Best foreign language to learn? (for an American)

Originally Posted by Joe Wiewel

Chinese - China's economy is growing at a tremendous rate, not to mention that it has the largest population of people in the world. Trouble is, I really don't know that much about China (culture, etc.) and I hear the language is hard to learn in all areas - listening, speaking, reading and writing. Not to mention I'm not really sure if it will help me all that much as many people I've talked to say that it will be awhile (a couple of decades) before China becomes a big enough influence for their language to be applicable.

I believe China will have incredible world influence in less than a decade. I don't know if that warrants learning their language though. If I were to learn a language, I think I'd choose Italian or Latin, but that's not one of the ones you're thinking about learning. Of course I don't think about it as methodically as you do and I just go by what language I would like to know how to speak instead of what would help me out. I hope you enjoy whichever language you choose to learn.

Jam it back in, in the dark.