Which languages are even worth learning these days?

The meme answers are always "it depends on what your needs are" and "you should learn every language you can" but I wanna hear which languages you genuinely feel are worth learning backed by solid reasoning. For example, in my opinion, everyone should learn at least English, Spanish, and French bare minimum. Due to the colonial pasts of England, France, and Spain, these languages are very widely spoken in many parts of the world so these languages aren't only relevant in one or two countries. It helps that Spain, France, and England (as well as other English speaking countries) have large economies (within the top 20 by nominal GDP) so there's always incentive for people to learn these languages for business opportunities. In addition to this, France, England, and to a lesser extent Spain create large amounts of media. Be that videogames, books, movies, etc. So there's no shortage of media to engage and practice with. Simply learning these 3 languages grants you the ability to speak to roughly 2.2 billion people or just under a third of all humans on earth. Now my question is what other languages do you think are worth learning in addition to these 3. Ideally backed up with some facts and evidence.

>English, Spanish, and French bare minimum Yeah, no argument against that. You can pretty much go by almost everywhere with those 3 languages basically. I would add on top of that mandarin because China is a very very populated. we're talking around 1,000,000,000+ people. Next along China is India which sits around that same ball park of numbers. Another reason to justify learning it, especially if you work with stuff Like arduinos, sensors, random transistors, batteries, (and every other things related...) Alot of technical papers are only available in mandarin. It was somewhat common for me to parse a document in a translator because it was only available in mandarin.

>>32280 >Alot of technical papers are only available in mandarin huh I didn't know that. I also learned recently that Chinese is the third most commonly spoken language in the US behind English and Spanish. Although I think this statistic includes all variants of Chinese including Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.

>Russia for girls You can learn for meet some hot girls xd

>>32282 yeah apparently there are 0.86 males for every female in Russia and those extra females tend to be 25 and up. So perfect marrying age. Still, I don't know if that's enough of a reason to learn Russian. I mean Russian still spoken fairly regularly in the old soviet countries apparently so at least it's not a one or two countries only type thing. Though the influence of Russian in those countries seems to be waning and I doubt the current war in Ukraine is helping that. I don't think things are looking too good for Russia at the moment and I'd imagine that will lead to people leaving Russia and learning other languages. I wouldn't say Russian is totally useless but it does seem like it's on the way out but maybe that's just my opinion being influenced by recent events. I'm sure Russia could easily bounce back given the chance. Apparently Russian is the second most spoken language on the internet.

>Simply learning these 3 languages grants you the ability to speak to roughly 2.2 billion people or just under a third of all humans on earth. This seems to be adding the total speaker count of the languages based on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers together, but that doesn't consider the number of people who speak both or all three languages. If 90% of French speakers (number made up for sake of demonstration) also speak English, then learning French wouldn't boost the number of people you can speak to too much. >>32283 I've seen the "x language is on its way out" argument every time this discussion comes up, but does that really matter? Languages die out slowly. You're going to die before a language as big as Russia does.

>>32284 >that doesn't consider the number of people who speak both or all three languages. solid point actually. so the number likely is lower. not that I believe those numbers are incredibly accurate anyway. For the french example though, it's nowhere near as high as 90%. only 39% of french people know any english at all and many of those aren't fluent. >>32284 >You're going to die before a language as big as Russian does before it fully dies out? of course I'll be dead. before it becomes virtually useless? that's more of a toss up. The Russian government could collapse and sentiments could heavily shift towards more pro-western attitudes, schools could start teaching english much more frequently. This soykaf could all happen in 15-20 years. I'm still on the fence about Russian. Guarantee English wouldn't have so many non-native speakers if the US wasn't as stable and powerful as it is.

>>32279 >The meme answers are always "it depends on what your needs are" Well, because it is true, duh. I am Czech, my country is neighboring with Austria and Germany. Therefore, German would be very useful language to learn for me, because we do a lot of business with Germany. But obviously, if you are on the other side of the Atlantic, it would be rather gimmicky language to learn. If i was interested in European history, Latin would be useful language to know, but it's utility in day to day life is marginal. I've considered learning mandarin, but decided not to, because everything i hear about modern china and their techno-fascism makes me nauseous. I wouldn't want to use that language - but it is one with tremendous amount of native speakers and there is certainly demand for it in business.

