I was thinking of a new decade resolution to learn a language or improve on one. 2020 is too soon so it might have to start in mid 2020 or even late 2020. What language would you pick, assuming that English is your native language?

Candidates:
1. Mandarin Chinese - lots of people speak it. It's the language of the Republic of China, Singapore, and the People's Republic of China. Best travel use (best is ill-defined): Taipei
2. French - a widespread second language. Best travel use: France. Also useful in Geneva, Quebec, large sections of Africa, Lebanon
3. Spanish - used in many countries. Best travel use: Spain, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia. Also useful in most of South America and Central America, as well as intermittent use in the US
4. German - Best travel use: Germany, Switzerland, Austria. Also slightly useful in Russia and Eastern Europe
5. Cantonese Chinese - quite a few people speak it. Best travel use: Hong Kong. Some use in San Francisco Chinatown, Singapore
6. Portuguese - Best travel use: Brazil, Portugal
7. Japanese - Japan is a fun country. Best travel use: Japan (probably the only travel use)
8. Italian - I found few people speak English in Italy. Best travel use: Italy
9. Others, possibly Arabic, Tamil, Punjabi, Dutch, Swedish.

I think it depends where you live and where you travel. I find Spanish as a second language serves me well in the US.

I wish I had tried a little harder in Spanish class so many years ago ,
But who would have thought Spanish would be the 2nd language for California and really the USA......

Mandarin Chinese would be my next choice ,

But I think we are all lucky to have English as such a popular language

A few notes (perhaps self-serving) that have guided me in my language studies--

-If you're making frequent visits to a few countries, at least learn niceties and 0-10 in those languages. Also, understand that all alphabets are pronounced differently (might be obvious, but if you want something spelled out in another language, attune your ears).
Gestural counting may also be something worth "investing in," (e.g. in China - https://www.tutormandarin.net/en/chinese-hand-counting/).

-I have Spanish, Japanese, Indonesian, and Chinese covered. For signage and menus, I can read and speak basic Arabic, Russian, and Korean. Reading Thai for me is next, if only because reading French isn't terribly difficult (pronouncing it is another story).

-Languages can assist you where you don't expect to use them. For example, given the near ubiquity of Chinese merchants/travelers these days, a number of Chinese have helped me out, whether it was putting me up for a night in Hong Kong, or bargaining at some Southeast Asian markets. Japanese is a common language for tour companies in that region, too.

-On the flip side, I've been an impromptu translator for some folks. Those moments make me feel like a good samaritan, and hopefully you would feel the same.

-For the more nefarious, Indonesian (as an example) is good because, outside of the IBMS countries and I suppose parts of the Netherlands/Suriname, no one is going to understand you if you were making fun of them...

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Personally, I would choose Chinese. More and more, you'll be noticing/hearing it in your wanderings - or even in a neighborhood near you, for better or worse - and it's a good base language for understanding other regional tongues.

I find the Michel Thomas audiobooks very useful for learning Spanish/french/romance languages.

Can't speak properly yet, but can listen a little and read a lot. He explains a lot of the patterns that are common to romance languages, and makes it easier to understand the next romance language

As to what language to pick? Agree with OP's list/ranking , though some languages are usually harder to learn (Chinese/Japanese harder)

Your locality also matters, makes a lot of sense to Learn Spanish first in USA, or french/German first in some parts of Europe

Latin is said to be better for this but pretty useless otherwise except perhaps in RC monasteries and theological schools, and naming new species?

This really does depend on where you are travelling.

I am a native English speaker and speak varying degrees of German, French, Spanish and Italian.

For most people, I would say that Spanish and French are probably the most useful travel languages (apart from English of course). This is simply because of how widely they are spoken in different parts of the world.

With Spanish, you basically have the whole of Central and South America covered (with the exception of Brazil - and there is enough mutual intelligibility between Spanish and Portuguese that it can be used an an emergency option). It is also understood in many parts of Africa, although not to the same degree as French.

