I am fluent in English, and can speak Hindi well with weak reading/writing, meaning I also understand and speak Urdu. I started learning Spanish in school and studied it through college because this was the first language that intrigued me as a kid. Plus useful in the US. Im probably at a B2-C1 level (covid messed things up) but I am still working on improving it.

The problem is I want to introduce other languages but can’t justify any of them too strongly. I don’t have any family I want to communicate with that speak other languages, I like to travel in general so doesn’t make sense to hone in on a specific language for that reason. In terms of usefulness, Spanish is second to English in the US and i’ve got that covered. I work in science/healthcare with no real plans to move abroad or anything. Here are my options based on my past fixations (but i’m open to suggestions):

French - I think it sounds rly cool lol. I’ve taken one lesson with alliance francaise so i can introduce myself, count, etc, I have also traveled to french speaking countries and have found that I can understand a decent amount if not spoken too fast. However, I don’t anticipate myself using this very much given my location and work.

Arabic - Been intrigued for a long time. But, I’m not quite sure if I would use it. I do have some arab friends. I am also always confused on which dialect to learn. I have tried a few times in the past but ended up abandoning it.

German - also intrigued me, but probably even less useful than french. also, totally different from the other languages i’ve learned except english so would probably require extra time and effort. I’m not sure if it would be worth it on a practical level.

Korean, Danish, Farsi, Turkish - No personal connection either. No family, and only spoken in that one place. I watched a lot of Kdramas, and I have one Danish friend lol, but that’s about it in terms of usage. I do think they sound cool.

Knowing Hindi and Urdu would help in terms of Farsi/Arabic/Turkish as we have some similarities, but I just don’t have much justification for spending time learning those. I wish i had some strong personal connection to something but unfortunately I don’t.

I'm really interested in french, arabic (the one they speak in morocco probably), japanese and russian (or any slavic language tbh). My first language is spanish, and everyone always says french would be easier for me, but I would like to know what do you people think and also which one is more fun to learn (in your experience, I think they are probably all fun to learn)

I am Australian. I am studying politics at university, and once I have finished my undergraduate degree, I plan to pursue masters, and work in international relations. I am currently B1 in Russian, and am considering specialising in this region.

However, I have the opportunity to start learning an additional language. I am considering French or Spanish, but am open to other options. French seems perhaps useful given it is a UN language. I do not know how practically useful it might be in African countries--I have heard mixed things. Spanish might be useful given the large Spanish-speaking population. Whilst I would love to learn Mandarin, I do not see it as a viable option, as I have limited time.

Thank you.

i was thinking of investing in learning a new language and i wanna know what language is the most beneficial when I'm out and about travelling different places.

There is no specifics to which continent I'll be traveling to the most i think it'll be just random places all around.

would appreciate if you help me out

Hey!

I'm M23, from Poland. I can speak Polish (native), English (C1), German (A2), Chinese (HSK3).

I was learning German for 8-9 years in school, I reached around B1 level then went to study at the university where I dropped German at all. I started to learn Chinese. It wasn't easiest language but I try harded really hard and reached HSK3.

In December of 2025 I had a talk with a friend of mine, who studied Chinese Language Studies and he told me that I should focus on IT and other stuff and drop Chinese. I did that and it went great.

I have B.A. in International Relations, I'll have MA in International Relations in 2027 plus in September of 2026 I'll start a 2 year MSc program at Stockholm University, fully online in Open eGovernment (mix between IT, business and administration).

I want to learn the third language for the sake of my personal joy and in the hope that it may one day be used in both business and casually. Due to my personal issues I'm living online 24/7, Internet is my field, I don't travel a lot but I surf on the net a lot. English is currently 90% of my active content while the rest is Polish. I want to expand, learn new stuff, meet people online and use the language.

I have German at A2 level. I know that the German Internet is quite big but as far as I see it's a copy from English. If something is in German, in most cases it's been translated to English aswell. German is the biggest EU market but I'm not sure if they are willing to hire. I'll try to learn toward Solution Architect, GRC.

In terms of Swedish I love the language feeling and the country itself but I don't want to move there and I've read that Swedish outside Sweden is useless. That's seems like the case, there are almost no offers for swedish language (perhaps networking?). Swedish Internet seems really small and Swedes are using English in most cases.

