If you live in the US, learn Spanish first, full stop - far easier and faster, and it will make other Romance languages that much easier.
French is plenty useful, though, that aside, but it really depends on how badly you want to go to the Middle East and Subsaharan Africa. (Or Quebec or Western Europe...but does anyone on this forum feel a pull to New Mecca anymore? I felt safer in Rabat than I think I ever would have in Paris.)
French is plenty useful, though, that aside, but it really depends on how badly you want to go to the Middle East and Subsaharan Africa. (Or Quebec or Western Europe...but does anyone on this forum feel a pull to New Mecca anymore? I felt safer in Rabat than I think I ever would have in Paris.)