>>32287 >that pic kek I remember that thread >Well, because it is true, duh. sure but it's a useless answer. it's akin to someone asking what tools they should keep around the house for general repair and you responding with "whatever tool you need for the job". Like yeah no soykaf. That doesn't help in any meaningful way. A more appropriate answer would be to keep a hammer, screwdriver, and pair of pliers around the house and to then supplement those with more specialized tools as needed. My main goal with this thread was to compile a relatively small list of languages (maybe 6 tops) that would be useful to nearly everyone on the planet because of their widespread use and the amount of doors they can open. Which is why I started off with English, Spanish, and French. Sure these languages won't be as useful to someone in Asia but for nearly everyone else they would be useful. Even in Asia, I'd imagine these would still be useful if not in everyday life then in business.

>top tier mongolian, tibetan, malaysian, thai >mid tier Latin, classical greek, sanskrit, biblical hebrew. >meh tier Old english, old norse

If you're American, learn Spanish. It's our de facto second language and it's incredibly useful if you live in a city with a sizeable hispanic population. Think about what you want to learn next after getting to about C1 level in Spanish. It's not too hard but that'll take you a while even if you're dedicated. Thinking about any other language to learn outside of your current target language is fruitless daydreaming that can harm you; you'll be too busy dreaming about becoming a polyglot rather than studying. Buena suerte

every spanish or french person worth doing business with already speaks english, what more do I need?

>>32314 >so there's always incentive for people to learn these languages for business opportunities But to be fair I'll address the first and last reason as well. 1) Why am I leaving America? It's better than any non-English speaking country. You can and I'm sure will argue that but that isn't the topic of the thread, so for the thread's sake it's just an opinion. Maybe to see the sights and whatever but if someone doesn't speak English I can use my phone to translate to a superior language (English). 3) consoom consoom consoom, anything worth watching will have subs at least anyway, look at anime. My favorite movie is French now that you mention it. 3.a) I gain literally nothing from learning a language to chat with someone from Somalia, why not go outside and talk to someone who lives in your community, maybe even a woman? Or am I supposed to learn French so I can talk to African women online?

>>32312 I think that applies to nearly every country anon. Wasn't really the point of this thread though. If I were focused solely on business, you could likely easily get by with just english.

>>32316 Your post reads like you have no interest in anything outside of your immediate community. It's certainly fine to live that way if you choose to. Language however is not only useful solely for travel. If you don't want to learn another language, then don't. I don't even really see the point of your post. It's like posting "I hate cake" in a cake making forum. It serves no purpose.

can someone give me some GOOD not-so-boring quebecois podcasts, I need some so that I can learn French the same way that I learned English. >listen to a lot of native speakers talk by using the internet >make boxes in my head of how things are supposed to be pronounced in each general and sometimes more local accents >read books, articles, image board threads in english outloud to practice >just keep practicing everyday >when confident enough, find voice channels from different platforms where you can talk to native speakers >this helped me to know if there was something wrong with my english skills, if someone asks you to repeat yourself a lot and it genuinely has nothing to do with the quality or volume of the audio then you know that you need to get better. I only got corrected once when pronouncing the word "Australia" I was pronouncing the first vowel wrong so, yeah, although I am not a native speaker, I never have problems with things like when people talk fast, only exceptions are ebonics, really thick rural accents, and words that I dont know yet because are rare in daily life speech use. I also request Quebecois stuff because Quebecois French is more useful to me than French French.