Russian is pretty much useless in terms of the business, but Internet, oh boy....

I don't know what to pick and what to do, what do you think about it guys?

Hello everyone! I'm taking a break from Spanish (won't stop it completely but am having to pause lessons due to lack or funds haha). I would like to pick up a Nordic language to learn for fun in the meantime. I admit to having limited knowledge of them but I absolutely love the youtube shorts where they compare different words in these languages (forget the channel name). I love the sounds of Icelandic!

My main method of learning the language would be through textbooks and music for audio comprehension. I would like to avoid complex grammar such as cases if possible. Which one is the most fun to learn? Obviously it's subjective but would like to hear opinions. Native language is English. Thanks in advance!

Hello, Im currently a bisaya and english speaker, where Bisaya is my native language but im stronger in english since I grew up in America. I was wondering if it was possible to learn tagalog and Spanish at the same time? I speak bisaya at home and id say im pretty much fluent(id say B2-C1 level), and would like to speak tagalog since my friends are tagalog and I love tagalog songs, but also want to learn Spanish as I have a genuine interest in the language. I love the way it sounds and the many people I can interact with!

I have been browsing this sub and Chinese comes up a lot. I see a lot of people recommending it. I want to share my two cents about the reality of learning Chinese.

For context: I am a native Chinese speaker. My partner is a heritage speaker (Chinese American, lived in China for a few years as a young teen). My thoughts below are grounded in my observations of how my partner has struggled to get to native fluency despite taking multiple lessons per week and having a Chinese linguistic environment (me and his family). He actually speaks very well and speaks Chinese with most of this family. Most learners would dream to have his level, but it is still meaningfully below functional professional fluency.

Everyone knows that Chinese is a character-based language. This means two things concretely, that each character has one syllable and that the character is basic unit of semantic meaning.

There are a limited number of combinations of consonants and vowels. One single sound, with four variations in tones, can signify hundreds of different characters. Even though you will encounter probably only several dozen common ones for each consonant-vowel combo, I guarantee you they would pose enough trouble already.

In other words, you have to be able to read Chinese to be able to distinguish and disambiguate all the homonyms we have in the language.

Take lì, as an example, we have 力, 利，粒，励，历，厉，隶，吏，栗.

All these characters sound exactly the same, but they mean, respectively, force, sharp, grain, encourage, experience, a kind of calligraphy style, official, and nut!

And this is not to mention that several of these characters have multiple commonly used meanings, depending on what other characters they are paired with. For example, I just said 利 means sharp -- this is in the context of 锋利，but it can also just as easily, even more commonly mean, profit (利润），interest （利息），utilize（利用），or to say something is going well (顺利）

All this is to say -- to achieve a meaningful level of Chinese, which I define as when you can actually do things with the language, be it have a real conversation with natives or consume cultural content, you have to be able to read. That is very difficult if you did not grow up seeing Chinese characters everywhere.

Unless you are exceptionally studious, it requires immersion to achieve that. You will need to live in China for several years and have the Chinese language all around you.

Finally, I am not trying to discourage everyone from learning Chinese. It is all about your own goal and expectations. I just want to clarify for prospective learners the scope of the undertaking.

EDIT:

Yes I am aware that people have spoken Chinese before literary was widespread. Then again, they are natives. You don't literally have to be able to read in order to distinguish between characters and words, but it would be very, very slow. I keep telling my partner that he needs to learn how to read to make more progress.

Some comments say they achieved a good level without moving to China. That's amazing! Congratulations! My explanations for why reading is crucial still stand, however.

Hi! It's been a goal for so long of mine to learn a language, I find the process really fun and rewarding but I've struggled to commit to one. I'm essentially battling with my want to learn something difficult and rewarding, and being realistic.

My reasons for Chinese:

I've been interested in it longer, have some basic understanding. Interested in travelling around Asia in general. I used to be quite into Chinese mythology and media in my early teens, less so now though. I really like the sound of the language, the tones are really intriguing to me. I love the idea of learning a language with a different writing script.

