interested in learning rather than whatever is "valuable."

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

For me I would say Mandarin and Spanish - for the coverage and the sheer number of speakers.



Speaks like a true Korean!!

She's Korean? I thought they were just a K-Pop fan.

[Ozy_Flame]

Spanish and Mandarin, hands down.

However it depends what you want to do with it. Farsi is good if you want a career in national security.

[Weitz]

I wouldn't waste time on French personally.

[redforever]

Unless you are truly interested in a gov't job in Canada, I would scrap French. In all my travels, French has not been a helpful option. Morocco perhaps but they are slowly switching to English as a second language.

My first preference for a second language would be Spanish. Second would be Mandarin.

[Wormius]

French is basically free through the CBE, so I wouldn't disregard it since you have a lot of resources and French teachers here. Spanish, she would be more likely to have to spend extra time outside of school, which might not be so desireable, in addition to learning with less frequency than she would French.


I would only say, try to figure out the European French dialect. Apparently Canadian French sounds really nasty to European French speakers.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by timbit

The 2 most difficult languages in the world are Mandarin and Finnish.

I would go with German.

Funny, before I met my wife I was studying Mandarin since I had intended to visit China eventually. Verbally I found it quite easy to get a hang of, it was just the written characters that were difficult to keep track of. After marrying a Vietnamese girl though and trying to learn that language, it's way more difficult IMO even though it's the only Asian language to use the latin alphabet. The pronouns in Vietnamese alone are a struggle to get my head around

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Funny, before I met my wife I was studying Mandarin since I had intended to visit China eventually. Verbally I found it quite easy to get a hang of, it was just the written characters that were difficult to keep track of. After marrying a Vietnamese girl though and trying to learn that language, it's way more difficult IMO even though it's the only Asian language to use the latin alphabet. The pronouns in Vietnamese alone are a struggle to get my head around

ha!

vietnamese is the best and worst language in the world at the same time

[Muffins]

Originally Posted by Wormius

French is basically free through the CBE, so I wouldn't disregard it since you have a lot of resources and French teachers here. Spanish, she would be more likely to have to spend extra time outside of school, which might not be so desireable, in addition to learning with less frequency than she would French.


I would only say, try to figure out the European French dialect. Apparently Canadian French sounds really nasty to European French speakers.

As one Frenchman described it to me: Quebecois french is just like European french, only you have a roll of quarters in your mouth.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Muffins

As one Frenchman described it to me: Quebecois french is just like European french, only you have a roll of quarters in your mouth.

I heard it was something like the French Canadians adding some "dz" sound to the certain words insetad of a better flowing sound. In any event, the French guy I talked to said he prefered to speak to English to these people because it was easier on his ears.

[Weitz]

Almost every where in Europe you can find really good english speakers... Except France.. The damn french.

[DoubleF]

As many others have stated, Mandarin and Spanish. IMO the reason for this is that it has the highest coverage for travel where finding someone who can speak English to help is much more difficult.

For instance, most places that speak French generally have enough people who can speak English as well. India has a ton of people who speak English.

Knowing Spanish can also aid in guessing French.


Not to stomp of Quebec'ers, but I have definitely heard that Quebecois French is definitely less elegant than French spoken in France. I believe the major differences are all "Qu" sounds are more like "K" and Quebecois has a bit of slang that slurs words together and drops syllables (ie: Chez pas vs Je ne sais pas?). I've heard someone describe it as listening to someone speak French over a walkie talkie with poor reception. That being said, I recall a comedian say the easiest way to pretend you know how to speak French is to close your eyes, make exaggerated facial expressions and mumble.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Almost every where in Europe you can find really good english speakers... Except France.. The damn french.

They speak great English when they realize you are Canadian and not American. I witnessed this many times.

[blankall]

Mandarin and Spanish are very valuable for business opportunities.

French is also valuable. There are a lot of jobs in government that are only available to bilingual French/English speaker.

From a purely opportunity/skills point of view Mandarin, Spanish, and French are the only languages I would consider. Languages like German, Russian, or Arabic could be valuable, but a lot of their international business is done in English, and most people in those countries will likely speak better English than your kid's secondary language.

[GP_Matt]

It is way easier to become Prime Minister and a Supreme Court judge if you speak french and english. Do you really want to limit your daughters future already?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by troutman

They speak great English when they realize you are Canadian and not American. I witnessed this many times.

Just spent a week in Paris and beg to differ. Next to no one spoke good English let alone half assed english. Almost everyone I know has had similar experience in France.

[DuffMan]

Spanish.
I know knowing some Spanish, got me out of some very precarious situations in Mexico.
Also you can converse with Filipino people with it.

[bizaro86]

We've gone with Spanish for our kids for a few reasons. We seriously considered both Spanish and Mandarin (largely for the reason stated by others). However, I think Mandarin would be harder to learn. Largely because we as parents would be much less likely to pick it up and practice with them. Also, there is a well regarded CBE spanish program near where we live, so we plan on sending them there, which I think makes it much more likely that they'll continue the language learning they're doing now (pre-school aged).

The most common question we get is why not French. I get that reduces opportunity for government/political jobs, but I've never met anyone who had a job like that I'd consider happy. I don't have a perfect sample set, obviously, so no need to reply that you're a bureaucrat and the happiest person on earth. I think Spanish will open up a comparable amount of private sector opportunities, and we use it already when travelling.

[Wormius]

I don't think it even limits your ability to get government jobs. IIRC,they just send you on a language training course to get your French up to something passable. Personally we just think French is a convenient extra language because we have the French immersion school in our neighbourhood, so why not?