A third language to learn?

[bassmanwho]

Chinese is my native tongue and I've learned English as a second language. I have very rudimentary understanding of Japanese and a newborn baby's proficiency in Spanish. Those two don't count as languages that I'm able to speak.

I've started with a bit of Spanish but I don't know if it is my best choice from a business standpoint since at the time being my work is largely based in an Asian country where Chinese is spoken as an official language. A career change to sales might be on the way so I want to expend my horizon and to be able to reach potential prospects with languages that they feel more familiar and friendly. I'm narrowing down my choices to either Spanish or French since they are two of the most influential languages in the world now.

So here is my question: What's the best third language to learn for utilitarian purposes for a guy like me? Thank you for your opinions.

[Schlyder]

I would say Spanish or Russian.

[onosson]

That's a hard one to answer without knowing more about your business. Korean, Arabic (as well as Spanish and French that you already mentioned) spring to mind...

[Bongolation]

If nothing else, I should imagine you'd find Spanish easy.

If I had the brain power and memory left (which, alas, I do not), I would learn Russian or Arabic, but both are appallingly hard languages to learn.

[skwee]

If you learn Spanish or French, the other should be very easy, and Italian would be in reach, as all three are Romance languages, and similar in structure. The peculiarities of pronunciation and diction would be your only real obstacle.

[champbassist]

I'd say any of German, French or Spanish (in that order).

[Gear_Junky]

well, in that Asian country, are there Vietnamese, Koreans or maybe Thai immigrants/travelers/migrants? That would tell you what to learn. I don't see how another European language is gonna help you there. Well, maybe possibly Russian

seems like you should now the answer. but you can google your topmost "suspects" and see which ones are the most "populous" languages i.e. Chinese has the highest population of people that speak it, English is the 2nd (I think), Spanish - 3rd, but these numbers may not apply regionally (obviously here Spanish is more practical than even Chinese, but in Asia, it's the other way around)

[onewebfoot]

You are in a fortunate position. English AND Chinese? Already?

This might squelch the creative or linguistic cravings you have, but an argument could be made that you have enough with those two already. So what would you think of enhancing and emphasizing your business or technical *writing* in either English or Chinese (or both), instead of gaining a rudimentary fluency with a third language? It's a valid question.

If you are in sales or marketing, or international business, a third language might mean more to you than advanced writing skills in any two. However, if you were more focused on development, engineering perhaps, and perhaps still in marketing with more focus...

then technical or business writing fluency might offer you more payoff in the shorter term than the third language.

[bassmanwho]

Thank you all for your great suggestions and feedback.

Many businesses in my country rely on international trades with foreign countries, therefore, English is an indispensable tool to survive if you are in sales or other positions where meeting people who speak different languages is frequent. I'm not in sales per se, but it is a possible career milestone for me in the future when the timing for a transition is ripe. That is also why I'm here asking for advice from your collective wisdom.

As stated I grew up speaking Chinese and I'm quite satisfied with my fluency in Chinese writing. I have no problem writing in some technical aspects and in terms of general/business use I think I'll be fine. As for English writing I don't think I can compete with native speakers but as a learner who never had a chance to live/visit countries where English is spoken as a native language, I'd say I worked damn hard to learn the world's lingua franca.
I have done my homework and found out that French and Spanish ranked 2nd and 3rd on the top chart of world's most influential languages while Chinese, Spanish, Hindu and English are most widely spoken.

I was intrigued to find out that English, French and Spanish do share some similarities like you pointed out. Many native Chinese speakers here learn Japanese, which shares some characteristics with Chinese as well. And since we're geographically close to Japan, it is not excluded as an option to further improve my Japanese.

[odin70]

French..really? In Africa perhaps. I would go for German. But thats me. I belive English is without a doubt the most important language right now. Of course that will change over time. Does anyone remember latin? Maybe there is more Chinese speaking people in the world, but i belive most of them live within the borders of China. I havent been in a country yet where i couldnt survive with my English knowledge. Arabic is also quite big..and since they breed like rabbits, who knows what the future may bring.

[Sketchy]

I was about to suggest Mandarin when I saw the title, as it's a language I've tried to learn (but had to stop when lessons stopped, rather inconveniently).

