My question is why Persian’s so high 🤔

But a more appropriate question for discussion is whether you agree, and if this is a good baseline for measuring overall value of a language in 2026.

If my goal is to be able to travel the world and speak with people, what combination of languages would get me to around 70%?

This is a little harder than just looking up how many people speak particular languages due to overlap/multilingual people. Any help would be appreciated!

Hi everyone, I dont know where to start but I am feeling bored because most content in my native language feels like a translated, repeated version of English content.

So, I had an idea ""why not ask about other languages spoken by different cultures that have specific knowledge and unique details? Once I find the right language, I will start learning it.

What are your thoughts? do you have any suggestions for me?

Thank you all.

I will let the mods judge about the relevance of this post and I will let the readers judge about the usefulness of its content. (long post incoming!)

I am an experienced language learner and, according to general definition, a polyglot (I know five languages at an advanced level). Throughout the past six years, I have studied (which absolutely doesn't imply I know) over 20 languages. Some I just tested for a challenge, others for the fun of it, others due to a specific goal, others for passion, and so on.

Until last year, I was the regular guy who could very well have posted countless times about "which language to learn between x, y, and z?". I faced this dilemma between Slavic languages, then Turkic languages, then Uralic languages, and on, and on, and on. I realized, though, that whilst other people's perspective is most welcome and useful, you still are the one who knows yourself best and who will take the final decision.

My post has no pretention to replace the remarkable contributions of this subreddit's members. I just want to provide my own contribution in a slightly different way and I truly hope it will be of use.

Language learning, in my opinion, should be taken as it is supposed to be: a passion, a hobby. Just like reading or exercising. I love comparing it to sports: instead of training the body, we are training our brain here. But like all things, we tend to make progress when we actually love what we do. I know it sounds logical. My point, however, is this: when choosing a language, it is more than just a set of sounds you appreciate, quirky grammar, and fascinating words. These aspects are marvellous but they're just a part of the discovery. A language is not only a communication tool used by a group of humans to convey their thoughts, it also is the soul of a culture, the soul of a people, it has a deep history. A language is as complex as the human is. And this is what's magical, in my opinion.

When choosing a language, you basically make a choice that might affect your life in a way you never could imagine.

Each language I've studied, I can associate various people, songs, phrases, images, all kinds of memories. Learning or knowing x language impacted my personality, my way of thinking, even my routine to some extent. It opened doors to worlds I never knew of. It offered me one of the best gifts of my life: more than mere knowledge, but humanity itself.

"If you speak to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you speak to him in his language, that goes to his heart." Nelson Mandela

This is the quote that got me started and I think it is a beautiful motivation.

Talking about motivation, it is (I guess) the very first factor you need for choosing a language to learn. That said, mere motivation is not sufficient. Then you will need passion (that inner fire you have for the language) and discipline (building on motivation to make the language a part of your daily life). Unless you're a dabbler (which is fine), you want to actually stick with the language you choose in order to reach specific goals (perhaps fluency). Obviously, you can't do that by clicking your fingers. It takes plenty of time and effort. The good news is you can optimize that.

Many of us tend to suffer of "language wanderlust", deeply related to "language infatuation". That is you hear x language and boom you get infatuated with it. Or you read about it and you're struck with fascination. Or perhaps you fall in love with a native speaker whose language then begins to attract you (personal experience can attest it lol). This feeling is good but insufficient to make a choice, as you might guess. You need to dig. It's a bit like human relationships. You won't choose someone for the first impression but more for who they are inside and how they make you feel.

How does the language make you feel? Why are you attracted to it? Ask yourself, evaluate this, for each of your language candidates.

Besides, important questions: Are you attracted to/do you feel connected to your language's culture? Are you interested in its native speakers and their way of thinking? Are you interested in your language's literature and cinema? Are you interested in its related traditions and heritage?

You also need to be realistic, though not overly. Some of us can do two or even three languages at once but the general rule of thumb is focusing on one language until you reach B1/B2, before adding on the next one. You need to remember this: a language, just like a sport, needs regularity. Every day, in our case. It is crucial. Even just 30 minutes a day can do wonders.

How much time can you dedicate to your target language(s) per day? How can you optimize your time? How can you make the language a part of your daily life?

Now, some general fears that often create hesitations. That pertains to "difficulty". I dislike metrics like "easy" and "difficult" because it's too subjective. I was told countless times Finnish is terribly hard, yet it happened to be one of the easiest languages I've studied. I was told Spanish is very easy, it turned out to be a nightmare to me. Instead, I tend to analyze languages through "differences".

