[Geomann180]

1. English (mother tongue and current lingua franca)
2. Spanish (one of the most common languages used and I'm a huge fan of Latinas)
3. French (one of the most beautiful languages)
4. German (my favorite language)
5. Russian (strategic)

G

[Cr33pin]

I'd settle for my native language English... an Spanish and Russian

That gives me access to all I need in this world of sin

[wolfpack]

1)English
2)Russian
3)Chinese
4)Korean
5)Bhasa

[JR301]

1.) English
2.) Spanish
3.) Mandarin
4.) Japanese
5.) Russian

[Soy Jooce]

1)English - the world language
2)Hindi - I am north Indian & its my mother tongue
3)Spanish - easy to pick up Italian, French and Portuguese
4)Farsi/Persian/Iranian/Arabic - to bang Iranian and Arab girls
5)Russian - Eastern European girls

[66Scorpio]

It's funny the difference between the language I wanted to learn when I was young, what I would choose now, and what I would suggest to other people.

1) Native English speaker

2) As a Canadian I was forced to study French for the first 8 years of school. However, it was useless given that I was growing up in Toronto and pretty much the only French speakers were government employees. It only popped up again in my early 30s when I was looking at officer training in the military or applying to the foreign service. At this point, another 20 years later my brother in law and step father are French Canadian so I have two extended families. Plus there is always the possibility of getting involved in politics.

2) German. In high school I needed a language credit and since I hated French at that point I decided on German. The teacher also taught French and Spanish. Interestingly, I met three close friends in that class: a Hungarian, a Czech, and and a German (second generation, so his mother spoke German but his sucked). I only remember bits and pieces bit I still think it is cool.

X) Japanese. In the mid to late 80s when I was a college undergrad, Japan was all in the rage. As a business student we examined the way various Japanese management techniques were kicking our ass. Ninja movies were a craze and I had studied karate. Reading the novel "Shogun" and through my martial arts training I picked up a bit. Now however, Japanese is not remotely a priority.

3) Mandarin. I live and work in Mainland China a speak "survival level". I should really learn more. Almost a third of Chinese people can't understand Mandarin which is why their movies are always subtitled. The further you get from Beijing the more and more it is like a Newfie talking to a Jamaican.

4) Tagalog. My (recent) wife is a Filipina. She speaks English but I now have yet another extended family.

5) ASL. Just because I think it is cool.

Others I bumped into were Farsi from my military service in the 90s and Arabic as I wanted to visit the Middle East up until 2000, and Portuguese as I was interested in South America and one friend was married to a Brazilian and another's wife was from the Azores. Greek and Latin popped up as I studied English more and so many word roots are Greek or Latin.

Latin is a curiosity because it is the foundation the Romance Languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian plus a dozen and a half other more obscure ones. From what I've read, nobody is really sure how it was spoken. Classical Latin went through various changes to Rennaisance and Modern Latin while Vulgar Latin evolved into the various Romance Languages. While written Latin remained the language of scholarship until relatively recently, national and regional variations in pronunciation varied, leading to a situation similar to China.

The pragmatic view is to learn Spanish. Portuguese is close that you can get by. When my sister and brother in law visited Peru he said he could mangle his French enough to be understood.

Chinese will be important in the coming years. The real trick is learning to read, and less so to write. While there is Pinyin as the national, standard romanization, there are two many words that are spelled alike.

I suppose Russian, German and Arabic would be the others if you really want coverage.

Keep in mind that mist people who are multilingual follow a sort of "Swiss Model", if you will, and learn a variety of related languages. Trying to learn Chinese and Russian at the same time would be nightmarish for an English speaker, as opposed to French and German (although French and German themselves are not as closely related).

[Hombre]

English, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Portuguese

[PremiumBeefCut]

I'm learning my fifth language, which is russian. Other four are english, french, spanish, german.

[Jefferson]

I speak three fluently.

I'd also add Mandarin and Tagalog or Cebuano.

[spaceman]

If I had to start all over:
1) English - native speaker
2) Spanish - SA Girls
3) Russian - EE Girls
4) French - France and alot of Africa
5) Chinese - never would happen but seems useful

[bahtiyar]

Well, I would definitely choose those languages which I already know: English, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese.

[JimBobsCooters]

English is done...

Russian and Spanish would be my top 2 other languagues.

I'd be adding coding languages most likely as the other two but if they don't count then I'd go Mandarin and Arabic for the pure numbers and business potential of both, plus they're two of the harder ones.

