Learning a language is not only a rewarding achievement that can help you connect with people from different corners of the World, it is also scientifically proven to improve your brain health as it opens up more new pathways in the brain. Once you’ve decided to take on a new language the question is then which language do you choose. This choice may depend on your job, on which countries you’d like to visit or live in or alternatively perhaps you just want to learn something new, here are some tips to help you decide which language you wish to learn.
Spanish
With over 414 million people in the World that speak Spanish, it is the World’s second most spoken language. Spanish is often taught in schools from a young age in Europe and in the US and it is an incredible useful language to have under your belt. The principal reason that Spanish is so great is that it is spoken in over 20 countries around the World from the Caribbean to Europe and of course, Central and South America. Latin travel well and even if you have no plans to visit Spanish-speaking countries to often there will be plenty of chances to use the language back at home.
Mandarin (Chinese)
Mandarin is the World’s most spoken language with over 1.1 billion speakers around the World. This figure is largely dominated by the huge size of the Chinese population but Mandarin is also spoken in parts of Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Mandarin often acts as a base language for many Asian languages so if you plan on spending some time or moving to Asia then Mandarin is a great place to start. Many businessmen and women also learn Mandarin as there are thousands of business relationships between China and Western companies.
Arabic
With almost 5% of the World’s population that speak Arabic there are plenty of opportunities for you to both learn and practice this ancient language. Arabic is spoken largely in the Middle-East and over 20 countries have it as their mother tongue. The language itself can be hard to learn at first, with a whole new alphabet and a completely different grammatical structure to most World languages. Once you begin to understand Arabic however it can be extremely rewarding and an impressive language to possess, it will take some hard work but this language is well worth learning.
French
French is a great language to learn and a language that is spoken widely throughout the World. From France itself to many African countries and some are parts of Canada, French is the language of choice. The grammatical structure of French is very similar to Spanish and Italian and if you already possess one of those then you will find learning French to be significantly easier. Similar to Latinos, French speakers travel very well and have influence a huge part of global culture which means having the language is a great benefit when travelling anywhere. Another big positive in speaking French is the diversity of the countries that speak it giving you plenty of different places to practice your lingo.