5 Languages or less, which would you choose?

First, wipe the slate clean. Lets say you are starting from scratch, you have no knowledge of ANY language. By some divine miracle, or whatever, you are given the opportunity to receive the ability to choose any 5 known languages. Which five would you choose? Equally as important, why?

I had an interesting conversation with a group of friends a few nights ago. The topic wasn't the same as what I'm presenting here, but it will bring me to similar conclusions. I'm really curious to know what direction this board will take on the topic. I'll give more information after some responses are received.

 

English & Spanish - widely spoken, super handy
Mandarin - economics 'n shiz, great career prospects
French - It's sexy, and counts for a bunch of countries
German - cos you made me choose a 5th one

:smt102

 

Hmmm, well I'll give it a shot.

1. English because it's the language of my country and spoken, to some degree, in many others.

2. Spanish because there are so many people in my country who speak it.

3. German because I'm of German heritage.

4. French because it sounds sexy and I've never even attempted to learn it, unlike Spanish and German.

5. I have no idea. No other languages really interest me. Unless ASL counts. That would be interesting to learn so I could communicate with the hearing-impaired.

 

Visual languages do count. I meant to include that.

Thanks.

 

I'm very curious to learn where you're going with this, so I hope enough respond so you'll tell us. Lol.

 

i'm kinda like the other girls....

english as it's so widely used
french because you can tell someone to fuck off and it sounds beautiful and sexy
mandarin as it's spoken by our neighbours
japanese same reason as mandarin, but also i think it is so beautiful to look at
hebrew because of the history and the beauty and complexity of the written language

 

1. English because it's spoken all over the world.

2. Spanish because it's the 2nd most popular language in the world and it sounds so sexy.

3. ASL because it's freaking cool.

4. Japanese because I love anime.

5. German because I find german women incredibly sexy.

 

Spanish - widely spoken, highly useful.

Hebrew - ancient history, interesting origins.

French - sexy

German - I love Germany and the culture.

English - most useful of all languages.

 

JavaScript since it's so widely use
Mandarin business opportunities galore
Japanese since I've studied mostly Japanese martial arts
Spanish its another widely used language
The language of my people the Ashanti. It would be cool to know

 

French -- gorgeous
Portuguese -- sexy
Japanese -- zen
Italian -- sensual
Russian (for it's richness and literary classics, not just because I am Russian
)

 

Fun question, I like a lot of the choices presented plus I'd add Punjab to the list since I know and work with so many that speak it. It would be great to be able to converse...

 

English - It's the current lingua franca,most common language,understood by most people in the world. Plus I love it's sound

Spanish - It is also widely spoken in many parts of the world,plus it sounds passionate to me

German - I was born and raised here,still living in Germany and have a long family tree here. Plus Germany is still relatively stable in the economy and doing a lot of international business,plenty of exporting

Greek - Everything about Greece fascinates me. Their landscape,culture,food,wine,mythology,history. I had a chance to visit Athens last summer and fell in love with Greece even more.

Mandarin - Also plenty of business opportunities,plus it would be cool to be able to write all the signs. I have a great respect for those who have mastered it.

 

1. Spanish(South,Central American, Castillian from Spain)-I am around a lot of Spanish speaking folks.
2. Portuguese-It will be helpful if I go to Brazil.
3. Japanese-I like the cadence in that language and I grew up watching Kaiju Eiga films(giant monster movies e,g; Godzilla/Gojira) and anime. Now getting into Akira Kurosawa, Seijun Suzuki and others.
4. Italian- It sounds professional, friendly and romantic.
5.Russian,Ukrainian, German, Gaelic, Arabic, Farsi, Norwegian. Either one of those languages.

 

English -Because all of the worlds cool stuff gets translated into English.
Japanese- Just for fun.
Mandarin- For future proofing myself.
Spanish- same as above.
French- Because I just like the way it sounds.

 

-English..people all over the globe will be able to understand you
-French..there's a certain sexyness in that language
-maybe Italian/Spanish
more ain't necessary in my eyes..it would just be for hobby

 

English- widely spoken
German- a good business language
Arabic- would help me navigate in places that are historically interesting.
Greek- for general insight, especially for matters related to history
Latin- for insight into many other languages. After being magically bestowed with the ability to speak Latin, I would study French (beauty), Spanish and Italian (sexy).

 

English- For obvious reasons
Spanish- Key second language to have
Mandarin- Just in case China takes over the global economy
Arabic- So I can know if they're talking about me when I go into any corner store or gas station
British accent- (Hopefully that counts because the ladies love it)

 

english- world language number one
spanish- coz i like the way it sounds
classical latin/greek and hieroglyphics - coz i m a history lover

 

English - As long as America is the best game in town, you should know English. The fact that England, Australia and Canada are all wealthy countries with representative democracies knocks the ball out of the park.

French - Primarily for academic reasons as their philosophical tradition is one of the best in the world. The language is also spoken in Quebec.

Portuguese - Brazil is the wealthiest country in Latin America and the women destroy the competition. Need I say more?

Spanish - Not a great philosophical tradition but Spain claimed so much land in the western hemisphere after 1492 that it makes sense to learn it.

Korean - Of course there are more Mandarin speakers in the world but Korea (South) is a democratic country and very wealthy. The women are among the best you'll find anywhere.

 

English - popular and so on..
Spanish - i like how it sounds
Russian - because a lot of not russian people still can speak this language..
body language - if youre expert of this, you will unerstand person better