Have you ever pictured yourself moving abroad and ordering your coffee in another language while being serenaded with beautiful words coming from beautiful people, all of which you can understand and respond to seamlessly and charmingly? What a dream that would be, a perfect world where you can communicate with people from other countries in their own language, blending into the environment like a local. Perhaps you've flirted with the idea before, or you certainly are now. How does one accomplish such a thing? Plus, how does one choose a language when there are quite literally several thousand? The goal of this article is to help you choose the best language for you so you can stop procrastinating and get started. After all, language learning takes time, so better start sooner rather than later.

The sheer volume of languages in the world today surpasses 7,000 and even single countries, like Papua New Guinea, is home to over 800 languages currently in use. On top of that, there are not only languages but dialects which can vary considerably from region to region. Take Arabic for example, each Arabic-speaking country has it's own local dialect which people use in their daily lives. Modern Standard Arabic is used as an academic language amongst these countries, on the news for example, in politics, and in the Quran but it is not used in daily life making it a language with no native speakers. With all of these vast possibilities, how can you know for certain which language or dialect is best? 

The answer to this question is that there are no wrong answers and it is quite subjective because the best language to learn for you could depend on your access to certain languages, geographical location, how many languages you already speak, or even your phase of life. That being said, generally, human beings want to benefit from their work, thus you should first consider motives so that the outcome is in line with your goals. 

First and foremost, your motive for learning a new language must be determined so that your efforts are worth the means. Learning a new language can take a lot of time and effort, so your choice should benefit you per your goals. There are many reasons why someone might want to take on a new language, which I believe can fit into one of the four groups below. The first two groups are more practical while the latter two are more personal.

• Monetary (higher salary, job opportunities, working abroad)

• Communication (emigration, partner, social circles, connection)

• Personal Development (communication ability in own language, new perspectives, psychological development, love of learning)

• Cultural Interest 

Monetary & Communication Means

If you have monetary or communication intentions, you might feel your choice to be obvious and you need to simply consider which language is in the highest demand in your chosen work area or the language of your social circles, respectively. For example, if you are emigrating to Korea, picking up Korean may be the obvious answer. If you live in Michigan, which has the highest Arab American population in the US, pursuing Arabic, as arduous as that might sound to an English speaker, could significantly widen your horizon in terms of job opportunities as well as insight into an extremely rich culture.

As for communication intentions, maybe you are like me and have decided to enter into a relationship with someone from a different background or have a friend group from a different country. Perhaps you have wondered if learning their language will help you have a stronger connection, the answer to which is: yes. Not only that but it will help you understand their culture and their reasoning, which can have a profound positive impact on your communication. I have a whole article on the benefits of language learning on relationships here.

But, wait a minute. What if you reside in a cultural hotpot where there are multiple other languages spoken in your area and you have multiple friends from different backgrounds? What if multiple languages are in demand and you don't know how to choose? This guide is here to help you with just that!

Similarly to motives like personal development or cultural interest, you may find yourself at a crossroads and worried that you might choose the wrong language. It's a lot of time and effort that you worry may be washed down the drain. "What if the language just doesn’t mesh with me?" "How do I know if it’s a realistic language to learn for me?" "What if the language is too difficult and I give up?" "Should I consider practicality or interest?" These are all common concerns and I hope to help you answer these questions to get you started on your language-learning journey.

Five Factors to Consider

Described below are five factors that will help you choose the best language for you to learn right now as our lives change continuously, hence the subjectivity. They are in no particular order, and you may consider one factor and omit another. These five factors include: language familiarity, prominence, language family for ease, practicality vs interest, and challenging yourself. Keep in mind that your third and fourth languages will be easier to learn than your second (proven by science due to neural development and neuroplasticity), so you may want to try keeping the challenging ones for later!

Language Familiarity 

The most important thing to consider, in my opinion, especially if you are looking to learn your second language is language familiarity. As I’ve mentioned, the second language you set out to learn tends to be more difficult than others, so why not choose a language you are already familiar with? We don't want to get in over our heads with our second language and give up, so I recommend making it as seamless of an experience as possible. Think about which languages are most prominent in your surroundings. Which ones are you exposed to the most? For example, consider which languages your friends or coworkers speak or which languages are most accessible to you. For many Americans, this language may be Spanish as it is the second most commonly spoken language in the US, appears quite often in daily life, is a popular choice of music and is often learned in high school. In addition, it is quite likely that you have someone in your life or at least someone you are familiar with who speaks Spanish. This familiarity will give you a headstart and potentially give you the confidence you need to stick to your goals, preventing you from becoming discouraged.