How different is your target language from those you know? Research about its phonetics, syntax, general grammar, quirks. How confident do you feel to tackle potential differences (say SOV word order instead of a potentially familiar SVO)?

By the way, mindset is of utmost importance. If you think x language is hard, then it will be. Put those useless metrics aside. If you answered positively to the previous questions, then "difficulty" should be at the bottom of your concerns. Your mindset might rather look like this: This language is an opportunity to teach me new things about how humans think, how language and culture are deeply intertwined, and how much I might change by studying it. Any differences (word order, subjunctive, tenses, cases, etc) can be easily tackled through exposure and practice, anyway.

Also, get out of your native language. Stop comparing. Even if it's similar to your target language. Each language is unique, else it wouldn't exist or it would just be a dialect of one language. Even Danish and Norwegian, which are extremely close, have their share of specific quirks. And that's okay. This is the richness of human languages. Try to adopt the logic of your target language. Observe. Analyze. Mimic. Practice.

Personal experience: Russian seemed very weird to me. Verbal aspects and syntax specifically left me with many questions at the beginning. I eventually answered them and solved the problem when I began to think the Russian way, adopt the Russian logic. It worked out in the end and now it all makes a lot of sense. Comparing to my German or Italian just added more confusion, I let go of this useless comparison and instead fully embraced Russian for what it is.

Are you interested in the specific logic of your target language? Do you see yourself trying to adopt it?

Now, another important aspect which isn't easy to tackle. What's the future of the "relationship" between you and your native language? What are your short-term and long-term goals? Do you want to know the language passively or actively as well? Do you want to read literature and/or just be able to talk about general topics? Do you want to travel to the native country of your target language eventually?

One general tip as well. If you're hesitating between languages of the same group, be very careful. You face the danger of mixing them up and it's not a beautiful experience. Pick one, achieve your goals, only then can you add on another one. How do you choose the first happy candidate? Go through all of the afore-mentioned questions and listen to your gut feeling, your heart.

Listen to the sound of the candidate languages. Which one stands out the most?

Finally, on practical aspects. They shouldn't impact your final decision too much but they obviously can play a significant role.

How accessible are resources in your target language both online and offline? Do you know any native speakers? Can you use the language where you live? Do you know online communities (Discord servers, subreddits, etc) where you can find native speakers and extra resources?

Bonus tip for resources: look for "Easy Languages" on YouTube. They have channels/free content for a dozen languages. Excellent quality. Amongst the languages (aside from the most famous ones like Russian and Spanish) are Catalan, Welsh, some Arabic dialects, Kurdish, Turkish, Swedish, and many others. Also, generally speaking, be a searcher! The Internet has so many resources which you don't know of. They're waiting for you!

I hope this very messy post (I'm very tired as I'm writing this and the decision was completely spontaneous) will be useful. I might edit it to add extra thoughts or recommendations and I'm absolutely open to any useful criticism, personal perspectives on the topic, etc. Fellow language learners, I wish you the very best in your endeavours! :)

EDIT: grammar.

So, Italian is my main love. And I’m utterly fascinated by Greek. But I’m pretty happy with where I am in Italian (high B2) and my Greek is advancing pretty quickly. I’m starting to think of what to do after.

I want to continue my language learning hobby, I really do love the act of learning so I don’t think motivation will be too much of an issue. But how to decide?

My thoughts right now are-

Norwegian, such a fun language! It makes me happy to hear it, very chilled out. And it would be nice to still learn but give myself a bit of a break after Greek. I love Greek but it’s a seriously uphill battle.

Hindi- I adore this language, but it’s meant to be crazy difficult. The alphabet is both a plus and a minus for me. It’s beautiful, but learning languages with a different alphabet is just inherently harder as It doesn’t really fit my learning style as well. And after Greek...maybe I should take a break. But the culture is so vibrant and my family is ethnicity from India, so it makes sense.

Portugese- as I know Italian, it should be pretty easy....right? I’m also going there on my honey moon and would love to impress my fiancée.

Thoughts?

I’ve been reflecting on what really motivates my language learning, and I think part of it is the hope of finding places and people where speaking their language makes you accepted like an “honorary member", like the people really appreciate your efforts and welcome you into their world...

So I’m curious: Which countries/nationalities have you found to be the most welcoming when you learn (or even just attempt to learn) their language? Where people genuinely appreciate the effort, and it opens doors to friendship and connection?

