Which language should I learn?

[Tombgeek]

Hi there

I am planning to work in the ICT field (studying computer science next year), I am thinking I should learn a new language, because I'm technically monolingual (bilingual, but my second language -- Afrikaans -- is a passive language and, despite that, it's not spoken anywhere except SA and maybe Netherlands because of its similarities with Dutch).

Now, I'm wondering which language would benefit me? There are only three options in my university: Spanish, German and French.
I was thinking of taking Spanish, mainly because I'd prefer learning a phonic language.

I'm also worried about what country I could potentially move to. I like the idea of Spain, but the unemployment problem currently worries me a bit.

So, for those who work in any field within the ICT industry, which language do you think I should learn?

[sffvba[e0rt]

Well I am planning to learn me some German (for no real reason)... French is the second most spoken language on the planet after English so that is a safe bet.)


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[MisterGaribaldi]

German is probably the closest to English, structurally, of any other language out there. There are, however, a lot of arguments to be made in favor of any particular language, so what I would suggest is to determine as best you can where you're going to go, and therefore whom you will be dealing with, and use that as a primary decider.

Also, who's poor economy are you referring to? Not to turn this into a political discussion -- far from it -- but there are a number of very screwed-up economies out there, America included, so you need to take that into account in making your decision.

Australia may be a good option as well, because they've managed, from what I have seen in news and financial reports, to weather the global recession/depression storm better than most. That comes from many things, but the two biggest are not being retarded in how they deal with loans and debt, and also having lots of good business contracts with certain countries, China in particular.

Personally, if I had to leave the U.S., I'd probably rather go to some place like Germany or one of the Norwegian countries. Even though their taxes are mega-high, at least they seem to have some degree of sanity and stability. I dunno, maybe Australia too. Never been there, don't really know very much about their culture, but I'd rather have a stable and secure job than potentially wind up on the street.

[Tombgeek]

Well I am planning to learn me some German (for no real reason)... French is the second most spoken language on the planet after English so that is a safe bet.)

Eh, no offense, but that's untrue. By population, the most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese, followed by English and then Spanish.

[ExSuSEusr]

Well I am planning to learn me some German (for no real reason)... French is the second most spoken language on the planet after English so that is a safe bet.)


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Really? No kidding - I always thought it was Spanish... learn something new every day.

[Paqman]

Eh, no offense, but that's untrue. By population, the most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese, followed by English and then Spanish.

This.

In terms of usefullness it would be English then Spanish. English is the Lingua Franca of the world, and Spanish is spoken in a lot of places (almost all of a whole continent). You do bump into French a lot in places like Africa, but it's on the decline overall.

[Tombgeek]

German is probably the closest to English, structurally, of any other language out there. There are, however, a lot of arguments to be made in favor of any particular language, so what I would suggest is to determine as best you can where you're going to go, and therefore whom you will be dealing with, and use that as a primary decider.

The problem I have with German-like languages (Afrikaans is a mix of German and Dutch) is that I have a hard time getting the pronunciation correct. This is why Afrikaans has become a silent language for me, because I battle to speak it fluently. With the little Spanish I learnt from Duolingo (out of curiousity), I've had an easier time pronouncing those words than I do with words in Afrikaans or even German (trying to sing along with Rammstein songs lol).


Also, who's poor economy are you referring to? Not to turn this into a political discussion -- far from it -- but there are a number of very screwed-up economies out there, America included, so you need to take that into account in making your decision.

I was referring to Spain's unemployment rate. Most of Europe is having financial difficulties at the moment, both paying back their loans and the rapid increase in unemployment.

My other concern is the ICT industry in Latin America. I'm not sure if there will be a lot of jobs available there.

While South Africa does have quite a lot of opportunities in the ICT field, things are not very hot politically (never has been since Nelson Mandela stepped down as president, but it's getting worse now).




Australia may be a good option as well, because they've managed, from what I have seen in news and financial reports, to weather the global recession/depression storm better than most. That comes from many things, but the two biggest are not being retarded in how they deal with loans and debt, and also having lots of good business contracts with certain countries, China in particular.

I have family and friends living in Australia and they are happy there. Australia and Canada are countries I'm also keeping an eye on.



Personally, if I had to leave the U.S., I'd probably rather go to some place like Germany or one of the Norwegian countries. Even though their taxes are mega-high, at least they seem to have some degree of sanity and stability. I dunno, maybe Australia too. Never been there, don't really know very much about their culture, but I'd rather have a stable and secure job than potentially wind up on the street.