So, why is language familiarity important? It is significantly easier to digest and learn a language that you already recognize the sound of, know a few words of, and hear in your daily life. Consistently hearing a language is extremely important in terms of learning because, if you think about it, that is how we learn our mother languages. We listen and repeat, listen and repeat for the first few years of our lives in which we obtain a huge language base. Trying to learn a language you have never heard before can throw you off, (especially if its your second language), because simple things like saying “hello” may sound extremely foreign to you. If you are new to language learning, this may make you feel like you have bitten off more than you can chew and make you want to give up. Whereas, if you live in Texas or Florida, you may be familiar with a good amount of Spanish words or phrases and have the ability to introduce yourself or ask for basic items. In addition, you may recognize words that you have heard throughout your life without realizing it; they are unconsciously familiar. Say you decide to learn Spanish and you come across the word "manzana." You know you’ve heard this word before, perhaps numerous times and  you then learn through your Spanish studies that it means "apple.” Since you have already been exposed to the word and you already had it in the storehouse, you find it substantially easier to lock into memory. A few days later, you are at the grocery store and you overhear the word “manzana” coming from the people next to you, which leads us to the next point. Language prominence.

Prominence 

First of all, a language that you do not use will be forgotten and it is very difficult to refine your language skills when you have no opportunity to practice. People study languages for years only to meet native speakers and not understand a word they say. It is an extremely frustrating, devastating blow that may derail your efforts entirely. It must be said that prominence in your area doesn’t necessarily mean that a language is prominent worldwide. However, whether a language is locally or worldly prominent would still result in someone around you speaking the language. For instance, Spanish is not locally prominent in my current area, extremely scarce, I might add. However, it is worldly prominent which means there are still a couple of people around me who can speak the language, including my husband. Having someone to practice with is extremely helpful in building confidence when speaking and just having someone to ask about whether or not your speaking is comprehensive can make a huge difference, giving you a sense of certainty that what you are saying isn’t weird or embarrassing. In addition, as I mentioned in the grocery store example, hearing the language in your environment helps significantly because you have more exposure to it and you are more likely to hear words that you've already learned, locking them into memory. Secondly, learning a prominently spoken language will definitely give you an edge at your next job interview and perhaps be the thing that sets you apart from other candidates. The benefits of this are obvious: you kill two birds with one stone by learning a language out of personal interest and benefiting monetarily.

Another important thing to note is that commonly spoken languages, especially worldly prominent ones, are more likely to have ample free resources online which you can utilize to enhance your skills and speed up the process. These resources can make a huge difference in your progress since there is a plethora of sources for different levels of grammar, vocabulary, listening practice, and the like. For example, when searching for specific grammar rules or listening practice for my level in Turkish, the pickings are slim and I only have a few topics to choose from. I have a similar issue when I try to find reading materials in Afrikaans. However, one night, out of curiosity, I looked up an introductory course to Mandarin and, I’m telling you, the resources were like Manna from heaven. Abundant and never-ending, whenever you need it. For your interest, below is a list of some of the top-spoken languages in the world today.

Most common world languages 2023:

1. English - 1.4 billion speakers

2. Mandarin - 1.1 billion speakers

3. Hindi - 602 million speakers

4. Spanish - 548 million speakers

5. French - 280 million speakers

6. Modern Standard Arabic - 274 million speakers

7. Bengali - 272 million speakers

8. Russian - 258 million speakers

If you have monetary motives, you may feel that learning a language like Spanish is all too common and may not give you the edge you are looking for. If you live in the US, here is a map by WordFinder X of the most prominent languages in every state other than Spanish or English. You may be surprised by what you see and inspired to branch out from the usual choices.

Language family 

If you currently speak one language, I recommend choosing a language that is in the same family, or the same branch, as your native tongue. The reason for this is that languages from the same family have a common ancestor thus grammatical structures tend to be more similar as well as the sound of the language, making it easier to comprehend, remember, and put to use. Language families then break off into branches of more closely related languages as language families can be quite large. For example, if your first language is French, you could choose a language from the Indo-European language family consisting of over 400 languages (including dialects) which would include languages like Irish (from the Celtic branch), Russian (from the Slavic branch), or English (from the Germanic branch). For more ease, you could choose from the same family branch increasing lexical similarity which, concerning French, would be the Romance branch (a further subdivision of the Latin branch) and would include languages such as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. French and English have less than 50% lexical similarity, despite being from the same family, while lexical similarity between languages in the same branch like Spanish and French are upwards of 75%, which means a high percentage of words are very similar.

Concerning English, languages like Dutch and German, both from the German branch, have around 60% lexical similarity and have many words that resemble English words such as “huis” (house), “bier” (beer),"vriend” (friend), “nee” (no), “ja” (yes), and many others. As you can probably tell, words with such similarities are easier to remember than ones that pose very little, if any, resemblance as is the case with languages like Turkish; the word for “house” is “ev” and the word for “friend” is “arkadaş.” Turkish is a member of the Altaic group, making it non-related to European languages and more similar to other members of the same group such as Japanese and Korean (debated). If venturing to a different language family sounds interesting to you, the next point is for you.

