Best languages to learn after English

German — Deutsch

German is the official language in six countries: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium, with 76 million native speakers. The language of Heine and Goethe is the second most widespread in Europe^[3]. The total number of German speakers around the world is almost 135 million^[4], and another 15 million are learning it as you are reading these lines.

Features of the German language

Difficulty level: 1

German is related to English and other Germanic languages: Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish. Moreover, 60% of the vocabulary of German coincides with English^[4]. So if you already know English, it will not be so difficult to learn new vocabulary. And then it will be much easier for you to start speaking Scandinavian languages.

Although German is far from the most difficult language, it has its own challenges. To begin with, it is famous for long compound words: they often include more than two roots. For example, the word Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften means "insurance companies providing legal protection." One of the main difficulties in learning German is its grammar. Four cases and three grammatical genders, which are alien to an English speaker, and even articles are inflected. The complex conjugation system, a rigid word order — all this complicates the learning process.

Why learn German?

• Free education. One of the main reasons to learn German is for free education. For studying at all state universities, except for the state of Baden-Württemberg, you only need to pay a semester fee of 181-791 USD. It is also possible to study in English, but not all universities and not in all specialties have English-language undergraduate programs.
• Career. After university, it will be much easier to build a career with the German language. The most in-demand specialties in Germany are programmers, electronics engineers, IT consultants, economists, architects and nurses^[5]. The unemployment rate among foreigners is only 5.6%, while the European average is 14.9%^[6]. Finding a job in Germany has become easier after the priority check system was canceled, according to which local residents had an advantage over foreigners in employment.
• Immigration. To obtain German citizenship, you must have lived in the country for 8 years without a break. At the same time, the years spent at the university count towards all federal states, except Bavaria.

Resources for learning German

• Deutsch Online — a site with study materials for different levels
• vhs-Lernportal — free courses for A1-B2 levels

French — Français

The French language has a rich history. Once it was the international language of diplomacy and aristocracy, it was spoken in all European capitals. But from the beginning of the 20th century, English began to replace it in this role. And although French has now lost ground, it is still a truly international language: it is spoken by 267 million people, holding 7th place by the number of speakers, and is recognized as an official language by the UN and 29 former French and Belgian colonies. In modern culture, French has become famous for cinema, music, continental philosophy and literature. French writers have won the most Nobel Prizes in the world.

Features of the French language

Difficulty level: 2

French is famous for its beautiful phonetics, but it is not easy to enunciate: there are many sounds absent in English. In oral speech, different words are linked into one according to special rules, and because of this, it is difficult for beginners to understand what the speaker is saying. This phonetic phenomenon is called liaison. Grammar is also difficult: nouns and adjectives are agreed by gender and number, and verbs have 18 tenses. Each has its own rules of formation and exceptions.

But for English speakers French words will be easier. You already know some of them: there are lots of borrowings in English. In addition, after French, it will be easy to learn Spanish and Italian, because these languages ​​are related — they all descended from Latin.

Why learn French?

• Travels. You can learn French at least for the sake of travelling. In addition to France, it will be useful in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada, Monaco and 30 other African and Asian countries.
• The affordable education. In France, education is relatively inexpensive: cheaper than in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Prices in all state universities are fixed, a year of study for a Bachelor's degree costs 3,130 USD, for a Master's degree — 4,260 USD. And the PhD program will cost only 429 USD per year. Bear in mind that France is not the cheapest country. Living expenses per month are at least 1,130 USD.
• Career. To build a career in France, you can't do without French. The French do not know English well. Therefore, even from tourists, they expect a minimum level of language mastery, and more so from migrants. The most popular professions in France, according to LinkedIn, are cybersecurity specialist, artificial intelligence specialist and real estate agent^[7]. However, the unemployment rate among foreigners is quite high — 13.1%. For comparison, in the UK it is only 4.3%^[6].
• Migration. To obtain citizenship, you need to live in the country for five years. But if you graduated from a French university, then the term is automatically reduced by three years.

French Resources

• TV 5 Monde — materials for learning French at any level
• BBC Learning French — a French course for beginners from the BBC

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Russian — Русский

The first language to have ever been spoken outside of Earth’s atmosphere is also the 8th most spoken one in the world^[15]. It’s the most widespread one in Eurasia^[16] and the language with the largest number of native speakers in Europe — at 258 million speakers worldwide. Russian is officially recognized in the majority of former Soviet republics and satellites, and is the de-facto lingua franca throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States. It has many more utility than it might initially seem — from being used as language of business communication with Russian partner companies, to moving to the country in pursuit of lower tax rates and entrepreneurship opportunities. In addition, you might be surprised by the amount of Russian communities outside of the national borders. For example, there are huge communities of Imperial Russia refugees in Latin America, who have been living there since the 1920s^[17].