For context, I’m at B2 in Spanish, B1 in German, and HSK4 in Mandarin. Before I decide whether to push further with one of these or start something new, I’d love to hear your experiences. Which languages and countries gave you that sense of acceptance and belonging?

Thanks in advance, I’m excited to learn from the community’s perspectives.

Hi everyone, l I have a love for languages and wish to learn one; however, I am undecided whether French or Mandarin would be most useful/interesting to learn first (I plan to learn them both eventually but am unsure on which one I should start with). I find that awhilst French is far easier for me, a fluent English speaker, to learn; Mandarin seems far more practical considering the amount of people that speak it. Although I am aware it’ll take double or even triple the amount of time to learn Mandarin as opposed to French. If it helps at all, I am studying Law so perhaps that may have some bearing on which one I study? I am very eager to begin my journey but am in two minds as to which one would be more beneficial for me as to learn as someone who wishes to be bilingual.

French grammar has put me off terribly haha, it’s one of the easiest languages for English native speakers, but what’s the point of having grammar rules when there’s so many exceptions??

update: i chose mandarin :)

And what are these languages

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 tried watching content and shows in all 3.

In japanese and korean you can atleast hear the words and just don't know the meanings.

In Mandarin , it feels like I only hear sounds but don't hear any word , like I could not repeat any one word from the full sentence.

Which languages would you recommend learning as they gain relevance and more speakers? Without sounding ignorant, languages like Japanese, Russian, and French seem like they will be in a different place in the next 50 years if not 25 years due to population decline and geopolitics. I am interested in hearing what languages you think will see a boost in importance or people wanting to learn (besides English of course)?

I keep finding myself drawn to Polish. I’ve spoken Spanish and English my whole life and I speak Brazilian Portuguese at about a B2 level. I used to know some Russian when I was a kid because we sponsored refugee families from the USSR and I studied it on my own for several months, so Slavic languages aren’t totally foreign to me. Noun cases were why I gave up, along with Russian’s irregular pronunciation (vowels that reduce, no stress pattern for syllables). I’m a devout Catholic and I know Poland is very Catholic. I have so much respect and admiration for St Pope John Paul II, so I think that’s probably part of the attraction, but maybe that’s a silly reason to learn the language. I also think about how practical or “useful” a language is, if for no other reason, I’d like to be able to speak it. I live in Portland, OR and we don’t have a big Polish community, but there is a Catholic Church with 2x masses each week in Polish, so there’s that. Anyway, I’m not convinced that these are great reasons to try to tame the beast that is Polish with its insane consonant clusters and seven noun cases…

The many Slavic peoples have interested me for my whole life. Each of of their history's has a unique stort to tell and their folktales and culture never fail to bore me.

For years I have wanted to learn a Slavic language but never found the time to study one, but I am currently able to add a Slavic language onto my plate.

I love all the Slavic cultures, history, mythology etc so I am fine with learning any Slavic language, however, I have a few requirments that the Slavic language I learn must have:

• I want to learn one that has a decent amount of resources so I can get to a B2 level.

• I want to learn a Slavic language that has a decent amount of literature and historical records written in that language.

• A Slavic language that has books related to Slavic Paganism.

They are really the only requirments, I am fine with learning any that fit that, And, I dont care about the difficulty as all Slavic languages can be consitered hard, I would be open to learning ANY Slavic language.

Thank!

I am a native English speaker (🇺🇸) and also speak Spanish (🇦🇷|C2) and Portuguese (🇧🇷|B1). I am trying to choose between learning German or Russian.

German Pros:

It is far more likely that I would travel to Germany, Switzerland, or Austria in the near future and with more regularity.

I encounter more Germans and more German culture in my day-to-day life.

There is a greater likelihood that I would use it in person and during travels.

Legal German-language dubs and media are far more available in my country.

While very unlikely, I would consider living or working in Germany or Austria at some point in my life.

German Cons:

I am not quite as interested in the language or the culture, although I do still find it very interesting.

German culture feels more similar to my own and therefore not quite as intriguing.

I have a harder time pronouncing German.

Germans tend to have excellent English.

Russian Pros:

I find the language and the culture endlessly fascinating.

I find the language more beautiful. It feels better to speak it than it does to speak German. In the same way that I fundamentally enjoy speaking Spanish and Portuguese.

It is easier for me to pronounce thanks to my background in Spanish and Portuguese.