>>32279 I know a lot of people who'd object to the idea that languages should be learned for the sake of utility. Globally, you can get by if you know English. You might not be able to communicate with the average Kowloon cab driver, but pretty much every professional from Taiwan to Timbuktu knows it and virtually everything can be translated into it. So, if you bring a facts and evidence based approach to it, you don't need to learn anything but what your already speaking. If we leave the issue of utility aside and stop thinking in terms of 'what material object does learning this get me' then it becomes a whole other question. Arguably, studying stuff for a material end isn't really learning at all, it's work and there's nothing more depressing than work.

>>32388 work is only depressing if you get some no-life kind of job, like working at a 7 eleven or being a web developer

>>32279 DISCE LINGVAM LATINAM Learning a living language is overrated. I've been learning Latin because I wish to shape my thinking, not because I wish to speak with others, although I won't discount that either. Regardless, it worked. I understand so much more about my thoughts and the English I speak now that I've resumed my Latin studies. I first started years ago, in university, but I didn't learn much and didn't remember much of anything either. Even then I knew it had helped, however. It wasn't until I stumbled upon this thread and bought the book that I truly began learning Latin, and what a fine lady she is: >>>/lit/5105 I highly recommend her.

>>32390 I failed to mention this, because I don't much care, but I can also halfheartedly understand fragments of Romance languages now, and I've noticed this most harshly with Spanish because I'm most exposed to it compared to Italian and others. A relative knows more Spanish than I and we've discussed it a tad. Many words are either mutations or exactly the same as in Latin, which is interesting.

>>32390 >The "latin is a good language" meme Latin is a basic ass indo-european language. Nothing particularly special about it. There is value in learning Latin, but 90% of the reason it's so revered is because of it's association with a strong empire that had cultural domination over Europe. You'd be just as well off learning French. -god summa cum laude on the national latin exam

>>32390 learning dead languages is highly overrated. It's a bit misguided, just like learning Assembler languages (I am guilty of dabbling in the lower levels, too) - but even less useful. Nerds love to dig deep and fail to realize that they dig at the wrong places. >I first started years ago, in university, but I didn't learn much and didn't remember much of anything either. Because it has so little use. I learned so many (programming-)languages that I learned for the sake of learning, but never used. Simialrly I started French, but I didn't know what for. Deep inside I now kinow there's just a few langauges I really would want to know and that I'd really use daily. Do not become a dabbler. This is a hole that eats up your precious time. Manage your time well, don't learn things for the sake of learning.

>>32393 The entire point of learning dead languages is reading their old texts to get the real history. The only reason i could see learning old programming languages is getting paid well maintaining legacy codebases. Otherwise i dont even like reusing my own code. Faster to write it new if its not already a massive block you can plug in anywhere.

>>32392 It's still amazing to me, who has only spoken English. >There is value in learning Latin, but 90% of the reason it's so revered is because of it's association with a strong empire that had cultural domination That's the same basic reason we're writing this in English. >You'd be just as well off learning French. French is the one Romance language that seems to be more than vulgar Latin at a glance, but I'm not certain if I'll ever bother with her or not. I'd like to learn ancient Greek once I master classical Latin, perhaps using Latin texts teaching Greek. >>32393 >It's a bit misguided, just like learning Assembler languages (I am guilty of dabbling in the lower levels, too) - but even less useful. I did more than learn the lower levels, I've developed customized tools for more efficiently writing directly in machine code. >Nerds love to dig deep and fail to realize that they dig at the wrong places. >Do not become a dabbler. This is a hole that eats up your precious time. Manage your time well, don't learn things for the sake of learning. If I feel myself not to be wasting my time, then where lay the issue?

>>32407 >That's the same basic reason we're writing this in English. The difference is that people actually use English to communicate in the modern world, and also people don't have this weird "ooh English is such a deep and mysterious language" meme.

>>32316 >but if someone doesn't speak English I can use my phone to translate to a superior language (English). You clearly haven't tried to translate anything with your phone, if you think that the translation is good (it can be good enough if the sentence is basic, though). >a superior language >English English is quickly getting more and more simplified and less powerful. >3.a) I gain literally nothing from learning a language to chat with someone from Somalia The goal is to learn to think in another language. There are features and expressions in other languages that simply do not exists in English. And if you learn other languages, you will start understanding your own native language better. Also, people will appreciate it if you speak in their language.

just a tip for monolingual peasants: alzheimer is way less prevalent in bilingual people. The effect continues albeit strongly diminished for learning a third language. Going 5+ only makes sense for translators and travelers.

