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Most useful second language for Americans | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7032 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 14 21 November 2006 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a question that may sound somewhat naive on first glance. What second language would be most useful for a native English-speaking American? I am thinking Spanish would be the ticket.
The thing is this: After reading the post about disillusionment in the "specific languages" section I had an epiphany of sorts. I have really begun to wonder why I am wracking my brain studying German. Any German person I am ever likely to meet in the States (or have ever met) will no doubt speak near-perfect English. Further, I will not be travelling to Europe in the next decade probably. Even if I did, the level of English spoken by the average German citizen will be much higher than my German. Smug Germans switching to English really annoy me! My profile also states I am studying Russian. I haven't touched it in a long time and am frankly out of motivation to do so anytime soon. Thanks for letting me vent! Edited by orion on 21 November 2006 at 5:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6901 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 2 of 14 21 November 2006 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you plan to stay in the US, I think Spanish is pretty much the only other foreign language you will get a chance to use...unless you want to move into translation or interpreting, in which case most languages will be your's for the taking. French might be an idea if you plan to go to Canada and visit Quebec.
If you like learning German then I'd say carry on learning it. Not *all* Germans speak good English and even if they do, some do appreciate the effort you'll make to speak to them in their own language. Is there any specific reason why you're learning German? I sometimes find it's hard to keep up the motivation for learning a language if you don't have some ultimate goal in mind, be it conversational fluency or reading German literature. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Topsiderunner Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6929 days ago 215 posts - 218 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 14 21 November 2006 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you are talking about usefullness strictly in the US, Spanish is definitely
number one by far. However, there are some pockets of large Brazilian populations speaking Portuguese, and I think you'll find that most Chinese-Americans speak some Mandarin or Cantonese. Of course, I wouldn't let this factor influence your language learning decisions if you have no interest in say Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6676 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 4 of 14 22 November 2006 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||
That's true. I really appreciate it when people learn my language and I never switch to English when people try to speak to me in German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6670 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 5 of 14 22 November 2006 at 7:59am | IP Logged | ||
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For most people in most places in the USA, Spanish is far and away the most practical second language.
However, there are a large number of ethnic communities in the USA that have held on to their languages to varying degrees. It depends on where you live and which people you run around with. If you are in northern New England or northern New York State, you may find French more useful because of proximity to Quebec and local French-Canadian-Americans. In some areas of Hawaii and other Pacific Coast states, Japanese or another Asian language may be more helpful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7115 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 6 of 14 22 November 2006 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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As already mentioned, French is much more important if you live near the border of Quebec.
In my personal experience I haven't had too many times I've needed to use Spanish, so I'd say it's not my most needed language for living in the States. Many ones from Spanish-speaking countries have learnt English especially if their parents were the ones emigrating. Some large cities have a vast immigrant population. Around Dallas, Texas I know there's a Russian-speaking population of at least 10,000 people. I can only think of Japanese, but perhaps other Asian languages make up a significant amount of the population on the west coast. I'd also recommended looking at future travel destinations as a weighing factor in deciding an important language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jtmc18 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7256 days ago 119 posts - 140 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 7 of 14 22 November 2006 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I guess if you look only at the numbers, then Spanish is clearly the most logical choice. However, Spanish is not necessarily the most useful language for all sectors of the US economy and its distribution is not even across the country. Korean and German were far more common at a national park I worked at near Seattle last year. Here in the central part of Florida, Spanish exists alongside a growing Portuguese-speaking population, not to mention thriving Middle Eastern and Asian communities. Many industries look for speakers of languages other than Spanish- tourism, information technology and auto manufacturing are sectors in which German or an Asian language would probably be more useful than Spanish.
You ought not give up your study of a given language based on statistics. German and Russian are both very important world languages and I plan to study at least one of them in the future. A final thought: since there are so many Spanish-speakers in the US, the competition for job positions requiring Spanish tends to be strong. A job requiring a knowledge of Japanese, Korean or even German is likely to be less competitive since there are fewer Americans who can speak these languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| braveb Senior Member United States languageprograms.blo Joined 7208 days ago 264 posts - 263 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 8 of 14 22 November 2006 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it would be hard to decide on what language is the most "important" for an American. If all you know is a language, and by this I mean not having any trades/studies other than languages, then it wouldn't even matter what language you studied, especially for languages like German, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Latin...etc. Your only options would be academics and translating. It would not be required to know Spanish if your job was teaching high school French.
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