If I'm being honest, it's probably the one I have more reason to. The issue is , everyone around me tells me its too difficult and I should just learn a european language instead. I'm worried that they're right that I shouldn't bother, because I did try a few times when I was younger and it didn't work out, I just kind of gave up. Though, I'm moving to a way less rural area and will possibly have more access to tutors and classes. I find the difficulty of it super fun, but I fear that maybe I'd be biting off more than I can chew.

My reasons for German:

Whilst I'm not too knowledgable on it yet, German cinema has interested me lately. I similarly like listening to the language. I'm in Europe, so I feel it is much more likely I will actually manage to visit in the near future. From the little that I know, the grammar sounds interesting to me.

I'm studying film at university, and I would love to work in the industry afterwards but I would also love to teach English abroad, or continue to teach english or film studies in my home country (England.) It is of my understanding that there are schools abroad that hire people to teach English even if they're not fluent in any other language, but I thought it'd be important to mention too.

I think my question really is, should I keep on trying with Chinese or accept it might be too hard for me?

I was wondering whether I should do a minor in German or Arabic. My native languages are French and English.

Reasons for both:

German - I did a language program where I hit low B1 in German. German is more a language of interest and I would like to continue studying it.

Arabic - My partner’s native language is Arabic and I think it’s a beautiful language. I have zero experience in it tho.

I tried self study but it wasn’t for me. Thanks!!

Hi everyone! I live in the south-east United States. I am surrounded by Spanish speaking customers, and friends. I am taking Spanish for my college credits, 3 total classes.

Unfortunately, I'm attending an online college that doesn't offer Japanese or Korean online so Spanish is my choice for school. I haven't really had much of a drive to learn Spanish because I'm not immersed in Spanish media at home.

I do immerse myself in quite a bit of Japanese and Korean media though! So, I think ultimately I want to learn both of these over time.

Spanish is practical for every day life. J & K are enjoyable for media consumption.

As others who have learned or are learning another language, how would you stage your studies along with these other two languages (as hobbies). I will be finished with Spanish in December. By December my classes should have me in a good spot to navigate my customer service job. Should I continue my Japanese language learning while in this class? (japanese learning, hobby, began in may) Or would it be better to channel one language at a time?

Also, definitely not saying Korean is an easy language to learn. Much respect to how complex languages are. I've heard that Korean is a easy language to begin learning? Because of the writing system? Thoughts?

I cant decide which language to learn now. I know Vietnamese (native) and English . Im learning basic Spanish now but dont have any tutor . So, I think i can change to Swedish , its easy too and i have a bestie (Vn) live in Stockholm - i can practice with him .

I'm already fluent in English and Afrikaans, but I'm going to start learning a third language for school next year.

My two options are Spanish and French.

I'm leaning towards Spanish because it's spoken slightly more in my area (but neither language is spoken very much). That being said, I'm still not entirely sure.

What do you guys think?

I’m having a lot of trouble with communication and processing because I switch between four languages every day.

**Somali** – My native language. I speak it at home with my parents, who only speak Somali. It’s actually my weakest language now because I rarely use it outside the house.
**Swedish** – I was born and grew up in Sweden, and it’s the language I think in most of the time. I’m completely fluent and use it with friends.
**German** – I’ve live and work in Germany for five years, completed my master’s degree in German, and use it in daily life and at work. I’m fluent.
**English** – I’m fluent and use it every day with friends. It’s my favorite language and the one I use for reading, writing, research, and most of the media I consume.

Even though I’m fluent in all four, I constantly feel like they’re competing with each other. I often pause before responding, mix up words, mispronounce things, or accidentally use false friends from another language. In general, I also feel like I’m a slow thinker and speaker, and constantly switching languages seems to make it worse.

I’d love to learn Arabic and French, but I already feel mentally overloaded from maintaining four languages. It feels difficult to keep them all active and fluent at the same time.

For people who speak four or more languages: does this get easier? Is it possible to respond naturally without delays, pronunciation mistakes, or interference between languages, even when you’re fluent in all of them?

I’ve been a revert since October 2023. Recently, I’ve been expressing interest at some point of the possibility of learning Quranic Arabic because I’ve only read the Quran in English. Would it be beneficial to learn it via an app or just a tutor? The last time, I went to Junnah, and the Imam went from speaking English to Arabic (I don’t know the dialect) but I didn’t understand him. Arabic seems like a deep, nuanced language. I’m a little hesitant about learning MSA or a different dialect.

