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Originally Posted by deltav
Well, Spanish is the primary language in probably 20+ countries including most of the Western Hemisphere outside of USA & Canada. It's extremely helpful for me, YMMV depending on lifestyle & travels.
Others are going to become more & more important for business as the East becomes the new economic powerhouse - Mandarin, Hindi, etc.
But aside from "most bang for your buck" language-wise, learning a new language usually means you've gotten your brain out of its comfort zone. It actually helps you understand your *own* language better. You gain more knowledge about the culture you're studying, I'd argue you even get an understanding of the nuances of how that culture thinks. When taught to kids at a young age, a second language can help spark curiosity about other places that wouldn't be there otherwise.
In my experience, Americans who are multi-lingual are almost without exception more well-rounded & knowledgeable about the world outside their USA bubble than those who only speak English.
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I can see how Spanish could provide value. If it were up to me and a language was required to get one's brain out of their comfort zoen and to evolve culture, then learning to read and write music would accomplish that in spades, combined with learning a musical instrument would very much accomplish expanding brain power and culturalization without having to specify a niche language/culture that one may never come across.
If you think about it, there are, what, maybe 4 primary languages- english, spanish, mandarin, arabic or hindu.
To learn all of those is too much, to pick 1 more than native English is too refined. most will never ever use it enough to maintain it. Again, maybe spanish makes sense as the 2nd language. But that's only due to our proximity to Mexico and the number of Mexicans in the USA.