Which are the most useful languages to travel?

Helga   Thu May 24, 2007 8:39 am GMT
Which are the most useful languages to travel around the world? English is one of them, but I want to study two more.
Guest   Thu May 24, 2007 9:33 am GMT
English and Spanish.

French is loosing importance very fast. Chinese and Arabic are very difficult. So, English and Spanish.
Ornella   Thu May 24, 2007 9:37 am GMT
Yes. You are right. English and Spanish.


Several words in Russian, Chinese and Arabic will be a plus.
Guest   Thu May 24, 2007 10:17 am GMT
@Helga

That's a quite stupid question ...
Of course it depends on the country you want to travel

And to all the Spanish fans her: if you don't want to travel to a Spanish speaking country it is absolutely useless.
Helga   Thu May 24, 2007 10:32 am GMT
It´s not a stupid question if you want to travel around the world and not to one or two countries. I think that a lot of people like to travel too. I´d like more advices.
Franco   Thu May 24, 2007 10:43 am GMT
You must learn Spanish or you will arrive no-where! IT's a must for half the world.
Homer Simpson   Thu May 24, 2007 10:44 am GMT
I will study Basque, Gaelic and Provençal. English, Spanish and French are a waste of time.
Guest   Thu May 24, 2007 10:46 am GMT
Yeah, if you want to travel the Third World maybe :-)
Guest   Thu May 24, 2007 10:57 am GMT
@Franco

Spanish is spoken in: Spain, among parts of the underclass in the USA, only one half of South America and some former colonies
360 Million speakers is far away from "half of the world"

And anywhere else its pretty useless ...
NTSL   Thu May 24, 2007 11:05 am GMT
Learning Spanish is a waste of time because it's useless outside Spain and Latin America like Chinese outside China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. those 2 languages are not even understood outside their realm.

French along with English is much much more important than both Chinese and Spanish. Aside from the countries where it is natively spoken and in ex-French and Belgian colonies in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific region, where hundreds of millions use it as their formal language, it is also widely spoken in Europe outside France, Belgium, Switzweland and Luxembourg. Plus the countries in other parts of the world not colonized by France where French is the second most popular swcond language.
NTSL   Thu May 24, 2007 11:22 am GMT
Learning Spanish is a waste of time because it's useless outside Spain and Latin America like Chinese outside China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. those 2 languages are not even understood outside their realm.

French along with English is much much more important than both Chinese and Spanish. Aside from the countries where it is natively spoken and in ex-French and Belgian colonies in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific region, where hundreds of millions use it as their formal language, it is also widely spoken in Europe outside France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Plus the countries in other parts of the world not colonized by France where French is the second most popular second language.
Guest   Thu May 24, 2007 11:58 am GMT
That´s not right.

French, as everyday language, is spoken in France and some MINORITIES of Switzerland, Belgium and Quebec.

It is the mother tongue of 80 million people. The size of French is more or less the size of Viet, or Farsi. It is a MEDIUM SIZE LANGUAGE. It WAS an important language, like Latin, but it is not now.

In Africa some people speak this language but they are starting to study Arabic or English, more useful languages.

Spanish is the first language of South America, Central America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the second language of USA, the first language of Spain and Andorra in Europe, an important language in Equatorial Guinea, Morocco or Philippines. It is the first or second language of 500 million people around the world.

Spanish is second world language as mother tongue. French is fourteen.
Schmidt   Thu May 24, 2007 12:10 pm GMT
English, Spanish and German. Some words in Russian, Arabic and Chinese are useful.
Guest   Thu May 24, 2007 12:10 pm GMT
"French, as everyday language, is spoken in France and some MINORITIES of Switzerland, Belgium and Quebec"

Minority in Quebec? You're so stupid Sam and you haven't learned your lesson.

Spanish is minority in Peru, Bolovia, and Paraguay, it's dead in the Philippines and the number of people in Morocco and New Guinea is shrinking because i's rapidly giving way to French.

It's the second language of just 30 million and French is the one who is spoken by 500 million as second language.

Keep on dreaming in your siesta Sam, where you can invent your own falsehood. your mind is full of imagination. I suspect that your schizophrenic.
NTSL   Thu May 24, 2007 12:21 pm GMT
Where now in the inforamtion and scientific age. Could somebody enumerate the contributions of Spanish in these fields? I bet nobody can because there's nothing to enumerate.

Maybe when it comes to vices, vanity, or gambling, the Spanish speaking people can give many contributions.