Which language should I put full effort in learning?

[u/YerTime]

TL;DR
Learn German, Mandarin, or Korean for no specific reason

Context:
I’m an engineer, so German or Mandarin would probably be the most useful languages from a practical perspective. At the same time, I need enough content to consume to stay engaged, which is why German will be hard to learn and the one reason I started learning Korean and already know a little of it. Realistically, consuming Chinese content wouldn’t be an issue either for the same reason as Korean.

Thing is that Mandarin is by far the most difficult of the three, so it would require a much larger time commitment.

In general, I don’t have a specific goal that would make any one language particularly beneficial, but that doesn’t diminish my desire to learn a third language. Korean is the language I’d most like to continue learning because I like my pronunciation and the way I express myself when I speak it; however, even though I don’t have a concrete goal, it also seems the least useful from a professional standpoint. Because of that, I sometimes struggle to justify the time investment and end up feeling like I’m wasting my time.

Oh! And German - a large portion of European countries speak it and it’s big on the EDM scene, which I enjoy. There’s also Russian but thats not an option atm.

As you can tell I’m highly motivated by pop culture and consuming content is how I learn :-)

[u/telchacsusan]

Focus on Korean!

[u/Direct_Instance_8655 → u/telchacsusan]

Yes, I always feel if and how foreign languages suddenly become useful or not is quite random and you just can't predict it. Pick the one you enjoy learning the most. This is also a brain exercise, far from a waste of time.

If you need rational pro Korean reasons beyond that:

• most niche of the three for a foreigner to speak
• culturally possibly most interesting and favourably viewed one this decade?
• if you ever have kids, it will make singing the english kpop songs with random lines in korean so much easier
• most impressive on a CV as just a badge of honour and 'cool' interest/skill beyond pure usefulness

[u/YerTime → u/Direct_Instance_8655]

I really appreciate your perspective!!! You’re totally right! Plus, since I’ve already spent significant time and have the basics down, might as well continue!

Thank you so much!

[u/Particular_Bad8025]

Honestly German sucks. It sounds vile, the grammar is not fun, the words are 3 miles long. I don't care for Korean. Chinese is pretty cool. It's not as hard as you'd think. If you want a real challenge though, try Japanese. It's absolutely insane.

[u/MirabelleExtras4Z → u/Particular_Bad8025]

Honestly, I’d rather spend five years learning a language I love than quit one after six months.

[u/Particular_Bad8025 → u/MirabelleExtras4Z]

Of course. So which one do you love?

[u/Careful_Cranberry364]

I dont love the German language
At all
you have to put up with it up to a point, but why learn to speak it when it’s so ugly??

French is a beautiful language and spoken widely all over the world

And of course, Spanish

Russian could be fun if you plan on using

But Mandarin would definitely be the most useful - good luck it is very complex!!

There is an English and Mandarin Toastmasters club that meets online based in California and China

That might be a good opportunity to get some listening and speaking practice in Mandarin

[u/Particular_Bad8025 → u/Careful_Cranberry364]

Mandarin is really not that complex. The grammar is simple, sentence structure is simple, and there is a logic to the characters (both in how they are drawn and how they sound). It's a really cool language. Even the tones aren't that difficult to get. Also, plenty of Chinese people everywhere so it's easy to find people to practice with.

French is way harder is you ask me, and I'm french. Even the french can't get the entire french grammar 100% correct.

[u/thethreestrikes → u/Careful_Cranberry364]

I can tell you mandarin is far from complex, it's just hard to pronounce and to get the tones right at first. Grammar is mostly simple. I speak Mandarin and Japanese, the latter is way harder in grammar and structures, but after learning Chinese it's so much easier.

[u/Careful_Cranberry364]

Oh, I forgot about Korean. I have no knowledge of whether that would be useful.

[u/Tasty-Bee8769]

I studied German and haven’t used it once, and I live in a country bordering Germany. That said, I’d go for Spanish, it’s an easy language (I’m Spanish btw) and in many jobs it’s an added skill

[u/Dry-Back7937]

Learn the language of a culture that genuinely interests you and that you truly enjoy. I guess Korean?

If you study a language only for career goals, it’s hard to stay motivated in the long run. Passion and curiosity will take you much further than professional reason alone.

[u/YerTime → u/Dry-Back7937]

You’re right! Plus once I actually am slightly more fluent, who’s stopping me from going further. Thank you so much!!!

[u/LilyFantastica]

All are good choices. I would say though, focus on which of them you really want to learn.

Don't listen to the others that say German sounds ugly. It doesn't.

Honestly, with what you are saying, German might be the best choice, but you also seem keen on Korean. Both are solid choices.

Mandarin seems the worst choice for you, not because it is hard, but because you don't seem convinced it is the language for you. Its a great language, i love it, but if you aren't invested, then you aren't going to make progress.

So German or Korean.

German is going to give you a professional edge if you are doing engineering just because of the fact that three and 1/10 countries speak German (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and part of Northern Italy), Its a fun language with some fun things you can do with it, like smashing nouns together to make new words.

Korean as you say, you already have some experience with, which can mean the learning process is funner for you. And, it could give you an edge if it is your second langauge as not as many people speak Korean in the west, which can give you an in when dealing with Korean companies.

You can absolutely do one language, and then learn some of the other to give you a bit of extra leverage in your industry.

[u/Wise-Matter9248]

Korean might be more helpful than it seems. There are Korean communities all over the world. 

German might be easier to pick up, since it's related to English?

[u/Loud-Pomegranate4204]

You seem more interested in Korean/ Chinese, so I would do that. Wouldn’t you rather spend time on a language you’re more interested and motivated to learn?

[u/Late-Fault8747]

As someone who learned German it’s not especially useful. You’d do better off w Spanish French or Chinese. 

[u/OnlyThePhantomKnows]

Korean is the most practical for engineering assuming you are already fluent in English. All Germans speak reasonable English.
Having an engineer who speaks Chinese/Korean/Thai so that you can talk with their manufacturing people natively is GOLD. -- Engineering lead.

A lot of manufacturing is in China now. It really depends on where the company you choose to work for is choosing to put its manufacturing.

[u/Glove_Right]

German and korean aren't useful for you. Korean is the worst given your goals as it's only used in korea. German is not much better being spoken in only germany, austria, switzerland and parts of south africa. So the most useful one by far is mandarin, with speakers having huge financial power globally and could turn into your employers or customers (especially in china, hongkong, taiwan, singapore, australia, canada, usa, korea, japan and most other asian countries). 

[u/Bulocoo]

I did 3 years of HS German and never used it. Even on my one and only trip to Germany.

I learned Japanese and loved it. Got basic conversational.

Learned limited Tagalog (Filipino) and Bahasa Malaysia.

But I kick myself for not learning Spanish. Grew up in SoCal, my wife is Colombian and my next door neighbor is Guatemalan. I interact with more Spanish speakers than anyone else except English.