Which foreign language: French, German, or Russian

Are you serious?

I wouldn't be asking for advice if I was kidding.

French will get you laid more.

I answered you in your other thread.

I speak Spanish fluently and Portuguese enough to get by in light conversation. Do not underestimate the effort it takes to learn a language. Even after studying Spanish for 3 years and then speaking it on a daily basis for the past 4 years I am still not at the level of a native speaker. Learning a language takes a monumental effort and to be able to use it in business settings requires an incredibly high level of fluency. Granted it is an incredibly rewarding feeling to be able to speak another language, but I'm not sure learning a language would be the most efficient use of your time if the only reason you want to learn it is for business purposes.

However, if you are set on doing it go for it. I have 2 friends that learned Russian - definitely the hardest of the 3. According to them it is such a difficult language that most English speakers that try and learn it never really become fluent because it's just so hard. But hey my 2 friends learned it so at least its possible.

Whatever you decide, the only way to really truly learn a language is to live in a place where you can speak with native speakers all day everyday for at least a few months. Good luck.

German is actually the hardest language... the grammar is really difficult . But i would go for it anyway.

I speak German and have used it in a work setting once, and that was to tell a dirty joke to a client on a conference call...

None.

French is mostly useless for you.

German is difficult to learn and no German will do business with you unless you have achieved near-native fluency. Additionally, English is well known in most parts of Germany that you would actually do business.

Russian is even more difficult to learn; the pronunciation and grammar are more difficult than German. Luckily Russians tend to be receptive of anyone trying to speak their language and will make an effort to understand you.

Does anybody on this site separate having a life from having a job anymore? Or is everyone just a tool who evaluates every life decision by its banking impact?

And 2-3 years to become fluent enough to do business in a foreign language is very optimistic.

I'd say learn Chinese, Arabic and then Russian. If you speak English, learning French, Spanish and German is nothing compared to learning Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic.. (vice versa). If you really want to distinguish yourself, learn the languages of the countries that will get stronger in the future. (i.e. BRICs+ Middle East, Southeast Asia, etc) But chances are, you won't be fluent in those languages after learning it for 2 years and esp. if you are already 20+ years of age. So it might be efficient to learn one of those European languages I guess =p

I don't think learning a new language helps you much tbh. Why would someone hire you over a native speaker, everything else being equal.

Unless you want to work in Europe, speaking another language isn't going to do shit for you really. And even then it won't do much for you considering your peers who have grown up in Europe (i.e. your competition) can speak at least 2 languages with a fair degree of fluency. So unless you're planning on studying it extensively as in double majoring in Economics and Russian, you won't be able to hold a candle to any of your peers.

Personally, I'd learn Russian or Arabic. Russian because there's a ton of concentrated money in Russia, meeting the right people and being able to converse with them and establish some social goodwill could go a long way. Arabic for the same reason. Both are obviously very hard to learn.

I'm talking about a real word context, not a banking context. I agree with some of the above posted about people making every decision based on their career in banking.

Sorry for changing the topic but have u ever thought of learning Hindi? India is marching on the path of the next superpower in the world.

just dont learn a language for business purposes. Unless you are perfectly fluent it is completely useless, and you will more likely than not, not achieve fluency in whatever language you pick up.

Id probably pick russian or french. German is out as Germans speak English. No french guy in the entire world can speak proper english (without a thick accent that is), russian is a similar story.

German for sure. Maybe Russian but screw French.

German is the mother-tongue in more European countries than English, French, Spanish or Italian. After English, German is the second most important language worldwide for business, tourism and diplomacy. In central and Eastern Europe, German is the most important foreign language.you can take your German Skype classes through (Preply)

As someone with Russian heritage who also studied Russian in undergrad/grad school, I would advise you not waste your time. Without living there for an extended period of time, you will not speak well enough for it to help you in any sort of business setting. Furthermore, there is very little business activity with Russia and limited job opportunities, especially for Americans (previously Americans were much more valued because of their education and expertise, however many Russian elites now receive Western educations from top tier American and European schools).

Personally, I think German is your best bet professionally.

I may be biased but French a) sounds better, b) will get you laid more, c) I would argue is more useful internationally (especially in Africa, Canada, Belgium and some parts of SE Asia, Caribbean, Pacific) and d) is the second official language of EU institutions. It is much more of a lingua franca than German. This is from someone who is fluent in German btw.