Positive of Russian and Spanish is that you get a pretty decent base for understanding a whole bunch of other languages at least to a certain extent as well, Spanish brings French, Italian and Portuguese well into play and Russian has influences in most of the slavic languages.

[Winston Wolfe]

This thread if 4.5 years old now.

Any of the early thread posters learned one of the languages in their top 5?

[RVF400]

Japanese
Thai
Mandarin
Spanish

[Sp5]

One of them would be North Sentinelese. Would approach in body armor with a bullhorn and take over.

Can cover the world with the other four.

[American_Pharaoh]

English
Spanish for the latinas
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian because it sounds badass
Japanese just for anime lmao

[Lunostrelki]

English: My first language. I wish I had better diction, though.
Chinese: This is undeniably the most expressive written language on earth, and it covers the experiences of a massive historical timeframe. Sadly my current reading ability makes dial-up internet seem fast.
Russian: Taken by itself, Russian isn't that great-sounding, but Russia as a nation and culture is really underrated. I'd love to be able to discuss Dostoevsky and Pushkin in the language they wrote in.
German: I actually think European languages like French or Italian would ultimately be more worthwhile, but I learned German in high school and as part of an exchange program (very rusty now since I hardly use it), so it deserves a place on my list of priorities.
Japanese: There is a special poetry to Japanese, despite its being a lesser version of Chinese with a limited phonology and some supporting particles added on. I'd put more energy into learning it if I ever found a way to increase my Chinese reading speed.

[Waqqle]

I'm going to be different.

Korean: I love Korea. I'm including 북한말 (North Korean dialect) along with 남한말 (Standard Korean dialect) in this. There are also a lot of Koreatowns and diaspora communities full of people I could interact with.

Tagalog: I have spent a lot of time in the Philippines and would love to be able to understand all of the news, movies, music, etc. and participate in all that stuff on a deeper level.

Malagasy: Madagascar. Weird nature, unique music, very little AIDS, low crime, friendly culture, populated by both black and Indonesian people making for an attractive mix, and diaspora communities in France and other nearby African countries which are also cool to explore like Mauritius and Comoros (where you can legally buy citizenship for $40k USD).

Amharic: Africa's only native alphabet and the best food on the continent. Also loads of history in Ethiopia including castles. Also home to the HQ of the African Union so probably business opportunity.

Georgian: Their alphabet looks like grape vines, their food is great, Georgia is home to beautiful mountains and 2000 years worth of historical forts, castles, monasteries, etc. Not to mention that the country is also ranked as one of the best in the world for entrepreneurship and doing business and it is very strategically located.


*I think there is a great deal of value in learning less commonly learned languages as you become a novelty and also can tend to find yourself having experiences that are pretty unique because you might be the only foreigner people have ever seen speaking their language on any level let alone fluently.

*I do not count Arabic as a language because nobody speaks Modern Standard Arabic (MSA - it is only written) and different regional/national dialects are mutually unintelligible in the spoken form to the point that they should be considered separate languages. The languages I have listed do not have a great deal of regional variation and regional dialects are mutually intelligible.

[Killarmy]

I am already fluent in French, English and Spanish.

I will not chose Italian and Portuguese because they would be hell easy to learn for me if I wished.

Thus I would probably chose 2 super hard languages that can be useful.
Very much hesitating between three : Russian/Japanese and Mandarin (Chinese). God knows I would abolutely love to speak these 3 when around Japan/Hong-Kong (or Taiwan but not so much China) and Ukraine (and eventually Russia).

[mundele]

I speak Dutch, English, French and ok Spanish. I am currently studying Portuguese and don't find it hard. I'd like to know Lingala as it's the main language here and Afrikaans just for fun as it's so close to Dutch, but this would mean I'd have to spend some time in an Afrikaans environment to fully practise.

I find English, French, Spanish and Porgutuese very important as it covers all of Latin-America and most of Africa and those are my favorite continents. After that it would be in order of preference Arabic (handy, but I don't consider it beautiful), Mandarin (handy, but I don't consider it beautiful), Russian (handy and I'm ok with how it sounds)

Anyone who wants to be a bit envolved should speak at least three languages, especially when traveling. Sticking to your own language makes you egocentric and limited.

[SaintLaurentJake]

1. Russian - EE Girls, obvious
2. Spanish - Latinas man, huge fan of Latinas almost taking #1 spot for me
3. French - French culture and literature and girls of course
4. Italian - Culture,history and wouldnt mind an LTR with a nice italian girl
5. English - native