I get asked all the time which language is the best one to learn, and my answer is nearly always the same: It depends what you want to learn it for. Obviously if you are travelling to China, then learning Hungarian is not probably the most efficient use of your time; if you are marrying a Thai girl then Spanish is possibly not the next language you should be learning. Most people have a reason to suddenly want to learn a language and this reason will dictate the language that they will learn. However, some people just want to learn a language for the pure hell of it. These are the people who may ask which are the best languages to learn. They also usually have a list of languages that they have already subconsciously crossed off their imaginary list.
What languages would a person automatically cross off their list of possible choices? Well to be honest the ones that they deem utterly useless. These (from experience and not preference) tend to be languages that they would consider having no apparent use in the world. Esperanto is often the first name that comes up, but that is often closely followed by languages such as Klingon and Elven. Languages that can actually be learned but seem to have no obvious benefit. Many people are ridiculed for being able to speak Klingon, and the thought of mastering Esperanto just boggles the mind of most people. But are they really completely useless languages?
Well the first thing I would say is that there are very few people who have no reason whatsoever to learn a specific language. What I mean by that is that very few people sit on the edge of their beds randomly choosing the next language to learn. It does happen, but not often. Most people will have at least a very small reason for choosing one language over another. Even if it is not an obvious reason like travelling or marriage, it would be a more subtle reason like college entrance or job prospects. These people will normally opt for one of the big languages of the world at the moment – Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, or Arabic. Even if people think they have no reason at all there is usually some justification for choosing one language over the other. Maybe you like Chinese movies, or Mexican food, or think Italian sounds romantic. Whatever the reason is, no matter how small, it makes learning the language worthwhile to you. Even if it is never going to change your life dramatically, it will change your life for the better in your eyes. This holds true even if the language is Esperanto, and yes, even if its Klingon. There are many groups around the world now for learning Esperanto and they have many thousands of very active members, so if you wanted to be a part of that community then of course Esperanto is the perfect language to learn. Klingon of course needs no introduction, and for many hardcore trekkies there is no better language to learn as being fluent in the tongue will get them accepted and recognised at many of the Star Trek conventions and meets that they attend. To many people, this will be of much more use and much more important than learning Chinese, Spanish or Swahili.
Of course language learning is always beneficial for the mind anyway. Every language you learn makes you slightly better at learning languages as you begin to understand structure and grammar. They also make your brain better at many other things too, but that is for another day.
Learning a language for YOU is the most important thing and if you can take pleasure in its learning and using it whenever possible then no language learning is a waste of time, and no language is not worth learning.
