Which languages should you learn to converse with locals when you travel the world?

Question

Arabic - for all of middle east (+ moroccan)

African - All of Africa

English - USA, America, Canada, Australia

French - Algeria, France, Belgium

Urdu/Bengali/Sri Lankan - Pakistan, India, Nepal, Balgladesh, Sri Lanka

Indonesian/Malay/Thai/Chinese/Japanese... Far East

Any others?

Answer 1

German. After English, it is spoken by more people in Europe.

Answer 2

spanish would be a good one.

as for africa they don't all speak one african language and not all of asia or the far east speak urdu, bengali or sri lanken.

i'm a bit confused by this question as if you want to converse with locals you should most likely learn the local dialect of wherever it is you're going.

Answer 3

You forgot Spanish - the third most widely spoken language in the world

There are no such languages as African and Sri Lankan,

Answer 4

For Africa you need at least Arabic for North-Africa (Including Marocco), French for the former French colonies (like Marocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo), English for the former English colonies, and Swahili, an old trading language in East and Middle Africa.

Answer 5

Spanish could prove useful in various different places. Europe, South-America...

Answer 6

Hi!

Well first of all, there is no language called "African" considering we speak   1000s of languages in Africa and 11 alone in South Africa....

I think Korean, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish would be a good addition to your list...(especially for Europe) its very useful.

:)  

Answer 7

i honestly and seriously doubt anybody would learn all the languages when travelling the world...

it just isn't possible....

i'd just learn the most commmon lanuages spoken...

english,spanish and french-there's bound to be at least 1 person in the country ur visiting who can speak those languages....

it's not like your moving to those conntries-you don't have to learn the lanuage!!!

Answer 8

It's always nice to at least learn the basics-hello, please, thank you etc. African is not a language by the way! There are around 2000 different languages spoken throughout Africa, so good luck with that! I can speak French, German, Italian & Spanish so that covers me for some of Europe and bits of South America! You have missed out quite a few of the languages that are spoken in the areas which you mentioned too - French in Canada,  Armenian, Syriac, Azeri, Berber languages, Circassian, Persian, Gilaki language and Mazandarani languages, Hebrew in its numerous varieties, Kurdish, Luri, Turkish and other Turkic languages, Urdu, Punjabi, Somali & Greek are spoken in the Middle East.There are also 20+ languages or so spoken in the Far East.

That's a lot of learning!!!

Answer 9

Spanish [Latin America, Spain, South America, Equatorial Guinea (plus places like the United States)]

Portuguese [Portugal, Brazil, Timor Lorosae, some regions in Indonesia, China and India, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guine-Bissau, São Tomé e Princípe][Of course, in some of those, Portuguese is the minority langauge, such as China]

Answer 10

Hi

Marhaba!!

I'm Ibrahim El Shafey

I've learned Arabic and Islamic Sciences: (philosophy - history - language - rhetoric - ... etc.)

Also, I learned a little in other sciences: (human development - NLP - communication skils - direct marketing - ... etc.)

Now: I am prepare my master in the grammer of the Arabic language (El Nahw)

I'm now:

Arabic language teacher online

Adviser to the Arabic language in the

"www.alukah.com"

Lecturer in the direct marketing company

You will learn "the basic book in Arabic language" with other programmes..

I am working on the programme prepared by the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and siences- Tunisia

Thanks!!

Ibrahim El Shafey

Cairo - Egypt

0020109758962

[e-mail]

Answer 11

There are about 2000 languages spoken in Africa so that might be a few more than possible to learn!

Answer 12

Welsh for Wales? It's hard to get a job there in some professions without being able to speak it.

Answer 13

Try English - it might not get you a job at McDonalds but who wants to work there anyway?  

Answer 14

Portuguese...Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique.

Welsh..Wales and parts of Patagonia.

Answer 15

the difficulty here is that most of these countries have more than one language, indeed many have lots, and so its not a question of just learning say french which would be good but there are parts of france that speak a different dialect and that applies to all the countries virtually listed.  English is a language that is spoken across the world, in varying degrees.  

Answer 16

Just shout louder in English, it's worked for us British for centuries ;o)

Spanish would be a handy one in some parts of the world... like the USA!