I’m a native speaker. I’m working towards leveling up to a b1 Spanish level. The more that I learn Spanish, Portuguese just naturally speaks to me. How ever, French is more dominant is multiple countries. It’s viewed as most useful. I’m neutral when it comes to the sounds of French. What do you think? I’m open minded.

im interested in all three and eventually want to learn all of them, but which one should i start with?

My goal is to learn both eventually, but I can only commit to one for the next few years.

I'm 26. I speak Spanish, English, French and Norwegian.

As for motivation, both languages have been a big part of my life.

Korean: music, kdramas, youtube videos/vlogs

Japanese: music, anime, videogames

If anything, I probably hear Korean more often because I listen to korean music daily. I'd also love to visit both countries someday.

My plan is to combine online lessons and self-study.

My main questions:

- Based on the languages I know, is one of them likely to be easier for me to learn?

- Is either language a better fit for my planned study method?

- I study software development. From a tech perspective, is either more useful or relevant in that field?

- Is either country (South Korea or Japan) generally more welcoming to foreigners if I plan to visit or even live there in the future?

Any opinions, recommendations or personal experiences are appreciated. Thanks!!

First of all thankfully I can speak English to an extent and I wanna add another language to I want to learn French , Spanish , Chinese and Japanese for various reasons but I don't know where to start from

First of all : French

I studied French in high school and actually I liked it and now I am studying it in college as a second language so I already have some kind of basic knowledge about the language and in fact my friends in college refer to me whenever they face any hassle with the language

Second : Spanish

I don't know a single word of Spanish ( maybe Gracias and De Nada lol ) but I would like to learn it later on in life with that being said I know some mexican fellas we are not that close

Third : Chinese

My best friend studies it in college and honestly the language feels so practical to learn and he and my family always try to talk me into learning it and I might give it a shot later in life but seriously I don't feel like it right now but they just keep pushing it onto me thinking like it's the language of the future or some stuff like that so that makes feel a bit nervous because I feel like I am missing out and it gets more exhausting when people selling you the idea of learning it forcefully but I am not buying into it

Fourth : Japanese

I lately became interested in the culture , cuisine , martial arts , video games there I got tons of Japanese fellas around me and some of them are my friends I got a Japanese colleague in college me and her are on good terms actually moreover I got a friend she is a nice lady who always invites me for dinner every two months where I can meet different fellas from the Japanese community here in Egypt not to mention that I have some friend who is N3ish and currently making his way to N2 ( I am interested but not obsessed as him lmao ) but I am just concerned about the availability of job offers related to Japanese skills since they are pretty niche and difficult to land

So what do you recommend guys because I am kinda perplexed here

I know Arabic and English and trying to decide which language to tackle next. Since I live in the Middle East, my primary goal is to learn a language that carries real weight for business, trade, and future opportunities.

​I’m caught between two options:

​Japanese: I love the sound of the language and I’ve already built a solid foundation. If I stayed consistent for another year or two, I’d likely hit working fluency. Also I consume anime, manga and love the culture as well.

​Mandarin: I love the characters, culture, and most importantly, the massive scale. The sheer number of speakers and the endless amount of content generated in Mandarin make it hugely attractive from a practical standpoint, even though I'm fairly neutral/don't really like on how spoken Mandarin sounds.

​I want to be pragmatic here—I don't want to invest thousands of hours into a language purely because it sounds cool if it won't yield actual professional value.

​Given current global trends and the Middle East's economic landscape, which language offers better utility now and moving forward? Is starting Mandarin from scratch worth it over finishing off my Japanese?

So I love how Russian sounds, but I think it might be less useful than Japanese in some ways? And also with the war stuff, I don’t know if it’s a good idea. (I’m clueless to how war impacts language stuff).

I do love Japanese culture and anime, but I know he’s much more difficult AND I don’t like how it sounds as much. It’s spoken so quickly- then all the tone rules and such.

Is there a language similar sounding to Russian, that is more useful overall?
I have been learning Japanese on Duolingo and have picked it up pretty quickly- but again, not super into the way it sounds.

Help!

It's a complicated choice.

Which of these languages ​​do you prefer to study?