Joe Gold

I couldn't consider all languages, like Hindi in example, as I don't speak it, and nobody I know does...
But, let's say:

1. French (well, that's easy when you live in France?)
2. German
3. Spanish
4. Russian
5. English
6. Italian

That's just a subjective answer, to the question, which are the most important to me. (If you want to know, which ones I use the most, what is a different question, place English an Russian a little higher.)
For the other 5 languages, I don't speak them, and most people I know don't, so I could hardly put them on the list. (Though Arabic or Berber languages could be usefull here, but also Polish... And Japanese looks interesting.)

jackspeese

Certainly these are all widely spoken languages, and in the USA schools generally teach Spanish, French, and German, roughly in that order (and usually at least two out of the three), and these three are the most important for me personally, along with English, of course. Latin is also far from being a "dead" language, even though it has no native speakers. Some big schools also teach the others on the list as well, and at a big university you would probably find instruction in all of them. And if you work on a regular basis with the people who speak it, well, a language with relatively few native speakers (in comparison to those on this list), or a language spoken primarily in one region of the world, would be very important in that case.

femuse

that may be true, but I rarely meet people who are able to exchange a few words in French with me, besides "bonjour", "c'est la guerre" ( ?) et "au-ri-voir"

They do try, though, something like "I had 3 years of French in high school .... and I forgot everything" ... and the results are often pitiful.

Four months out of the year, we travel for business all over the North East, Maine to North Carolina, west to Ohio. We just meet "regular" folks, a real sample of the population (not "business" people who may be better educated).

The rare people we meet, who can really speak French are usualy Canadians.

My husband always comment on how many people in France & Belgium were speaking very good English.

I don't think that teaching foreign languages is much of a priority in the States. Too many still believe the old "shout loud enough in English and they will understand you" :D

Now, Spanish, that's another story.

The Hispanic population is growing, and there have been some push in a lot of States - for and against - to make Spanish a second Official language.
A lot, if not all, government agencies have Spanish hot lines, documents in Spanish,...etc.
A lot of groceries are labelled in both languages, instructions for a lot of products,... etc..

I do not speak any Spanish - but I can understand a lot of written words: it's useful when trying to understand, let's say, instructions translated from Chinese to English & Spanish ....

jackspeese

Like I said, these are what's taught, not necessarily what's learned! But seriously, I don't think it's so much that we don't place emphasis on language instruction as much as it has to do with the geography of our country...one can travel from New York to California, and northward through much of Canada, and hear nothing but English, whereas a person traveling a similar distance in Europe would likely hear several languages. It's also much easier for a European student to study for a semester or two, work, live, or all of the above, in a country where another language is spoken, especially with the European Community, whereas this is much more difficult for a US citizen, especially financially, due to the distance involved. A typical US citizen, even a professional, will likely grow up in, study in, travel in, and get a job in an English-speaking environment and thus have little exposure to another language, whereas a person from Belgium, even though French is also an international language, would very likely encounter many people from neighboring and nearby countries, either in business or vacationing, who speak another language. And you're right, Spanish is a very important language in the USA, and somewhat easier to learn for the very reasons you stated (lots of people who speak it, lots of things written in it everywhere...it's not too hard to find Spanish language magazines and books just about anywhere in the USA), which is why I did!

LOCONNOR

I would go for:
1:English
2: Cantonese
3: Spanish
4: Arabic
5: French
6: Dutch
7: German
8: Japanese
9: Punjabi
10: Russian
11: Urdu

I think that if we got rid of all languages apart from the top four, withing a few years no-one (apart from us dedicated linguists) would really be fussed. Most countries wioth less well-known lanhuages also use one of these top four, so they should be seen as most "inportant". Bear in mind that these are not my favourit languages by any stretch of the imagination!! I didn't even mention Italian or Tagalog.

Gigano

Off course Dutch is nr. 1 on my list, but I don't discriminate languages who are the lowest on my list.

1. Dutch (mine)
2. English (easiest one)
3. French (most beautful one)
4. Russian
5. Japanese
6. Italian
7. Spanish
8. Portugese
9. Chinese
10. German
11. Arab
12. Hindi

I find Dutch to be one of the most simple languages in terms of grammatics (for example; we don't care if a word is male or female).

__________________
Orbis non sufficit.

Hypophyse

Ok to answer your question,

1- Français French (my maternal language) I'm from Québec
2- German ( I'm gonna take classes of German but here in Montréal it is so difficult so find german teachers)
3- Spanich (hablo español no tan mal)
4- Russian ( I just no how to pronounce it and I find this language very beautiful to heard)
5- Greek
6- Italian
7-Polish
8- Tchèque (I don't know how to say it in english)
9- Portuguese
10- Inuktitut because these first nations of america are near from me
11- english ( I just but english here because everybody can understand you but here in Québec english is assimiling french so I don't put any words in english in a conversation.

Un dimanche au matin m'en r'venant voér les filles m'en r'venant d'voér les filles. Chu monté dins un arbre. S'tait pou s'tait pout s'tait pour y voir plus loin aujourd'hui je m'en vas et demain je reviens.

Maxime Qui adore sa langue maternelle et qui la respecte