Features of the Russian language

Difficulty level: 3

Russian is commonly considered to be one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker to learn, right up there with Arabic and Chinese. The alphabet is oddly similar, and yet different. For example, the letter [B] is read as the English [V], not [B]. That sound is indicated in Russian with the letter [Б]. Word stress is hard to understand, as the pronunciation rules are very vague. As a final stroke, there are six entire grammatical cases — and everything needs to be conjugated and agreed accordingly. However, things are not as grim as they might appear at first glance.

For instance, the word order is very flexible — you won’t mess up the meaning of the sentence if you change the word placement. This is mostly thanks to the aforementioned case system. There are no articles, and the verb "to be" is not used in the present tense — once you understand the inflections, is never a problem to make sentences, tovarisch! Another pleasant feature — to change a phrase from a question into a statement and vice versa, you simply need to change the intonation.

Why learn Russian?

• Tourism. Russia is a marvelous place when it comes to sightseeing. Stretching 6800 kilometres from West to East, and with its 1000 year history, the country shows no shortage of either historical or natural locations of interest. However, outside of major tourist directions and the largest cities, the general population speaks English quite poorly — only 3% of Russians are fluent speakers^[18]. So without knowing the local language, you likely won’t be able to truly appreciate the diversity of the country.
• Affordable education. Russia can be characterized as a study destination with a great balance of price and quality — while there are numerous universities with modern high standards of education, the prices generally stay below the threshold of 2,260 USD/year. In addition, there are many state-funded seats, and even separate quotas for foreign students. This makes medical education in Russia one of the most affordable in the world. On the downside, Russian degrees are reluctantly recognized in Europe, and a graduate will need to undergo the process of legalization, often even pass qualification exams in order to work outside of the country.
• Migration. Though it doesn’t seem obvious, Russia is an appealing place to migrate to for many reasons. Apart from the interest in local culture and nature, they can be purely pragmatic — in Russia, you will need to pay significantly less taxes^[19], than in countries of the EU or in the USA — between 4 and 15% on turnover. At the same time, you will live in rather European surroundings — four seasons of the year, familiar fashion and food, and Romano-Greek cultural backbone. To move to Russia, you will need to get a permanent residence permit and stay in the country for 5 years, without spending more than three months per year outside of the country.

Resources for learning Russian

• Russia Today — A comprehensive course for beginners
• Easy Russian — A youtube channel about the Russian language and culture

Chinese — 中文

Chinese is the largest language in the world by the number of native speakers, and in terms of the total number of speakers it is only slightly smaller than English^[20]. But most of them live in China, and very few in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Once, Chinese had already been an "international" language in East Asia — it was used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Now, along with the growth of the PRC's economy, interest in Chinese is also growing: in 2012, 5 million people took the HSK language test, and by 2018 the number had grown to almost 7 million^[21].

Features of the Chinese language

Difficulty level: 4

There are two main difficulties in learning Chinese. The first is the tone system that replaces the stress we are accustomed to. Don't worry, though, the Chinese phonetics can be understood by anyone. You just need to give it a little time and effort.

The second difficulty is writing. You will have to learn hieroglyphs all the time, especially if you are going to get higher education in China. There is nothing you can do to avoid it. True, modern computers and telephones make life much easier: characters can be typed using the Latin alphabet (Pinyin), you only need to memorize their reading. In fact, you need to be able to recognize them, but writing by hand is no longer so important. And knowledge of hieroglyphs is not required for vocal communication. Another good thing: the grammar in Chinese is easy. You don't need to memorize conjugations, there is no grammatical agreement either — everything is expressed using just word order.

About 70% of the PRC's population speak the standard dialect, which is also sometimes called "Mandarin." But the remaining 30% is 400 million people. Many of them speak dialects that are very different from the standard language. A resident of Beijing and a southerner may simply not understand each other.

Why learn Chinese?

• Affordable education. According to Project Atlas, almost 500 thousand foreign students study in China^[22] — 2 times more than 10 years ago. Six Chinese universities are included in the top 100 of the QS Best Universities Ranking. And all this at relatively low prices: 2,000-4,000 USD per year.
• Scholarships. Both the state and universities in China provide scholarships for international students that cover up to 100% of the costs. With knowledge of Chinese, the chances of getting funding are higher.
• Career at home. Despite the fact that China's cooperation with other countries is growing, only 1% of the population speaks English in China^[23]. Therefore, the demand for specialists with the Chinese language is continuously rising.
• Career in China. Translators and English teachers are in great demand in China. Teachers are paid an average of 2,722 USD per month^[24], but the figure may be higher for native speakers. It will be easier for people from IT or engineering professions to build a career with knowledge of the language. Local companies rarely employ people who do not speak Chinese in leadership positions. But keep in mind that for this you will have to move to the PRC, and life there is not suitable for everyone.