Try Spanish, Spanish is a language that sounds lovely (which I taught to some of the people I was teaching English to when I was in China briefly), I find it to be a really rhythmic language. But then again, I learn languages for interest and sound rather than use.

[bassmanwho]

Originally Posted by Sketchy

I was about to suggest Mandarin when I saw the title, as it's a language I've tried to learn (but had to stop when lessons stopped, rather inconveniently).

Try Spanish, Spanish is a language that sounds lovely (which I taught to some of the people I was teaching English to when I was in China briefly), I find it to be a really rhythmic language. But then again, I learn languages for interest and sound rather than use.

Yes the Spanish sounds pretty lovely to me too. I love the way the "r" is pronounced. Very unique and hard to imitate. As a Chinese speaker I understand that it is probably one of the most difficult language yet existed on this planet. We spent many years writing, practicing and memorizing these characters (thousands of them!) within tiny squares in our childhood. Come to think of it, it was quite an achievement as a human being :P

[bassmanwho]

Originally Posted by champbassist

I'd say any of German, French or Spanish (in that order).

I've also heard that German is pretty difficult to learn, too, especially the way numbers are counted.

[hrodbert696]

If you've learned English already, Russian or German will not be hard -- English is maddeningly irregular and they are much more consistent with their rules. You were saying for utilitarian purposes, so it really depends on what kind of work you're talking about going into. Here in the US, Spanish is the most utilitarian second language because it's the most common language of our immigrant population -- may not apply elsewhere. Japanese would be much closer as the language of a major trading partner of China's and one of the world's biggest economies, also German. Hindu would be very useful too, as India is a rising economic power, but on the other hand a lot of the Indian leadership class speaks English and it's not clear to me that there's any one dialect of Hindu that is universally spoken. Arabic I'm not sure about; the Middle East is in the news a lot due to its conflicts, to terrorism and now to the Arab Spring, but apart from the oil industry I'm not sure how useful Arabic really is for business purposes.

[Simo98]

Originally Posted by bassmanwho

As for English writing I don't think I can compete with native speakers but as a learner who never had a chance to live/visit countries where English is spoken as a native language, I'd say I worked damn hard to learn the world's lingua franca.

Reading your posts in this thread, I'd say you have a considerably better grasp on the English language than about 95% of native speakers...

[Vorago]

I'd say Spanish, with South America being a booming continent and all that.

French: unless you're doing business in Africa, I advice against it. One you know Spanish you could pick up French (or Portuguese?) as a 4th language. Don't bother with German, it's a) hard and b) most Germans under 40 and business people speak English very well. It's not because high placed Germans refuse to speak English in public (Angela Merkl for instance) that they can't.

As for English writing I don't think I can compete with native speakers but as a learner who never had a chance to live/visit countries where English is spoken as a native language, I'd say I worked damn hard to learn the world's lingua franca.

I'd say you have

[bmc]

I would go with Spanish as well. It must be the 3rd or 4th most popular language, covering Central and South America.

German is great for Germany, Austria and the German part of Switzerland and that's about it. As mentioned before, all of the business community is fluent in English.

French is handy in France, Belgium and the French part of Switzerland, plus a handful of African countries, and some island countries.


If it's to broaden yourself for global trade, English, Mandarin and Spanish will cover most of the globe.

[onosson]

"Hindu" is not a language; that would be Hindi-Urdu.

[Gear_Junky]

Originally Posted by Simo98

Reading your posts in this thread, I'd say you have a considerably better grasp on the English language than about 95% of native speakers...

+1 lol, just ask how many people know what a "lingua franca" is (even if they are speaking it).

[Jimmy Bones]

Originally Posted by bassmanwho

Chinese is my native tongue and I've learned English as a second language. I have very rudimentary understanding of Japanese and a newborn baby's proficiency in Spanish. Those two don't count as languages that I'm able to speak.

I've started with a bit of Spanish but I don't know if it is my best choice from a business standpoint since at the time being my work is largely based in an Asian country where Chinese is spoken as an official language. A career change to sales might be on the way so I want to expend my horizon and to be able to reach potential prospects with languages that they feel more familiar and friendly. I'm narrowing down my choices to either Spanish or French since they are two of the most influential languages in the world now.

So here is my question: What's the best third language to learn for utilitarian purposes for a guy like me? Thank you for your opinions.

Xue hao xibanya wen.