Me too. Spain was one of the most stable countries. I'm not entirely sure what brought about this sudden increase to 37% unemployment, but all I know is that it isn't good.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Eh, no offense, but that's untrue. By population, the most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese, followed by English and then Spanish.

No offense taken... thanks for the correction, shows you how little I know (and a quick Google gave up some interesting stats).


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[cprofitt]

I thought Hindi came in ahead of Spanish.

source (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/most_spoken_languages.htm)

[ExSuSEusr]

French made sense considering it's use in Canada, in some parts of the Southern US, and Africa - not to mention France itself.

[ExSuSEusr]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html

Not sure how accurate that is, but...

The above link is the number of people who use the languages, the following link describes the countries that use a particular language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_widely_spoken_languages_%28by_number_ of_countries%29

English and French are one and two.

[Tombgeek]

I thought Hindi came in ahead of Spanish.

source (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/most_spoken_languages.htm)

Meh, my source was this book called Top 10 of Everything. The last source I saw on the Internet said Hindi was below Spanish.
Although, according to the ever-trustful Wikipedia, Spanish is the second most-spoken and English is third.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

So I guess it's safe to say that every source is different more or less?

[JDShu]

Silicon Valley is vastly ahead of anywhere else in the world in terms of tech industry, so that should be your first choice if you are definitely trying to move somewhere for tech (if you can get the visa anyway as that could be a pain).

If you are learning a language purely for practicality, then I think Spanish is the best of the three because it's spoken in so many places.

All that said, if you have a gut preference for one of the languages, you should go for that one. It's much more important that you enjoy learning the language.

[MisterGaribaldi]

Me too. Spain was one of the most stable countries. I'm not entirely sure what brought about this sudden increase to 37% unemployment, but all I know is that it isn't good.

Not to derail this thread, but... HOLY CRAP!!! How does Spain continue to stay together if over a third of their workforce is unemployed? That's awful, and I sincerely wish them well.

[Tombgeek]

Silicon Valley is vastly ahead of anywhere else in the world in terms of tech industry, so that should be your first choice if you are definitely trying to move somewhere for tech (if you can get the visa anyway as that could be a pain).

Well, it's not as if I want to become the next Steve Jobs lol. I just want to work as a programmer. But you do have a point.


If you are learning a language purely for practicality, then I think Spanish is the best of the three because it's spoken in so many places.

All that said, if you have a gut preference for one of the languages, you should go for that one. It's much more important that you enjoy learning the language.

I did learn basic French in my first year of high school. While it was fun, albeit a bit difficult to grasp due to it being non-phonic, I dropped it for I.T. class.


Not to derail this thread, but... HOLY CRAP!!! How does Spain continue to stay together if over a third of their workforce is unemployed? That's awful, and I sincerely wish them well.

I know. :( Spain was the last country I'd think who would have this problem. Though it seems unemployment is a major issue almost everywhere. Here in SA, employment is wishy-washy, especially for an 18 year old like me who is just finishing high school. The youth here are now rebelling against the government, demanding for better job creation.

[Paqman]

Not to derail this thread, but... HOLY CRAP!!! How does Spain continue to stay together if over a third of their workforce is unemployed? That's awful, and I sincerely wish them well.

It's not quite that bad, it's about 24%. Although that's bad enough. The 37% figure probably refers to youth unemployment, they call themselves Los Indignidos and they've got every right to be angry.

Spanish unemployment benefits are extremely generous so nobody is going to starve, but the government has to find the money to keep paying it from somewhere (Germany probably, lol).

[Tombgeek]

It's not quite that bad, it's about 24%. Although that's bad enough. The 37% figure probably refers to youth unemployment, they call themselves Los Indignidos and they've got every right to be angry.


Actually, youth unemployment is 50%.
Here's a bit from Wikipedia.