Resources for learning Chinese

• Coursera — Chinese courses at different levels
• Chineasy — a language learning app with audio and video exercises

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Japanese — 日本語

There are 126 million native speakers in Japan. Interest in the Japanese language is increasing throughout the world: the number of language courses for foreigners in Japan doubled from 120,000 in 2012 to 240,000 in 2017^[29]. Many people start learning the language due to their passion for manga, anime and video games. Others do it out of interest in classical painting, literature, or martial arts. Still, there are career prospects: Japan speaks English rather poorly, but due to japantimes.co.jp/opinion/demographic problems-commentary/looking-overseas-solve-japans-labor-shortage/, it is in dire need of foreign workers.

Features of the Japanese language

Difficulty level: 4

There is a popular belief that Chinese and Japanese languages ​​are similar, but in fact this is a big delusion. The two countries are really close culturally and geographically, but between the languages there are more differences than similarities. The Japanese writing system consists not only of hieroglyphs, but also of two syllabic alphabets, which add up to a total of 92 characters. Function words, pronouns, endings and foreign borrowings are written with them. Japanese grammar, unlike Chinese, is very complex. You will find many things unusual:

• the predicate is always at the end of a sentence;
• 12 grammatical cases;
• lack of grammatical gender, number and person markers;
• there are only two tenses — the past and the non-past.

But the pronunciation will not be so difficult. Japanese is a phonetically poor language with fewer sounds than most others.

Why Learn Japanese?

• Government scholarships. The Japanese government generously funds students who want to study in Japan and master the Japanese language. MEXT scholarships cover full tuition and living expenses. You can study in both undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Career in Japan. After graduating from a university in Japan, a former student can change the visa status from “student” to “work,” but for this you need to find a job. The unemployment rate is very low — only 2.29%^[30]. Due to problems with demographics, the Japanese government expects that the country will lack 1.3 million workers in the coming years^[31]. Therefore, given the knowledge of the Japanese language, it is quite possible to find a job. The most demanded specialties are IT experts, investors, sales specialists, and engineers^[32].
• Immigration. After five years of working and living in Japan, a foreigner can apply for citizenship. It is not easy to get it: there is a huge amount of paperwork, the whole process can take from six months to a year. You will also have to renounce the citizenship of your home country.

Resources for Learning Japanese

• Tofugu — a site with various materials on the Japanese language. You can start learning the Japanese alphabet — hiragana — immediately
• Japanesepod101.com — podcasts
• Tangorin is a dictionary of Japanese kanji characters

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Korean — 한국어

81 million people speak Korean in only two countries — North and South Koreas. Despite this, in recent decades, Korean culture and products have flooded the global market. This phenomenon has even been called the "Korean Wave." Thanks to K-Pop, TV-dramas and manhwa, the number of Korean learners is growing. In the USA, for example, over 20 years it has increased by 85 times: from 163 to 14,000 people^[33].

Features of the Korean language

Difficulty level: 4

In the Korean language, unlike Chinese and Japanese, not hieroglyphs are used, but a phonetic alphabet — Hangul. There are only 24 letters in it, so it won't be difficult to learn. But the grammar and phonetics for native speakers of Germanic languages will be unusual: there are many overlapping suffixes and unfamiliar sounds. Another hallmark of Korean is polite speech. To use the language at work, you will have to memorize special polite words and phrases. There are seven styles of courtesy in Korean.

Why Learn Korean?

• Government scholarships. The Korean government is offering international students the Global Korea Scholarship. It fully covers the costs of tuition, room and board.
• Career. After graduating from a university in Korea, you can change your visa status and stay in the country, but for this you need to find a job and meet all the conditions. In recent years, Korea has tightened the rules, making it harder to get a work visa. But if you specialize in programming, architecture, or marketing, and speak Korean, chances are better. Korean is also useful outside of the country, for working in a Korean company or as a translator. There are very few Korean language specialists, so you won't be left without a job.
• Immigration. South Korea is a modern country with a high standard of living. In terms of GDP per capita, it even surpasses Japan^[34]. Therefore, moving there for many will mean an increase in income. But getting Korean citizenship is not easy. To do this, you need to live in the country for at least 5 years, have an income of 30 million won and speak Korean fluently. The process of obtaining citizenship itself takes one and a half to two years.

Resources for learning Korean

• How to learn Korean — materials for learning the Korean alphabet. The authors promise that you will learn it in an hour
• Rocket Languages — courses in Korean and other languages ​​for various levels
• Korean Listening Practice — Korean podcasts

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