“what language should I learn?”
“is it better to learn [x] or [x]?”
“is it worth learning [x]?”
I get this type of question a lot and I see questions like these a lot on language learning forums, but it’s very difficult to answer because ultimately language learning is a highly personal decision. Passion is required to motivate your studies, and if you aren’t in love with your language it will be very hard to put in the time you need. Thus, no language is objectively better or worse, it all comes down to factors in your life. So, I’ve put together a guide to assist your with the kind of factors you can consider when choosing a language for study.
First, address you language-learning priorities.
Think of the reasons why are you interested in learning a new language. Keeping these reasons in mind as you begin study will help keep you focused and motivated. Here are some suggestions to help you get started, complete with wikipedia links so you can learn more:
For this I recommend looking into dead, literary or constructed languages. There are lots of cool linguistic experiments and reconstructions going on and active communities that work on them! Here’s a brief list:
Egyptian (Ancient Egyptian)
Older iterations of modern day languages:
Classical Nahuatl (language of the Aztec Empire)
Early Middle English (Shakespearean English)
Middle English (Chaucer English)
Anglish (experiment to create a purely Anglo-Saxon English)
Láadan (a “feminist language”)
Toki Pona (a minimalist language)
Wenedyk (what if the Romans had occupied Poland?)
Maybe you just want to connect to another culture. A language is often the portal to a culture and are great for broadening your horizons!
Here are some popular languages and what they are “famous for”:
French: culinary arts, film, literature, music, philosophy, tv programs prestige language for a long time, spoken in many countries
German: film, literature, philosophy, tv, spoken in Central Europe
Italian: architecture, art history, catholicism, culinary arts, design, fashion, film, music, opera
Mandarin: culinary arts, literature, music, poetry, tv
Japanese: anime, culinary arts, film, manga, music, video games, the longtime isolation of the country has developed a culture that many find interesting, a comparatively large internet presence
Korean: tv dramas, music, film
Portuguese: internet culture, music
Russian: literature, philosophy, spoken in the Eastern Bloc or former-Soviet countries
Spanish: film, literature, music, spoken in many countries
Swedish: music, tv, film, sometimes thought of as a “buy one, get two free” deal along with Norwegian & Danish
Religious & liturgical languages:
Church Slavonic (Eastern Orthodox churches)
Coptic (Coptic Orthodox Church)
Ecclesiastical Latin (Catholic Church)
Ge’ez (Ethiopian Orthodox Church)
Koine Greek (language of the New Testament)
Pali (language of some Hindu texts and Theravada Buddhism)
Syriac (Syriac Orthodox Church, Maronite Church, Church of the East)
Reconnecting with family?
If your immediate family speaks a language that you don’t or if you are a heritage speaker that has been disconnected, then the choice is obvious! If not, you might have to do some family tree digging, and maybe you might find something that makes you feel more connected to your family. Maybe you come from an immigrant community that has an associated immigration or contact language! Or maybe there is a branch of the family that speaks/spoke another language entirely.
Immigrant & Diaspora languages:
Arbëresh (Albanians in Italy)
Arvanitika (Albanians in Greece)
Canadian Gaelic (Scots in Canada)
Canadian Ukrainian (Ukrainians in Canada)
Caribbean Hindustani (Indian communities in the Caribbean)
Chipilo Venetian (Venetian in Mexico)
Gullah (African Americans of the coastal low country of the US)
Hutterite German (German spoken by Hutterite settlers of Canada/US)
Fiji Hindi (Indians in Fiji)
Louisiana French (Cajuns)
Patagonian Welsh (Welsh in Argentina)
Pennsylvania Dutch (German spoken by the Amish)
Plaudietsch (German spoken by Mennonites)
Talian (Venetian in Brazilian)
Texas Silesian (Poles in the US)
If you are Jewish, maybe look into the language of your particular diaspora community:
Juhuri (Jews of the Caucasus)
Try looking around for what languages are in demand in your field. Most often, competency in a relevant makes you very competitive for positions. English is in demand pretty much anywhere. Here are some other suggestions based on industry (from what I know!):
Business (General): Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish
Design: Italian (especially furniture)
Economics: Arabic, German
Education: French, Spanish
Energy: Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
Engineering: German, Russian
Finance & Investment: French, Cantonese, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish
International Orgs. & Diplomacy (NATO, UN, etc.): Arabic, French, Mandarin, Persian, Russian, Spanish
Medicine: German, Latin, Sign Languages, Spanish
Military: Arabic, Dari, French, Indonesian, Korean, Kurdish, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu
Programming: German, Japanese
Sales & Marketing: French, German, Japanese, Portuguese
Service (General): French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Sign Languages, Spanish
Scientific Research (General): German, Japanese, Russian
Tourism: French, Japanese, Mandarin, Sign Languages, Spanish
Translation: Arabic, Russian, Sign Languages
Learning a language just because is a perfectly valid reason as well! Maybe you are really into a piece of media that has it’s own conlang! Maybe you are super into history (in that case check out the languages under “linguistic curiosity” for some languages that could help with that)
Atlantean (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
Dothraki (Game of Thrones)
Elvish (Lord of the Rings)
High Valyrian (Game of Thrones)
Nadsat (A Clockwork Orange)
Or if you just like to learn languages, take a look maybe at languages that have lots of speakers but not usually popular among the language-learning community:
If you have still are having trouble, consider the following:
What languages do you already speak?
How many and which languages you already speak will have a huge impact on the ease of learning.
If you are shy about speaking with natives, you might want to look at languages with similar consonant/vowel sounds. Similarity between languages’ grammars and vocabularies can also help speed up the process. Several families are famous for this such as the Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and to a lesser extent Romanian), North Germanic languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) or East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian). If you are a native English speaker, check out the FSI’s ranking of language difficulty for the approximate amount of hours you’ll need to put into different languages.
You could also take a look at languages’ writing systems to make things easier or for an added challenge.
Another thing to remember is that the languages you already speak will have a huge impact on what resources are available to you. This is especially true with minority languages, as resources are more frequently published in the dominant language of that area. For example, most Ainu resources are in Japanese, most Nheengatu resources are in Portuguese, and most Nahuatl resources are in Spanish.
What are your life circumstances?
Where you live with influence you language studies too! Local universities will often offer resources (or you could even enroll in classes) for specific languages, usually the “big” ones and a few region-specific languages.
Also consider if what communities area near you. Is there a vibrant Deaf community near you that offers classes? Is there a Vietnamese neighborhood you regularly interact with? Sometimes all it takes is someone to understand you in your own language to make your day! Consider what languages you could realistically use in your own day-to-day. If you don’t know where to start, try checking to see if there are any language/cultural meetups in your town!
How much time can you realistically put into your studies? Do you have a fluency goal you want to meet? If you are pressed for time, consider picking up a language similar to ones you already know or maintaining your other languages rather than taking on a new one.
Please remember when choosing a language for study to always respect the feelings and opinions of native speakers/communities, particularly with endangered or minoritized languages. Language is often closely tied to identity, and some communities are “closed” to outsiders. A notable examples are Hopi, several Romani languages, and some Jewish languages. If you are considering a minoritized language, please closely examine your motivations for doing so, as well as do a little research into what is the community consensus on outsiders learning the language.