I really like Russian literature.

The Russian-language world and culture seems completely alien to me in a way that I find interesting.

Russians tend to have bad English skills.

Russian Cons:

Learning Russian is currently poorly received in my country. I don’t really care, but that’s the reality.

I don’t know that I’ve ever met more than 5 Russians in my entire life. I’ve never heard Russian (that I’ve recognized) in my city.

I don’t plan on traveling to Russia or Eastern Europe any time soon due to the current geopolitical climate and the physical distance from where I live.

I would never consider living or working in Russia or Eastern Europe.

I've been struggling for years to maintain focus on a single language. I have flip flopped so much in the past 16 years in 7th grade when I first even made an attempt with German class in middle school. I made a list below on languages that I know I would enjoy, I excluded the ones I didn't have a strong interest in at all. I was gonna cut these into slips and pick from a hat but I'd like tbe community's input first. I separated into two categories, "European" languages and "Asian" languages because of the stark difficulty difference. Also below are pros and cons of each.

Dutch

Pros: Similar to English, has extraordinary ease

Close to German as well, a language I already have familiarity with.

I really like the Netherlands and would like to visit one day. I also like Belgium too, Dutch is spoken in Flanders.

Cons:

High English fluency in the Netherlands and Belguim. Would be difficult to engage with native Dutch speakers if they just default to English

Smaller language at only 25 million

Not as "useful"

German

Pros:

I already have a decent base in the language

I love Germany, I visited in 2014.

I have ancestry from Germany

Emotional connection with my family

I'm really into history, especially German history, WWI and WWII bring special interests of mine

Cons:

Grammar is a pain along with sentance structure and syntax

French

Pros

I'd love to visit France or Belgium one day, I can even tale a day trip to Quebec if I wanted

Language of the Arts

I love French Cuisine

"Global" lamguage at 321 million speakers

I love French history

Cons

Difficult pronunciation

The weird number system in French, makes it harder for me struggling with math

Italian

Pros:

I visited Italy, I want to visit again one day

I love Italian food

I'm really obsessed with the Roman Empire, closest thing to Latin for me (I don't want to do a dead language)

Cons:

Relegated only to Italy and a few other areas like Ticano in Switzerland or a tiny part of Istria in Croatia

Irish

Pros: The cultural connection with my family

Helping a very small language stay alive

I want to visit Ireland one day

Cons:

Smaller amount of speakers, even if I'm trying to help preserve it

Scottish Gaelic

Same Pros and cons with Itish but even less speakers

Mandarin

Pros: Most spoken language on Earth

I love Chinese food

I love Chinese history

Decent amount of speakers in the US, especially if I go to Chinatown

Cons:

Writing system

Tones, one word means something else depending on tone

Extreme difficulty

Visiting China and being trans would be difficult

Cantonese

Pros:

I love Hong Kong and I'm interested in the city's history

Cantonese food is great

Cons:

Extreme difficulty

6 tones

Falling out of use and favor, especially in American Chinatowns where I could get real in person interaction

Same issues with Mandarin visiting China being trans

Japanese

Pros:

I love Japanese food

WWII history with Japan, along with the other historical periods and Samurai

Definitely would want to go to Japan some day

Anime and video games

Cons:

Difficulty and three different writing systems

Visiting Japan and encountering confusion with me being trans

I'm a Chinese American student in the US, I want to learn one of either Japanese or Korean at my university. I'm having a hard time deciding here's my considerations for each.

Japanese pros: 1. More practical use, I visit China for a month or two every year and I usually book US to Japan to China since it's cheaper and sometimes I'll stay for a week so I'll definitely use Japanese more so I'm usually in Japan for a week biyearly

2. I'm native level in Chinese so kanji will be much easier to learn which I heard learning kanji is a big con for learners since it's very difficult

Korean pros: 1. I consume Korean media on a daily basis, I read lots of Korean webnovels and interested in kpop. I used to watch anime but haven't in a couple years I think I'd still enjoy it but I definitely interact with a lot more Korean media

2. I'm not too scared of pronunciation, I heard it's much harder than Japanese but typically I have an easy time learning pronunciation of foreign languages

For me... it's the best variant of French. Change my mind

Hi guys,

what do you think about the statement in the title? Do you agree? I feel like the world is becoming more fluent in English with every passing day. Since I'm more interested in actually understanding what people talk, I wouldn't focus on one or two languages either.

I feel like being able to understand what people talk/how they communicate with each other is a great skill and I want to understand as many folks as possible.

