Top 10 Languages You Should Learn in 2024 - Unlock your Opportunities

#languagelearning #languages #polyglot
Embark on a linguistic adventure with our definitive guide to the Top 10 Essential Languages to Learn. From the commerce-driven German to the culturally rich Japanese, explore what makes each language a key to unlocking global opportunities. Delve into the power of Russian as a gateway language, understand the widespread influence of Spanish, and discover why English holds the top spot as the world's lingua franca. Join us as we analyze each language's impact based on native speakers, geographical reach, and cultural significance, all backed by first-hand experience and comprehensive data. Don't just guess - make an informed decision on which language to learn next and expand your horizons!
00:01 Deciding What Language to Learn
00:39 8 Objective Factors
03:00 #10
03:55 #9
04:52 #8
05:29 #7
06:08 #6
07:04 #5
07:50 #4
08:50 #3
09:35 #2
10:29 #1
11:04 Conclusion
🌟 About Tim Keeley:
Tim Keeley, a seasoned professor and language enthusiast, brings four decades of experience living in Japan and mastering multiple Asian languages. His insights provide a roadmap for language learners eager to unlock the synergy among Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
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🚀Website: polyglotdreams.com/
📧 email: [e-mail]
💡More about me:
👉Academia: kyusan-u.academia.edu/TimDean..
👉 BBC : www.bbc.com/future/article/20..
👉Facebook: / tim.keeley

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

I've always said the main reasons for people studying languages are the "Four L's: love, labor, literature, or leisure".

[@polyglotdreams]

Excellent observation

[@kauanpaiva2989]

😂😂

[@iberius9937]

I would add a fifth L: Linguistics.

[@HendraLanguages]

Thank you sir for all videos. I'am from Indonesia and 33 years old. For now I learning english since September 2023. I hope my english will be better in this year.

[@polyglotdreams]

Terima kasih... I wish you all the best in your studies.

[@jeremyjackson5861]

You got this!

[@crystalinfinite6917]

Hello, polyglot army ❤ I have self learning languages like Mandarin, Turkish,Urdu, Korean, Japanese and a little bit of Spanish and French and Italian and It feels so awesome. Being bilingual from a younger age now I know about 12 to 13 languages Including my mother tongue Bengali and Hindi and English, I am also working on an ancient language like Sanskrit.

[@polyglotdreams]

That's fascinating... I love the Sanskrit based languages

[@bedwalia]

Me too from Kolkata

[@shrouuuq]

I know Arabic,Turkish, English and Spanish and I learn Russian, Chinese , Japanese and German I hope to get a time to learn Hindi and Swahili. As you said actually these languages are opening up a whole world to us you get understand people better. I love languages, cultures, literature and poetry so languages are combining them

[@polyglotdreams]

Awesome, we think alike.

[@alanguages]

Thanks for making this video on gateway languages. I know many are confused sometimes where to start. Myself included. With this video there is a direction and these languages do have the largest amount of resources available if anybody is interested delving deeper into the families mentioned in the video.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks for the input.

[@christianjorgensen7192]

This is brilliant. Thank you for posting it.

[@polyglotdreams]

My pleasure! Thank you!

[@john_pantoja]

thank you very much for another awesome video, Tim!

[@polyglotdreams]

Glad you like them! Thanks so much 🙏

[@Learning-gl2dq]

love that sir, thanks

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you!

[@firevavanced6669]

Excellent

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@bcalife]

That was very inspiring! Thank you!

[@polyglotdreams]

You are so welcome!

[@rashidah9307]

I agree!! And I loved his final comment about language learning being well worth the effort.

[@IamtheAlienator]

Dziękuję for your inspiring videos! Every time I think of quitting to learn "po polsku", because I cannot wrap my brain around it as a German, I watch one of your videos and keep on. The start is easy, then grammar almost kills you, but once you start speaking it gets better.

[@bbilingual4449]

💥Cool Video❗Thanks👍

[@polyglotdreams]

I appreciate that 🙏

[@harrykekgmail]

Very practical list of 10 languages. thank you

[@polyglotdreams]

I am so pleased that you found it useful.

[@najverjetnejsa]

Lovely! ❤

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you! 😊

[@AndyJugglesLanguages]

Thank you for another great video Tim. I''ve studied all of those except Japanese. I've found Spanish, Mandarin and Russian to be very useful. I really struggle with Arabic - I'm off to Morocco in two days time and know that my MSR will not be understood but luckily I can speak French 😂.

[@polyglotdreams]

Morocco is a very difficult place to try to understand Arabic. As you know, thank you so much for the kind comments.

