Top Ten Most Useful Languages to Learn

Besides being today's most important language for international communication, it is also the language of perhaps the largest former colonial empire with both a large number of native speakers and countries all across the globe.

Regions:

Native language: British Isles, North America, Caribbean, South Africa, Oceania, Singapore.

Administrative language: Eastern Africa, South Asia.

English is not only the most important language for international communication but also the language of the largest former colonial empire. Its many words of Latin origin allow you to understand scientific terms as well.

Regions:

Native: Britain, Ireland, North America, Caribbean, South Africa, Oceania, Singapore.

Administrative: East Africa, South Asia, and others.

Fields: politics, economy, computers, internet, music.

Spanish was part of the largest colonial empire after Britain, or maybe even just as big as Britain or bigger. The actual number of native speakers has surpassed that of English. With Spanish, you can also understand Italian and some other Romance languages, as well as scientific and other international Latin words.

Regions: Spain, almost the whole of the Americas, and even southern USA.

I am a native English speaker, so I'm going with Spanish because there are millions who speak it around the world. If I hear a foreign language, it's usually Spanish. Very rarely, I will hear people speaking German in the U.S., but that's it! We should all know some Spanish.

The number of speakers is not so big, but distribution is quite extensive due to the colonial empire. Culturally, it is very important either for introducing scientific Latin words or because it was the language of the dominant culture of Europe from the 17th century until the first half of the 20th century. Together with Britain, most modern inventions, fashion trends with Italy, and cuisine trends are associated with French. It is the language of the nobility and diplomacy.

Regions: France, Belgium, almost all of northern and western, also central Africa, Haiti, Guyana, Canada.

Chinese has the largest number of speakers, and its economy is on the route to becoming the biggest in the world. I am currently learning Chinese, and it isn't as hard as people say it is. Many experts say that Chinese is the language of the future and that the demand for Chinese speakers is only going to increase. It is a great language for business, and it sounds great to the ears.

Chinese has the largest number of speakers in the world and a significant diaspora in Southeast Asia and many other countries. It is an important language in East Asia due to its script. However, a major disadvantage is that it does not allow understanding of many international or scientific words.

Arabic is a beautiful language with many dialects spoken by Muslims. Since so many different people speak it, learning Arabic may open up opportunities you never even knew existed.

There is a considerable number of native speakers spread over a vast territory. It is culturally and historically an important and respected language in Muslim countries, from western Africa to Southeast Asia.

Native: North Africa, West Asia.

Culturally important in: West Africa, Sahel, Horn of Africa, Turkey, Persia, Central Asia, Pakistan, Indonesia.

The times when Russian used to be the second most important language in the world because of the Soviet Union are over, but it is still among the top six. The number of speakers is not the biggest, but still quite large. Culturally, it may not be so important, but it remains very significant due to Russia's strong political role and its distribution across a vast territory.

Regions (native, administrative, and culturally related): Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Baltic States, Central Asia, Georgia, Armenia.

Portuguese is another language of a significant former colonial empire with speakers in many parts of the world, though not as many as English or Spanish.

Regions: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique

Norwegian is not only a useful language but also easy and very fun to learn.

Esperanto is the international language. It is designed to be just that and truly deserves its purpose of becoming a world lingua franca. Why? Because:

1. Esperanto is an artificial language, free from national/ethnic origin, without the baggage of culture, politics, nationalism, and imperialism. The problem with having a language of national/ethnic origin as a lingua franca is that it creates a dominance sphere for only those who speak it natively. Others are left out and considered inferior, and they are forced to learn the dominant language while those who happen to be born as native speakers of the "dominant" language don't need to learn another language. (This is on a global perspective. I believe national standards should be followed. If you want to live in a nation where a language is spoken, you should respect that and speak their language to allow you to fully integrate into their society.) It can also endanger other languages and their culture. Esperanto doesn't have that problem, and the fact that it doesn't technically belong to any nationality/ethnicity makes it a language for the world and of the world.

2. Esperanto is, by design, a really easy language to learn. It has no exceptions, and all words are pronounced literally. Many languages we know do not have that quality. Because Esperanto is a big mix of Romance, Germanic, and Slavic vocabulary and has a simple grammar structure, Esperanto is one of the easiest languages for anyone to learn.

3. Native English speakers will finally become bilingual!

Lernu Esperanto estas bone.

Not only does this beautiful language have 128 million native speakers, but learning Japanese gives you access to its beautiful culture and one of the most influential pop cultures in the world. So if you want to enjoy your favorite anime, manga, and JRPGs in their native tongue, this is the language for you.

Even though Italian isn't widely spoken in the world today, it is still the fourth most learned language after English, French, and Spanish.

The language is rapidly increasing with around 4.8 million people adding to the total number of speakers. It is also used as a commercial language in former colonies like Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Italian is very common in Argentina, with around 1.5 million speakers, which is the same number of people as four times the population of Iceland.

This is why Italian, in my opinion, is a very useful language.

Very useful if you want to understand the English lyrics of Gangnam Style. Like pyeongyoja, pronounced pong-yo-ja. In the first chorus stanza, you'll hear it 60 nanoseconds into the music video because he dances Gangnam Style in the building, which literally means in the Romanized Korean English translation, let's dance, my friend!

If you know polish you can understand russian, czech, ukraine, slovakia...

I think this is he most beautiful lauguge in the world because it is so rich and magical! I am from Amarica and for me its really difficult.