Which foreign language should I learn?

Japanese.

It's relatively easy. The grammar of Japanese is in many ways simpler than that of European languages. Japanese nouns have no genders, plural forms, or accompanying articles to learn. The language also has only two verb tenses, present and past, and includes very few irregular verbs. Spoken Japanese has only 5 vowel sounds and spelling is phonetically consistent, making the language relatively easy to pronounce.

The difficult thing is the writing system. It is very different from English or any other European language. It takes a lot of time to memorize those kanji (Chinese characters) and you would need to memorize a lot of them.

Unfortunately, there is a strong stereotype that Japanese is "difficult" or "impossible". And as another poster said, this stereotype is widely held and promoted by the Japanese themselves, who often view their language as a source of pride. But don't let that get in the way of learning Japanese. There are many rewards to doing so.

Which language to learn?

Today, the Japanese are learning English, the Koreans are learning English, yet until recently very few native English speakers studied Korean or Japanese. The typical argument was that those languages are too difficult to master and are spoken only in one country. The Japanese have contributed to that sentiment by insisting that their language is very special and that outsiders can never penetrate and master it. In reality, Japanese is not impossible to learn if people are determined. The same is true for Korean and Chinese (although you indicate you’re not interested in learning Chinese). Today an increasing number of schools are offering Japanese and Korean.

The language you choose will depend on your goals and purposes. If you don’t have a specific reason to study a particular language, you might want to decide on the basis of political and economic importance in the world. Some people might argue that if your native language is English, you should choose German or Japanese because those two countries are very strong economically. Others would add Spanish (particularly because of the North American Free Trade Agreement), French, and Chinese. Others might argue that Russian is a good choice, or Arabic, because of the oil interests. The point is that you need to think of your goals and then choose the appropriate language. There is no right language, but there is no wrong language if you have good reasons.

What if you study French and then are sent to Japan on business? This is a realistic possibility. Many American companies still argue that they cannot send someone to a country just because that person is familiar with the culture and language of that country.

If you have mastered one foreign language, the second foreign language is easier. Therefore, even if you have the “wrong” language, you may find that it takes less time to gain facility in the second. In many cases, foreign businesspeople react negatively to the fact that an American speaks no foreign language rather than the wrong language. If the Japanese find out that you only have a few words in Japanese but are fluent in English, Spanish, and French, they may be less critical. Although ideally you would speak Japanese, at least you speak other languages; you have worked at languages and made the effort. The explanation, “I’m sorry, I do not speak Japanese, but I do speak French and Spanish,” will show that you are not the typical monolingual American.

Ideally, you should speak several languages fluently; that is, like the natives of the host country, you speak, write, understand, and think in the foreign language. That’s the ideal, but most people fall short of that goal. Although linguistic fluency is undoubtedly important and a great advantage in doing business with people from other cultures, it is not the only criterion. Equally important is cultural fluency. A person who speaks some Spanish but is knowledgeable abut the culture of Mexico will be more successful in doing business in Mexico than will a person who speaks Spanish fluently but knows little about Mexican culture. Cultural learning must accompany language learning. Some argue that by learning a foreign language one automatically is exposed to the culture. That is not necessarily true. All too many language courses are taught by teachers who have never been to the country or were there only a short period, possibly quite some time ago.

Well business and career wise, you have chosen the worst languages to hate. Spanish, French, and Chinese are the best languages to know in my opinion. Official languages of UN and more ppl speak these than any other in the world. I mean ...lets say you do move to UK or NZ..how many ppl ...employers....do you think you'll meet that speak Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Albanian, Korean, and German. Not that its impossible ... they are lots of investors from these nations but...why limit yourself.

The countries you are moving to speak English so I suppose you're okay there. Dont need to definitely learn a specific language.

From your list I'd chose Arabic and Japanese. For the challenge maybe?

I say, if you plan to move to The UK you should learn french. It's quite useful. German is also. French and German are the most spoken languages in the E.U. So I see why not those? Spanish will be great in america but abroad( meaning somewhere besides north and south america) there aren't really many spanish speakers. Albanian isn't really useful....Russian is, if you plan to move to eastern europe....which not many people willingly do. Arabic definitely but the conditions, where that language is spoken is not like america at all...

and if you move to new zealand, that's a different story...no language is useful there other than english and maori....So, it's your choice. German,French and Russian you can communicate with upwards of 600 million people

The question to ask yourself is this: How many countries have _____ as their mother tongue. You're not interested in Spanish or French, which more countries have Spanish or French as their mother tongue. English is spoken world wide in the business sectors, so most countries you're not going to have a problem.

If I had to choose, I wold probably speak German or Japanese. Germany is a major player on on the world business scene, it's not a common second language, it is spoken in several other countries besides Germany, and it will be easier for you to pick up than Russian, Korean, Arabic or some of the other languages on your list.

Probably. The UK is in Europe, so flights would require you to be able to speak in the language of the country you're going to, especially since you're going to be in that country to fly back to the UK. Well, I don't know the specifics but you won't only have English speaking passengers. Going back and forth from France and the USA, all the air hostesses were able to speak English and French from what I could see/hear especially when they make announcements. They said the same thing in both languages. In Paris, just about everyone who worked at Charles de Gaulle was able to speak English as well, even if it wasn't their native language which I could tell.

well ideally you should do spanish since thats the most useful in terms of work but if you don't want that, im not really sure what to suggest since your choices aren't really helpful in terms of jobs unless you stay in a certain country. for work, all the languages you didn't want to do are more useful, but i guess it depends on where you go. if you live in UK or New Zealand english is good enough. if u go somewhere middle eastern, arabic is good. the other ones are more narrower....if you really want to learn one of ur choices, go with what you are most interested in.

I would love to learn how to speak German. I believe with your limits of how your life is it would be the best language to learn. If you think deeper into your situation Japanese would be also be great. Everyone knows that Japanese are very corporate and that would help you in the business area.

if english is your first language you should learn german or dutch.

if spanish you should learn french, portuguese, or italian.

i know you're not interested, but it would be good for you to learn spanish because there are a lot of jobs out there that pay double if you can speak spanish. buena suerte!!