[@HibaHima-ji4nb]

@@polyglotdreams I totally agree I'm Moroccan and our dialect is a little bit difficult cause we have french words and Spanish words also due to colonization I think foreigners learn Egyptian Arabic maybe it's the easiest for them also Moroccan people can understand all the other dialect but others found some difficulties to understand ours so obviously it difficult for foreigners as well

[@zoolsoog]

Very informative video

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@nosceteipsum6149]

Thanks for video. It is the most objective video about global languages I have seen, free from passions. Obvious dominion of English as lingua franca. Saludos desde España. 😊😊

[@polyglotdreams]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@natti6469]

you give me all the beautiful energy. Thank you very much for your effort and I wish you the best in life! 😊

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you so much for the encouragement 😊 ☺️ 🙏

[@zetnikoven]

in this video, I easily realized you have worked hard. Because information is very good and detailed. Especially I read happily.

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes, thank you very much. I do put a lot of effort into it.

[@cozy_cocoa_art]

Thank you for sharing this video. It's very useful. I am learning Japanese now. I am really thankful to you that your videos keeps me motivated to learning languages. Your videos are amazing.

[@polyglotdreams]

That's so encouraging 👏 thanks

[@RubyDuran]

Hope to someday be able to return to Japanese and Russian. Very cool and informative video, thank you for sharing

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks... start again little by little.. best not to wait too long.

[@trangpham.life1539]

2023 i learned German, this year i'm learning French and Russian 💪i will also try Madarin and Arabic in the future. 😊

[@polyglotdreams]

Great! I wish you all the best in your studies.

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

Tim Keeley I challenge you to take the Clozemaster 10 languages 10 questions each challenge. Try 10 languages in 10 questions each in whichever languages you either are and or are not familiar with video it and inspire us. Set the question limit to 10 questions each and turn the audio vocals on. Whenever you make the thumbnail and the title be sure to include the 10 flags of each of them. This video could possibly go viral if you choose to include language tags to the countries which you are respectively quizzing in. It will be both fun and inspiring! Buenas suerte Carpa diem שלום עליכם

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

Consider including Interlengua or Esperanto in the challenge for all the conlangers to be inspired and because global recognition. Because there's just not enough people who know about Interlengua and Interslavic.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks for the suggestion

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

@@polyglotdreams They would probably love to do a sponsored video with you. I'm hoping that Dr Jones (language jones) will take the challenges also. I could see this becoming a trending thing where everyone (and or polyglots) videos themselves taking the Clozemaster 10 languages 10 questions challenge. And then that would become a file of its own of people just taking the challenge. I plan on taking the challenge and posting the results as soon as I get a good enough camera and stand. When I initially took the challenge I was very surprised at how I scored a 10 out of 10 in Turkish Indonesian and Russian although I don't speak any of those and have studied only very little through KZbin. One of the hacks that I did was to pick the shortest answer when I was not sure intuitively what would be the right answer of multiple choice.

[@user-ek6vf4cb7t]

Recently learning languages became my hobby so I just started to learn Spanish first to move to Spain one day, then I'll learn all the major languages first and then we'll see. Good luck to everyone who're learning foreign languages, I know you can do it guys🤝

[@polyglotdreams]

Great hobby!

[@kolbypalmer7816]

Obrigado por fazer esse vídeo. Eu gostei muito. Especialmente a ideia dos "Gateway languages" porque quero aprender muitos idiomas! Também foi bem legal ter na lista uma língua de cada família. Eu gostaria de entender o maior número possível de línguas e a sua lista me ajuda decidir por onde começar.

[@polyglotdreams]

Obrigado... Boa sorte!

[@khatule87]

Thank you Ms Dieu Nguyen introduce for me your channel ❤

[@polyglotdreams]

She has a great channel and helps with this one.

[@Artiukh]

you are the most competent person in terms of languagees

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.

[@Swiatoikadr]

Your videos are awesome. I have started to learn Japanese....my 7-old year old son came up with such an idea, because he likes games from Japan. Starting is hard but step by step it will be a.nice adventure.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks... all the best to you in your studies.

[@maxximum5980]

I’m learning French! 🇫🇷❤️

[@polyglotdreams]

Great

[@barak363363]

Start and finish

[@polyglotdreams]

Sorry... what do you mean?

[@barak363363]

@@polyglotdreams it's a remark for myself

[@1langueen100jours]

My 2024 pick is German. Being fluent in several latin languages and speaking Serbo-Croatian and Russian to a conversational level, I had considered starting Romanian this year, but I felt like I should challenge myself with something radically different. Not an easy one, though. Anyway, this concept of "Gateway Language" is actually very important (and rarely pointed out). Thanks for the video!

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks all the best with your study of German.

[@seoulmate1360]

Great list sir!! Mine would include French and Indonesian.

[@polyglotdreams]

I already had Spanish, so according to my criteria, I couldn't add French.

[@Gabri.El.]

Nice list!! thank you!! In the Spanish-speaking countries map, you need to add Guinea Ecuatorial in Africa.