>>32410 someone who knows 1 human language but knows +5 programming languages has less probablities of having alzheimer. this comes from someone who speaks 3 human languages, and 2 programming languages.

>>32411 programming laanguages arent even in same city as real languages. Same words same syntax with minimal difference. Try learning a new language as fast as changing programming languages...

I'm learning German in order to gain the ability to social engineer German authorities

>>32387 Ayoye! That's a good question. I don't really listen to podcasts, but my mother has been listening to "Le Crachoir". basically news and stuff. pokes fun at conspirationists alot. Sometimes I listen to "70%" by DouteuxTV with her. Comedy stuff most of the time and old nostalgic internet humour on mondays. They best experienced on Twitch, but offer audio versions too.

>>32388 >I know a lot of people who'd object to the idea that languages should be learned for the sake of utility why would you object to that? >Globally, you can get by if you know English very much debatable. you can get by in a lot of places sure but not everywhere. besides it's not like everyone is always going to be talking to the business elite wherever they go. Venture away from a major city and you're fuarrrked as the number of English speakers plummets.

>>32282 Woah, this thread plummeted to irrelevance fast

Languages of the world are irrelevant. The only way of speech that truly matters is the word of god, for which vision is not required. For real-world interactions, braille is more than sufficient. For artificial intelligence and practical communications, speech is the only viable technology. (As I have pointed out, braille is obsolete in computing. When it comes to human computer interaction, I advocate that a web page should resemble a telephone conversation with a braille keyboard. I have done experiments in this.) Arguments for the ideal of a blind man's interface begin with the blind. Some believe it is possible to train blind individuals as effectively as sighted ones. They have little evidence to support this belief, but argue nonetheless. They also often try to modify the interface so it is more accessible to the blind, such as in the case of the Kindle which allows reading with an external device. Unfortunately the Kindle is not blind-safe. The configuration of the key and position of the side keys are not as precise as they could be, and the Kindle cannot read braille or any other system of text.

>>32893 lmao schizoposter here things braille is a language

>>32893 >The only way of speech that truly matters is the word of god so, arabic then

blind men are broken, either damaged or defective. excessive catering to their needs is ridiculous. Tools should be made for those who will use them most, the blind are few and far between in most circumstances. braille has strong draw backs not to mention the fact that its not actually a language but rather a script.

>>32979 Right now I'm trying to imagine being a veteran who lost their sight serving my country and hearing this kind of talk upon my return to civilian life.

>>32980 Im pretty sure such a person, if he's clearsighted, will recognize that he's basically broken and unfit to do certain types of things. Doesnt mean his life is over per se but he is undisputeably not 'fit' as it were. havent met many such people advocating for like requiring all books to be brail, replacing highway road signs with loud speakers that say their content at the roads and do other things so as to let blind people drive (hey why not remove car windows too while we're at it lol, solves some structural problems), or trying to replace pens with some more practical tactile writing method. Not to mention some of these 'solutions' won't work well for people with hearing damage, who the military churns out at greater numbers than blind folk. when reasonable accomodations can be made thats fine and good, but there's a lot of information that is well presented visually and trying to cram it into audio stream is dumb, and generally a hinderance to everyone else. Not to mention, all healthy persons are alike, and each unhealthy person is unhealthy in his own fashion. Serve the healthy, accomodate as best as practical the rest. >>32459 >Venture away from a major city and you're fuarrrked as the number of English speakers plummets. Obviously this depends on the country but I think its also fair to point out that people have long gotten along fine without complete linguistic compatibility, how good was marco polo's chinese, or columbus' best translators whatever you call the natives' languages? Probably not that good, but no big deal ehh. If you want to travel somewhere trying to learn the language is not a prerequisite.

