Second language for survival skill

[Scythe13]

The title says it all, I guess.

Just a litle curious what languages people would recommend.

I speak a bit of many languages, so picking one up will be easy enough.

Just curious what language would you most like to be proficient in for survival?

[Highlander]

Well that's easy, the only one I speak...

[Metroyeti]

Wish I could speak another language, tried but I just dont provess it. Always fancied Arabic, plenty of translator jobs advertised in the uk, but jobs over there are big bucks and being able to speak the lin[/align]go is extreamly useful.

[Tarrel]

Depends how you define "Survival". If we're thinking about being marketable in a fast-changing world where the economic centres of gravity are changing, then I'd say Mandarin or Spanish, to give you access to the fast growing South American and Asian job markets. Another possibility is Russian, as this is the "Rosetta Stone" that will give you an understanding of many of the eastern european, balkan and baltic languages. It will also give you an understanding of the Cyrillic alphabet, which in itself is useful.

35 years ago, when I did my business and engineering degree, we all learnt German, as Germany was seen as the economic powerhouse with which we would need to do business. Now, however, I think it's a bit of a blind alley. Influential as Germany is in the EU, the language is not that important on the World stage. likewise French. Traditionally the language of diplomacy, and widely spoken in North Africa, but probably not that useful where the economic action is.

If we're thinking about other aspects of survival, then the question is a trickier one.

Considering bugging out to mainland Europe WTSHTF? probably French or Russian.
Heading to Scandinavia to outrun climate chaos? swedish or Norwegian.

Bear in mind that, whatever language you choose, it will take a long time to become fluent and lose the accent, so don't expect to blend in. However, having just a few words of the language of a country you are visiting, sends a powerful message that you want to be accepted.

HTH.

[Metroyeti]

Well said tarrel theres a big difference between classes and actualy speaking it, look at how many regional accents has and its a small country

[NorthernRaider]

Ich bein ein Geordie

Volais vo Mackem ?

I can barely do English never mind another language. but if we are to learn a foreign language it should probably be Urdu, Gujerati or Hindi to appease our future masters.

[Tarrel]

Auf Wiedersehen, pet!

[bigpaul]

i'm perfectly happy with the 1 i've got, thank you.

[Skean Dhude]

English is the universal language. To prepare for an event I would look at the demographics around where I was looking to stay before I chose but it is unlikely that any language you chose would be that useful. Demographics are such you would understand them saying 'Let's cut off his head, rape his children and steal his food' although I'm not clear on the benefit.

[bigpaul]

most people around here speak English, some with a very broad Devon accent although they are in the minority.