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes... that was not my map... just borrowed it... thanks for pointing that out.

[@undekagon2264]

I am also a big Hermann Hesse fan. I will put japanese maybe on my list for next year because my teenage daughter thinks about learning it and then I follow along a bit.

[@polyglotdreams]

Great idea... so which is your favorite Hesse novel?

[@undekagon2264]

Demian most likely, or Glasperlenspiel. I also like the collection of poems books. Its hard to decide.

[@Ok.kh6795]

ល្អ ,Good , いい❤❤❤

[@polyglotdreams]

御世話になりました

[@Ok.kh6795]

@@polyglotdreams はい

[@manguxi]

Hi, this is a brilliant work done here. I can't imagine the research time taken to accomplish this. Just a quick note, for Spanish you need to add also the country of Guinea Equatorial, the only african country that speaks Spanish. Thanks.

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes... thanks

[@jaysterling26]

Alot to unpack ( as the modern saying goes). There's many ways to look at this ( Sir, I think you encapsulated many). There's Pro.Arguelle's 6 languages one could consider. Which sector you're working/ interested in, e.g, horology- French & German ; fashion- french & Italian but now Mandarin ( English is always in this question) for that market? The British Council lists , for the UK , French, Spanish, German, Arabic & Mandarin although Dutch, & Italian coukd be advantageous & lesser spoken for important markets.

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes, there are many other possible combinations, but I was seeking to have just one language per language family.

[@cynbahati]

So glad Swahili is on this list! I will be learning this after im at a good level with Spanish :)

[@polyglotdreams]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

Learning gateway languages is like gateway drugs. Once you start, you are hooked and you can't stop. Yes, language learning is a drug...just look at my library! 🤦🏼‍♂

[@polyglotdreams]

I like that comparison 😆 🤣

[@johndavidsantos1990]

1. English 2. Mandarin Chinese 3. Spanish 4. Arabic 5. Russian 6. Hindi 7. Swahili 8. Turkish 9. Japanese 10. German

[@polyglotdreams]

You see in the video, I said I would choose just one language per language family with the exception of English and German

[@IamtheAlienator]

Eine gute Wahl!

[@user-po8cq5py9k]

You are really great and you look very good considering your age ! I mean your Mindset etc.👏👏👏But what about ESPERANTO ?

[@polyglotdreams]

I like to focus on natural languages. Thank you for the compliments.

[@mihalyzentai9868]

I agree with everything you said. But you didn't mentioned something I christened to "Language Sacrifice". You said what worth to learn but I have an another point of view as well. If you are near the polygloth level(4-5 languages) you can make a Language learning Sacrifice and learn languages which from you maybe won't profit. 1st Type - Languages which are too small and/or Endangered. I choose Hawai'i. 2nd Type - Dead languages . I choose Latin, Egyptian and Babylonian. 3rd Type - Artificial and/or Fantasy languages, like Esperanto, Elvish, Volapük,Toki Pona,High Valyrian and so on. I choose Esperanto. You don't have to learn any of these languages, but if you are that much into languages you can sacrifice your time in languages you may never use,never profit from. Saving an endangered Language from extinction could be a mission to any language fan.That's why I learn Hawai'i. (2000 native speaker). Some says I should be writing books instead,but still I left lot of things unsaid. 😊

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks for sharing!!

[@samvel8381]

My native language is Armenian and I've been studying English and Russian for a long time. Now, I guess, it's time for a new language. So excited that can't choose between Spanish, German and French. Can't choose in the objective perspective: which is more beneficial career wise.😁

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks... I visited your country in 1982.

[@sterlingmiller8014]

French seams like it should be in the top 10. Presumably it was left it off to not have 2 romance languages, but he has 2 west germanic languages in English and German.

[@Iamdonewithhere]

I've studied english for a long time, but I can't say a single word. I can understand many words but I can't understand spoken english. Now I think I can't be fluent in english 😅 I can even understand economics, philosophy lecture in english. Nowadays I want to learn japanese and chinese - close to my native language. And malay-indonesian. Btw your video is very informative and useful. Thx

[@polyglotdreams]

All the best to you in your studies.

[@johndavidsantos1990]

How about Korean, Portuguese, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Italian?

[@polyglotdreams]

I was trying to just have one language per family

[@whizberg63]

Bulgarian is the reason why all Slavic Languages have an alphabet. Ukraine or Poland were the first to speak Slavic, even though Poland is slavic, but you use the Latin one

[@polyglotdreams]

Why?

[@mirae9163]

I would choose: English Spanish French German Russian Mandarin Arabic Turkish Indonesian and Hindi.

[@polyglotdreams]

Good choices.

[@user-ed6hp9up2w]

Very good presentation. I guess that language learning for most isn't worth it, too much effort for little compensation. So what you call "subjective factors" shokld dominate.

