Same sort of thing as British/American/Canadian English or Parisian/Quebecois/Acadian French, I would think. As for Gaelic, well, I'd love to learn it. I just don't know where to go for that.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Spanish is by far more widely spoken than French, and if you're fluent in Spanish, you'll be able to get by speaking with Italians, most of whom understand a little Spanish (the parts that don't nearly directly correspond with Italian), plus, you'll be able to read most French (but not understand spoken French - that takes a totally different ear!).

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. Human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Wow, Spanish America grew a little bit since I last checked.

That would make a total of 380,000,000 Spanish speakers. Isn´t it too much?

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

My biggest beef with the "monolingual" is with those who move to another country and refuse to even attempt to learn the language. Instead, they huddle in their conclaves and expect natives to learn their language to communicate.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

This must be the world's loneliest language.
Pémono.

There are a lot of languages on the endangered list.

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Join the Illuminati

Once, at a hotel on Crete, I witnessed an English tourist complaining vigorously to the staff behind the counter - who were discussing the problem and trying to talk to the right people so that her problems could be resolved. She was furious. Anyway, that evening I happened to be near her and overheard her telling another English tourist about it - one phrase I heard I will never forget: "they were there, gabbering in their ****** lingo". Fancy that, eh, Greek people in Greece speaking Greek to each other. What a disgrace.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Yeah, they should learn the local language for their own benefit; for the sake of living a richer life.

On the other hand, I don´t mind talking with foreigners in their own language. It helps me to improve my abilities. Brazilians won´t pardon you if you deny them the chance to improvise some English, or French, or Italian...

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

I have been taking Latin American Spanish since Kindergarten and am proficient. A lot of my friends take French, but I never see them practice or say things in it just for fun, as I do sometimes.

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
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Heck, I took two years of university level Latin, just for kicks.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Canada? Eh?

Besides, just about everything is useless there. *ducks for cover*

In any rate, yes, USA. Better?

Mexican, actually to be specific. I work Construction in FL, (presently trying to fix this cluster in Dallas though) nearly all of our crews speak Spanish (though a very high percentage speak English as well, just not fluently.)

And before anyone says, "oh, well Florida and Construction, duh" I've only been there since the end of January. I've lived in West Virgina, Ohio, and Kentucky the rest of my life. But I find that workers everywhere in the USA speak Spanish due to the level of diversity found here. I just think it's much more appropriate to know.

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I took Latin and German and neither worked.

Of the two, Latin has proven more useful, especially since I enjoy decoding words. Just yesterday it hit me that a 'conspirator' is someone you breathe together with. I enjoy days like that.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Actually, apparently it's even wronger than pointed out by a previous poster, because Spanish is actually the first American continent idiom, followed by English and Spanish. According to Wikipedia, there are 320 million Spanish speakers, and just 300 million English speakers in the Americas. The figures may be a bit dated, and I think this refers to L1 speakers. But in any case, it's not clear that English is even the first language.

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As above, so below

As a serious response to the OP, I think I would recommend Spanish. I speak both, because I lived in France when I was a kid, and learned Spanish in high school. Spanish has, as mentioned by others, less irregularity and easier pronunciation (fewer vowels). So I think it's easier to learn. Which one sounds better is a completely subjective opinion.

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As above, so below

Much. I've always hated it when people call the US "America." It isn't. It's part of America.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

I agree! I have a smattering of German - all that's left of two years of high school lessons. I also know a little Spanish - living in central Texas, its hard not to pick up a little.

My brother is in Cancun, Mexico. They have a timeshare there and go every winter. He says that the running joke is;
"What's the difference between Cancun and Miami?"
"Everybody in Cancun speaks English and takes every chance to improve it."

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

This is exciting stuff.
I have always wondered if I were to learn another European language which one would be nicer to learn. French appealed to me as it is spoken here in Africa (former colonies), but I've been sold on Spanish by your posts. The deal maker for me was the implication that I would be able to move to Portuguese (spoken in Mozambique our neighbour) and Italian (lots of Italian here in RSA) with ease.
At the moment I am sitting on eight languages I am contemplating expanding that list.

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Just out of curiosity, what are they? I know what one of them is! And I'm guessing a second is Afrikaans.

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As above, so below

For me , I prefer French . I had Spanish lessons back in College , and It's interesting to learn too, but I want to learn more of the "romance" language.

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Jean
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"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einsteiin

I see that my numbers, based on old conceptions, are grossly outdated. It looks like Spanish is really the #1.

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.