As for the employment, after having completed substantial improvements over the second half of the 1990s and during the 2000s which put a few regions on the brink of full employment, Spain suffered a severe setback in October 2008 when it saw its unemployment rate surging to 1996 levels. During the period October 2007 – October 2008 Spain had its unemployment rate climbing 37%, exceeding by far the unemployment surge of past economic crises like 1993. In particular, during this particular month of October 2008, Spain suffered its worst unemployment rise ever recorded and,[21] so far, the country is suffering Europe's biggest unemployment crisis.[22] Spain has a two-tierred work force where privileged labor gets wage increases as unprivileged labor is thrown out of work.[23] The privileged two-thirds have "armour-clad permanent contracts" that shields them from the ravages of recession while the non-privileged, generally temporary workers, are dismissed.[23][24] While the labor class system did not create the crisis it harms the nations ability to maintain production, remain competitive, and earn foreign reserves to pay down debt.
Spain's unemployment rate hit 17.4% at the end of March 2009, with the jobless total now having doubled over the past 12 months, when two million people lost their jobs.[25] In this same month, Spain for the first time in her history had over 4,000,000 people unemployed,[24] an especially shocking figure even for a country which had become used to grim unemployment data.[25] By July 2009, it had shed 1.2 million jobs in one year and was to have the same number of jobless as France and Italy combined.[23]
By March 2012, Spain's unemployment rate reached 24.4%, twice the euro-zone average.[1] For those under 25 years old, unemployment tops 50%. Rigid labor laws prevent wage reductions, encouraging dismissals instead.[1] Dismissals are costly and companies are hesitant to hire new workers prompting many to seek jobs abroad.[26] During the last decade, Spain's unit labor cost rose 40% relative to German unit labor cost changes making Spanish labor uncompetitive at the current wage scale.[10] Unions organized a general strike to protest proposals to weaken union power, enable cuts in wages, and lower firing costs.[27]

[forrestcupp]

Python! Oh, wait ... :D

If you were in the U.S. or considering living here, I would definitely say Spanish. But you're not, so you either need to just study which one interests you most, or really take the time to decide where you want to be.

[Tombgeek]

Python! Oh, wait ... :D

Haha. Don't worry, that on my list of languages to learn. ;)


If you were in the U.S. or considering living here, I would definitely say Spanish. But you're not, so you either need to just study which one interests you most, or really take the time to decide where you want to be.

I can't really say definitely where I will go; I won't be going anywhere for a couple of years, so I've got time to decide. I think Spanish may be my best bet.

[vazduxosbra4kania]

Hi there

I am planning to work in the ICT field (studying computer science next year), I am thinking I should learn a new language, because I'm technically monolingual (bilingual, but my second language -- Afrikaans -- is a passive language and, despite that, it's not spoken anywhere except SA and maybe Netherlands because of its similarities with Dutch).

Now, I'm wondering which language would benefit me? There are only three options in my university: Spanish, German and French.
I was thinking of taking Spanish, mainly because I'd prefer learning a phonic language.

I'm also worried about what country I could potentially move to. I like the idea of Spain, but the unemployment problem currently worries me a bit.

So, for those who work in any field within the ICT industry, which language do you think I should learn?

GERMAN! it could be used in many places

[HappinessNow]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html

Not sure how accurate that is, but...

The above link is the number of people who use the languages, the following link describes the countries that use a particular language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_widely_spoken_languages_%28by_number_ of_countries%29

English and French are one and two.


George H. J. Weber's report on the number of native speakers of the top languages.
1. Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion)
2. English (330 million)
3. Spanish (300 million)
4. Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
5. Portuguese (220 million)
6. Arabic (200 million)
7. Bengali (185 million)
8. Russian (160 million)
9. Punjabi (130 million)
10. Japanese (125 million)
11. German (90 million)
12. Javanese (80 million)
14. French (75 million)

George H. J. Weber's report on the number of secondary speakers of the top languages.
1. French (190 million)
2. English (150 million)
3. Russian (125 million)
4. Portuguese (28 million)
5. Arabic (21 million)
6. Spanish (20 million)
7. Chinese (20 million)
8. German (9 million)
9. Japanese (8 million)

Total number of native and secondary speakers of top languages.
1. Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
2. English (480 million)
3. Spanish (320 million)
4. Russian (285 million)
5. French (270 million)
6. Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
7. Portuguese (248 million)
8. Arabic (221 million)
9. Bengali (185 million)
10. Japanese (133 million)
11. Punjabi (130 million)
12. German (100 million)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

With that cleared up or further confused; I would highly suggest Japanese, it is by far the easiest and most efficient language to learn (if your native language is English).

Out of your three choices: Spanish, German and French, I would suggest them in this order:

1. French
2. German
3. Spanish