What are the best languages to learn for the future? If you’re looking for a one language answer, this will disappoint. Find your best languages to learn here.

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The Best Languages to Learn for the Future

If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you already speak English.

Therefore, we’ll focus on languages other language English, with a slight focus on the UK and US when it comes to learning for work.

Learning for Work

Two Options: Popular or Unexpected

There’s 2 main approaches when deciding which language is best to learn. Either you go down the route of “there’s lots of jobs that want language A, so I’ll learn that.” Or you instead opt for “There’s less people that speak language B, so I’ll learn that.”

Let’s take two languages as an example here. And this will vary depending on where you are in the world, but if we say Mandarin Chinese and Albanian.

With our examples, Mandarin would be the ‘popular’ choice, the one we see and hear on the wind that businesses want when hiring.

Albanian would be the ‘unexpected’ choice, the one that we don’t see as many jobs advertised requiring.

Here’s why both are valid: there’ll likely be more people going for the Mandarin job than the Albanian job.

So, if you’re learning primarily for work and job opportunities, then do you want to put yourself in a field full of people with your skill or in a field with less overwhelming choice for employers?

There’s no right or wrong answer here (you’ll spot this coming up a lot throughout!). It’s really about deciding what the right choice is for you.

And remember – if you’re learning for future career prospects, you’ll want to be as dedicated as you can to really taking that language to a high level in order to be as competitive as possible.

Some employers might even be looking for someone who can speak multiple languages too. It’s important to learn a language that is relevant to your career goals and interests so you can have the best chance at getting hired.

UK Languages for the Future

The UK list ‘Languages for the Future’:

The British Council has put together a great list of languages that will be essential to know in the future. It’s unsurprisingly called Languages for the Future. And, yes, it was made in 2017 so after the mess of a decision that was Brexit.

The ten most important languages they identified are:

Spanish

Mandarin

French

Arabic

German

Italian

Dutch

Portuguese

Japanese

Russian

Therefore, if you’re in the UK or considering work in the UK, these languages are likely to be most desired by employers in the coming years.

US ‘Critical Language List’

On the other hand, if you’re in the US and learning a language for work opportunities, then the Critical Language List is a useful starting point.

Not only is this a list of important languages for the country’s economy like the UK one, but there’s also scholarships available for “American college and university students to learn languages essential to America’s engagement with the world.” Soft power, ammarite?

Critical Language Scholarships are currently offered in:

Arabic

Azerbaijani

Bangla

Chinese (I guess Mandarin as it doesn’t specify)

Hindi

Indonesian

Japanese

Korean

Persian

Portuguese

Russian

Swahili

Turkish

Urdu

As you can see, there’s actually pretty minimal crossover between both lists. Therefore, if learning a language for work, it’s well worth investigating if these sorts of lists exist where you’d like to work.

Learning for Travel

One question: Where do you want to go?

There’s a well-known myth that I hope makes your eyes roll as much as mine: everyone speaks English.

Nope. Nopiest of nopes.

Sure, a lot of people in the world speak English, and lots of those people who speak it as a second or foreign language often do so with great skill.

That said, to assume that “everyone speaks English” when you travel is to miss out on a great chance for deeper connection. But you knew that already.

However, if you’re learning for travel in the future, there is one question I have for you: where do you want to go?

The easiest first step here is (unfortunately) to think of colonisation and historical influence.

For example, you want to travel across Latin America? Spanish is the way to go, but do consider learning some key phrases in local languages where relevant.

You want to spend a month or two in India? English will see you well some of the time, but you’ll want to think more closely about where you want to go before digging too deeply into Hindi as dominant languages vary across regions.

Then there’s the context to consider. For example, if I were travelling in the Baltic, I’d feel more comfortable using English than Russian in most parts when I don’t speak Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian. This is because of the historical context and associations with Russian for many people there.

And then there’s the outliers. The odd and unexpected occasions where I’ve ended up speaking Mandarin in Morocco and needed German to negotiate a taxi in Cuba. There’s no way to predict when and where a language will come in handy for travel.

So, based on the amount of countries that speak a language or the distribution of tourists from other countries, I put together a rough guide.

If you’re thinking of learning a language or two for the future for global travel, I’d say the global order of usefulness (totally official and highly researched) would look something like this:

English

Reserving a space here for local languages

Spanish

French

Arabic

Russian

Mandarin

And it really depends on where you’re going in the future. This Wikipedia list of countries with English speaking populations can help make this decision more precise for you.

Learning for Pleasure

One question: Which language do you want to learn?

Not gonna lie, this is my favourite category. In the words of Self-Esteem, Prioritise Pleasure.

When you’re learning a language for pleasure, the best language to learn for the future is the one that you enjoy learning and are most excited and intrigued by. By the way, this also applies to all reasons for learning. It’s important whichever language you learn that you remember this:

Your reason why matters more than any list.

You’ll be putting a lot of effort into learning your new language. And you’ll be spending lots of time with it, immersing yourself in the language and culture. So if you hate it, or your motivation is weak because you’re learning what someone else told you is “the best language to learn for the future”, then you won’t get far.

Any language you choose to learn will open up unexpected opportunities big and small. Embrace it all.

So how do you decide which language is the best language to learn for the future when you’re prioritising pleasure? Here’s a few things to consider…

What cultural things am I enjoying right now?

I always love a musical entry point to a language, but it could be film, TV, books, food, travel…so many possibilities!

For example, if you’re really into Japanese anime, then Japanese would be fun for you. Just discovered Afrobeats? Learn more about Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin among others!

Why do I want to learn another language?

Is it pure pleasure and hobby or is there a chance that it’s one you might take to a high level and add to your CV? All are valid, but your reason might change your choice.

For example, if you’re curious about languages in general, then choosing one with a new-to-you feature would be super fun! Never encountered cases? Try German or Russian!

Alternatively, if you’re thinking you want to learn a language over a short timeframe or with little focused study, then one that’s related to a language you already know makes sense. Already speak Portuguese? Spend some time discovering Kristang. (link to Language Stories)

What do I like about language learning?

Is there a particular aspect you love about language learning or want more time and experience with?

For example, if you enjoy learning new scripts, then choosing a language simply because it uses a new-to-you writing system might be a good option. Written Georgian looks gorgeous to me.

However, if you love pronunciation and new-to-you sounds, then this may be something worth considering. Guarani has lots of fun to pronounce nasals and then there’s ‘click languages‘ that would be fun to explore for you too.

The Best Language to Learn is…

I’m not going to apologise if you were looking for a one word, one language answer here.

As we’ve seen, the best language to learn depends on so many factors. There’s simply no one word answer.

Trust yourself in your choices. Even if you don’t end up sticking with a language for as long as you’d initially hoped, you’ll have still learnt something new that will likely come up again with another language.

Language learning is never a waste of time, whichever language you choose.

So, the best language to learn? The one that you can’t wait to get back to each day. The one that lights you up. The one that you want to learn.