>>32988 >avent met many such people advocating for like requiring all books to be brail, replacing highway road signs with loud speakers that say their content at the roads and do other things so as to let blind people drive (hey why not remove car windows too while we're at it lol, solves some structural problems), or trying to replace pens with some more practical tactile writing method. So, you haven't met many people who believe some obviously stupid things you made up? What a shocker.

now you've got to provide some explanation for why those are top-tier langs according to you. you can't just leave like that

My goal is to learn as much as I can in my life so here's a long list of languages I want to learn German (economic reasons) Japanese (weeb) Farsi (economic reasons) Ukrainian (for my grandpa) Brazilian Portuguese (for travel) Thai (for travel) Right now I am working on German and Japanese. I spend an hour after waking up on German and two hours before I go to bed on Japanese.

I decided to learn língua Portuguesa. Please share links to portuguese imageboards, pretty please Present Day, Present Time! AHAHAHAHAHA!

>>34158 I know ptchan(portuguese),1500chan(how to enter https://www.reddit.com/r/brasilivre/comments/vfluxu/comment/icwwyao/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), vhschan, 27chan(brazilians).

>>34154 wtf does "economic reasons" mean?

>>34160 Jobs and money being able to speak more languages is a benefit for work and is a easy way to increase the number in your crypto wallet this might be a soykaf reason but that is what I've been told.

>>34161 >learning a language for money not gonna make it

>>34162 My bad I phrased that and my og post badly I will be able to go and work anywhere I want and be under stood the middle east, north and south Asia, western and eastern Europe, and south America. The money is a bonus but just because it is a bonus it shouldn't be over looked, I could learn French but Germany's GDP is 3.9T vs France's 2.8T. but I also like the culture of DIY in Germany and there Punk music rocks. those like bubble next to the language dumb now that i think about it.

>>32279 Realistically, English and nothing else unless you live outside of America or the UK. I genuinely cannot think of a single reason that I would need any language besides English, which is part of why all of my language learning attempts have failed, I just cannot find anything important enough to warrant learning another language, and I have no intrinsic interest in i.

>>34239 This. It's good if Russia invade your country and you already know Russian. They would have mercy

Don't learn Spanish. Total waste

>>34164 Knowing more than 1 language is linked to drastically reduced alzheimer risk. 3+ doesnt scale up linearly but still shows diminishing benefits. So you get braingains learning more languages.

>>34445 Come on dude. This obviously has nothing to do with learning a language, but with increased cognitive activity. They say the same thing about: playing chess, solving puzzles, etc. Disregarding that, Alzheimer's isn't even an concern if you don't eat a lot of carbohydrates, and if you do, a language won't save you anyways.

>>34163 Maybe you've overdoing the whole language-learning thing? Why would you need the ability to work on so many places in the world? Focus your time and energy on more specific skills with immediate benefits.

>>34497 I think its special cause languages become interconnected. Speaking multiple language you connect meaning across languages and those bridges might be essential on why it works against alzheimer - higher connection counters holes popping up. That aside multiple language are interesting as they extend the framework you can think in. Language shapes how you think because concepts aren't universally across languages. There was also one article i read how chinese are supposedly better at calculating cause their encoding for numbers is more efficient.

>>32410 how clear is it whether this might not just be people capable of becomming nlingual tend to be less vulnerable or otherwise avoid possible environmental problems that lead to alzheimers lots of effects like this

>>35099 I can so will, learning as many languages as I can

>>35100 >There was also one article i read how chinese are supposedly better at calculating cause their encoding for numbers is more efficient. Stop believing articles you read from vice or buzzfeed if you don't want to be the laughing stock of friends and family. Chinese numbers are almost identical to ours.

>>35198 i can't say if true cause i never bothered with chinese. The idea itself however is sound - improving performance with better encoding is a common idea in programming. Online you also use Arial/Helvetica cause its the best style for readability. So clearly it does matter how you write things down.

>>35116 You're in denial, seek help.