French covers quite a few European countries, a good chunk of Northern and Western Africa, parts of the Caribbean and Pacific.

As mentioned, German can be useful in Eastern Europe - specifically, it has got me out of a couple of tight spots in Croatia and Slovakia - but is much less global than Spanish and French.

As a travel language (as opposed to a business language), I would probably only recommend Chinese or Japanese if you are spending a lot of time in those specific countries, as you will not find them widely spoken elsewhere. For most of Asia, English is by far the most useful lingua franca.

For a native English speaking global traveller, I would say start with Spanish and then move on to French. If you speak those three, you will be able to travel to most parts of the world without major difficulties.

I�m partial to Chinese because I learned it in college and it led to me having a career based in China/Asia for the last 15 years. That said, I wish I�d taken Spanish in high school rather than the German I took. If I ever leave China I�m thinking about making a stop at a Spanish immersion school before relocating back to the states.

If you know English, Chinese and Spanish you�ll be very well covered around the world.

Living in LA, those would be my two additional languages of choice even if I never traveled.

I am learning Spanish on Duolingo right now. I have been doing it for about a year. I took Latin in HS, and French in college, and grew up in a Hispanic part of Miami, so the language mechanics are familiar.

I was so much more fluent this summer in Spain than I expected. Duolingo has been really good. My Spanish is no longer a grammatical mess, and I know a lot more vocabulary.

My goal is to live in Spain part time when I retire (in about 4 years) and I would love to be semi fluent by then.

I think Spanish is very useful to know living in the US as well. I spoke a lot more and understood more in Miami my last visit. But, boy do they talk fast in Miami Spanish.

no matter what you pick, consider Duolingo as a source. It is really good.

2 Add large parts of Belgium, some Caribbean islands, parts of Switzerland other than Geneva (such as Basel). Can help in Catalonia and Portugal in that you can *guess* at many words.

3 Spanish is spoken very differently in different regions, even within Spain. Within the Western Hemisphere, the Spanish of Mexico and Guatemala is very different from that spoken in Argentina, which differs from the Spanish spoken n any area of Spain.

4 Add small parts of Italy and France, plus knowing German enables you to *guess* at a lot of Dutch and Danish.

6 Add parts of Africa (Angola?) and Macao.

9 Korean? Russian? Turkish? Hebrew? Greek (modern or classical)?

Is the purpose solely travel, living overseas, career advancement or change, or general education? Do you have particular interests in fields such as art history, different STEM fields, history/literature/theater/music?

English

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...er_of_speakers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ative_speakers

If you're interested in learning a foreign language I would very strongly suggest picking up a copy of "Fluent Forever" by Gabriel Wyner. His approach is absolutely fantastic. I find that his flashcard system has worked wonders for my ability to retain foreign words.

(and no, I am not Gabriel Wyner, nor do I stand to benefit in any way from plugging his approach. I've just found that it works very well and wanted to share).

Russian covers a large swath of Europe and central asia,

Growing up, the foreign languages to learn were Russian and Japanese.

If I had it to do over again? I'd go with Mandarin and Spanish. With Mandarin, you can more or less communicate as necessary anywhere in Asia, while I far and away prefer Cantonese, it's really only useful in HK. As a Californian, I really regret not learning Spanish and wish even now that I can speak it.

Traveling to a place where one's fluent in the local language makes all the difference, at least for me. If one can't speak Cantonese fluently in HK, you'll never experience the full flavor and richness of that city. Likewise, I'm starting to feel as I'm missing out on something in my native California never having learned Spanish. When I was growing up, I never really realized or appreciated that many of the names of our cities were Spanish! Monterey, San Francisco, Los Angeles, El Camino, etc...

As another post said, reading French/Italian/Spanish isn't much of a challenge, especially for anyone whose studied Latin, but speaking French is whole other story. In my view, it's the most beautiful language of them all, but no matter how hard most try, you'll never speak it the way the French do.