It's just a preference.

What's your opinion?

Sending my love to all of you 😄

My family emigrated from Zakarpattia Oblast during WW2. I have access to passports from both through descent (though won't pursue the Ukrainian one as a military-aged male). I feel more culturally connected to my family's Ukrainian heritage, and am very close with my Ukrainian grandparent, and will eventually attempt to learn it anyway but also have the opportunity to learn more about Hungary, their language, and have access to the EU via their passport. I am also intrinsically motivated to learn Hungarian, although sentimentally less so, as my family's region was linked to Hungary for 1000 years. In the near term, I'd like to add one of these languages to my growing repertoire. I am native English, B2 French, B1 German, and A2 Serbian.

Edit: The comments section is devolving into something not related to my initial question. I’d appreciate actual advice or considerate thoughts regarding the choice of language to consider next.

My 90-some year-old grandfather from a rural village in Zakarpattia most definitely does not speak Russian and found community in Ukrainian cultural centres after emigrating, taking part in religious practices, dance, etc. specific to eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine.

Title says it all. If I am a child growing up with loving and patient parents, is any language harder to learn inherently whether it's english, chinese, japanese, french, german etc. Or are they all "equal" in terms of difficulty?

If they are different in terms of difficulty, what specifically makes it harder to learn?

Hello everyone,

I've been learning languages on and off for the past 5 years and got to N3 in Japanese before I dropped learning because of personal reasons.

I'm from an European country so none of these languages are close to my native language but I feel fairly familiar looking at, listening to and reading in these languages (as far as my knowledge allows me) because of the years I spent learning Japanese.

Now I'm in university in a STEM degree and deciding which language to pick up (again) as a hobby but also to boost my career opportunities.

Here are my reasons for each of the languages:

Japanese:

• Already achieved N3 once, familiar with the language and sound

• Love Japanese games and some media like podcasts, youtubers and certain anime.

• Like the sound of the language

• Big fan of Japanese fashion

Korean:

• I love the sound of Korean and Korean music a lot.

• Already learned hangul and feel more inclined to learn more because I don't have to learn thousands of characters again.

• Love kdrama

• Grammar is similar to Japanese so it doesn't feel foreign

• I think I could imagine studying/living/working in Korea more than in Japan

• More opportunities due to economic growth compared to Japan

Chinese:

• Insane opportunities in STEM, technological powerhouse

• basically infinite learning sources and a lot of speakers even in Europe/my city

• Once again, even though they are slightly different I can recognize a lot of hanzi and I already took some Chinese classes in Uni. Grammar is way easier than Korean and Japanese

• I like many of the Chinese cultures, interested in history and politics.

• Chinese food is amazing

And some cons:

Japanese:

• current government is far-right thus not very inviting for a foreigner

• I feel like Japanese culture is the hardest to break into as a foreigner and read alot about never being accepted as their equals

• Japanese speakers are basically non existent close to me.

• Career opportunities are also bleak looking

• Japanese work culture

Korean:

• same problem as Japanese, basically no native speakers (and even less in general) close to me

• career opportunities might be better but still really niche in Europe

• I don't know a lot about Korean work culture but I think it's similar to Japan

Chinese:

• China is even more cutoff from Europe than Japan or Korea, however there are a lot of immigrants in Europe and especially international students from China in university

• I REALLY don't like the sound of Mandarin, sorry.

• Therefore I don't like watching cdramas, webnovels might be okay. Also, I'm not a fan of wuxia at all which makes finding media...hard sometimes.

• Feels like I'm learning it more for the usefulness than because I like consuming the media and culture (which I'd be doing to learn)

• speaking is really hard compared to Japanese or Korean (at least for me)

While my heart urges me to learn Korean simply because I think it's really cool I still would like an "unbiased" opinion based on my path thus far.

Maybe I should say that I plan on learning all three of them to some degree at some point in my life so if that helps I'd also take advice on which to learn first (I know Chinese influenced Korean and Japanese a lot but I don't feel like that's enough of a reason to learn it first lol)

Thanks y'all!

I'm 19 year old student in Armenia. I'm studying a STEM major. Currently highly interested in picking up a new language, but I have a passion vs benefit problems. I have friends who study in china and chinese as a whole seems to be more beneficial career wise. On the other hand I'm way more passionate towards Japanese culture and media. I'm afraid that by picking japanese I'll sacrifice career opportunities. Searching for an advice or direction.