There are 142 language families in the world, and it seems that the number of MAJOR language families is debated to be between 6-8. Here are a few language families and their branches for you to get some inspiration from and you could perhaps use this to determine which of the other top languages in the US would be easier for you to learn.

Challenge Yourself

Learning a language from a different language family, with completely different grammar, and possibly even a different alphabet is a surefire way to give you a brand new perspective of communication and culture. It gives you deep insight into the communication facets of your own language and can actually help you explain things more clearly because you begin to understand why, culturally, things are communicated in certain ways. This is a challenge for a reason as it will really test your reasoning and compel you to make sense of things that do not exist in your own language or perhaps do not exist in the language you wish to learn. For example, Turkish is a suffix-based language and there is a specific suffix that you add for gossip or things you didn’t witness yourself. Adding this suffix when I speak in Turkish gives me more awareness of when I am spreading hearsay and often makes me feel quite ashamed. It is as if you are exposed immediately, or exposing yourself for talking about others or about events you only heard about. 

Despite the differences and big leaps you will probably need to take to make sense of your new language, it is an incredibly insightful endeavor that can expose you to cultures in much more depth than you might have been by just spending time in said country. If you are up to the task, try learning a language based on a culture you are interested in or one that is entirely different from your own. For example, if you are really into Anime and you want to challenge yourself to a new language, you could take on Japanese. Perhaps you are super into the post-communism countries of Eastern Europe and find yourself flirting with the idea of speaking in Czech while you do your shopping in Prague. You may be a nature fanatic and find the jungles of Uganda and their gorilla populations fascinating, leading you to dabble in Swahili. You get the point.

Interest vs Practicality

Upon considering all of the points, you may have landed at a place where you have a couple of languages in mind. Again, this is a time-consuming endeavor, so you feel that it is important to make the right decision. When you have two equally practical languages in mind, either one would be beneficial as your motives probably lean more to the communication and monetary side, considering your practical choices. In this case, you might consider choosing the language that you are either more familiar with or the one that you are personally more interested in. The main issue you might face is when you are passionate about one language, but your second choice is more practical. Say for instance you love the sound of Portuguese and hope to visit Portuguese-speaking countries one day such as Mozambique or Brazil. Having the ability to speak this language enthralls you and it is a prominent world language. However, Spanish is much more commonly spoken in your area, as well as in the world and it could benefit you in the workplace. Should you follow your passion or be more practical? Well, in this case, I would refer back to your motives. If personal development or cultural interest is your main goal, then follow your passion. If you want to increase communication and your job opportunities as well as travel with more ease, choose the more practical choice. If you still don’t know what you want, you can figure it out by flipping a coin. Heads for Portuguese and tails for Spanish. If it lands on heads, and you feel disappointed, that means you truly want to learn Spanish.

Maybe you have other factors involved such as already speaking a less common language. Take me for example, I am currently sitting at the intersection of learning either French or Spanish. Both are from the same language family as English, and both Spanish and French are from the same Romance branch. Spanish would be more practical for me since I already have a decent base of Spanish. In addition, I plan to move back to the US in the future where Spanish is the second most spoken language, I have friends who speak Spanish, and I already speak two other less common languages causing me to want to dabble in something more practical. The problem is, I love how French sounds, how it seems to flow like water off the tongue, and I’m obsessed with the seeming grace that it carries. I love that it's the language of romance and anyone who knows me knows that I live for romanticization. I know a few phrases in French myself, but it is not spoken at all in the area I am now or in the area I plan to live in the future. Passion or practicality? Should I just learn both? Which first? When I asked myself just now (as writing this out has made me more confused) what my motives were, I realized that my motives fit all four groups. What a pickle. So, what is most important to me? Well, I've come to realize, at this time in my life, my practical motives seem to weigh the heaviest as I really want to be able to communicate with the Spanish-speaking community where I plan on living in the future and I hope to travel with more ease when I visit South America again. As I hope to accomplish this goal sooner rather than later and it relates more to my near future, I've found that Spanish is the better choice for me right now. Perhaps I can pick up French later on down the road. Just like that, the verdict is in. What an emotional rollercoaster.

Key points

Trying to decide which language to learn can be overwhelming and fear of time going down the drain often prevents us from taking our first steps. This guide will help you to make a choice that you can be happy with. What we don’t want is to get discouraged by starting out with a language that is too difficult. This happens all the time and someone might change their mind about learning altogether. To avoid this, remember to consider your motivations for learning and then decide on a language based on which languages you are already familiar with, which languages are most common in your immediate environment, and which languages have similarities to your own. Of course, learning a language completely different from your own is an honorable feat and I do not discourage it. I only wish to help you make a choice that will allow you to see progress, encouraging you to continue learning so you do not waste your time or energy. If you are still confused about which language to choose, remember to refer back to your motivations to see which is the most important to you in the present moment.