[@truefriend5332]

On January 1st - I chose Spanish. It will be my 3rd language.

[@polyglotdreams]

Great choice!

[@NonChildStories]

My top 10 are English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and Korean.

[@NonChildStories]

The second 10 are Russian, Hindi, Dutch, Turkish, Indonesian, Bengali, Polish, Swedish, Thai, Persian.

[@polyglotdreams]

You mean those are the ones you prefer?

[@user-hn6wn6tp1r]

🌈🌈🌈I am learning Swahili, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch And Modern Standard Arabic.🌈🌈🌈

[@polyglotdreams]

That's great! Excellent choices

[@Helga2408]

My languages for 2024 are Japanese and Ukrainian. Japanese because I like the melody of the language, I want to pass JLPT N2 in the future and read among others Haruki Murakami in the original language. Ukrainian because I would like to help Ukrainian refugees with translations in the future.

[@Marina-dq8qw]

Thank you🇺🇦

[@Helga2408]

@@Marina-dq8qw My pleasure! Ukrainian will be easy for me because I am from Bulgaria and speak some Slavic languages.

[@polyglotdreams]

Great motivation 👏

[@Helga2408]

@@Marina-dq8qw Thanks!

[@Marina-dq8qw]

@@Helga2408❤❤

[@manguxi]

Please add Guinea Equatorial, the only afeican country that speaks Spanish

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

I fear this video needs a warning “Not suitable for French people: side effects may include raised blood pressure, palpitations and shortness of breath”. I understand why you listed Spanish rather than French, presumably due to South America, and it is also easier for English speakers to learn, with regular gender. And yet French is such a beautiful language, and a definite must for British people, assuming they weren’t frightened away from language learning at school. Ten languages to learn, wow! I speak French and I am learning German. English and French are so similar, they are almost dialects. And yet despite English being classed as a West German language, English and German are so different. German idioms are so weird, and the way they use all those little words like doch, mal, schon, mehr etc is utterly bizarre. But it can sound nice, contrary to stereotypes.

[@polyglotdreams]

I love your comment ❤️

[@AndyJugglesLanguages]

I have found French really useful, not just when in France, but I meet a lot of people from DRV and Cameroon who I enjoy speaking French with. I'm going to Morocco in two days time and know that I'll be speaking mostly French.

[@josmith5419]

❤

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@Mrproton227]

Sir please make Japanese language learning course

[@polyglotdreams]

That is a big challenge, but I can make a video about how to study Japanese.

[@Mrproton227]

@@polyglotdreams Thank sir

[@phoenixknight8837]

👍

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@LeoBloom-kc4iv]

Nice video but what about French? 🤔

[@polyglotdreams]

Only one language from each family and Spanish won out.

[@LeoBloom-kc4iv]

That sounds fair, but isn't English in the same language family as German?

[@successcollege4283]

I wonder you put Japanese in top 10 languages Mystery.....howabout replacing her alternatively BAHASA INDONESIA. Japanese is exclusively used in Japan, further more Japanese can not be regarded as a Gateway language. Japan is geographically isolated island, no chance to stay connected with other bothering countries. Swahili can be in some sense acceptable though....wa i forgot you had a Japanese citizenship.... I respect your Subjectivity though!!! Thank you.

[@polyglotdreams]

Lol yes ...but still Japanese combined with Chinese helps greatly with Korean and Vietnamese.

[@gherszon]

what is the hardest and easiest language for you

[@polyglotdreams]

The hardest is Hungarian, and the easiest is Spanish for me.

[@nexypl]

Is it actually realistic for someone speaking 8-10 languages without making language learning their career?

[@polyglotdreams]

It has to be a lifestyle

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

My list of 10 is Spanish, French , Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, Indonesian and Turkish. The reason I chose Dutch over German was because Dutch gives you the capability to later learn Indonesian and Afrikaans so it is a gateway language and once you learn your Indonesian it will take you to Tagalog because it has cognates and Loan words with Arabic Hindi and Dutch. In addition to these languages I would say a good move for you next would be to include Interlingua and Interslavic as they can round out all of Europes and the Slavic languages greatly improving your capability with languages that you otherwise would have lesser experience in. Turkish is kind of a Gateway language because combined with Russian Cyrillic alphabet it can give you a foot in the door on Mongolian.

[@polyglotdreams]

I like the enthusiasm about Dutch, but as a fluent speaker of indonesian, I can tell you that learning Dutch just gives you a little bit of vocabulary. It is true that interslavic is widely understood by most slavic speakers. But very few people actually speak it, and if you only know Interslavic, it won't be easy to understand quite a few of islamic languages.

[@mrs185]

The so-called Russian language is an artificial language. It is used only in the former territories of the non-existent “union”. Although interest in an artificial language can only be within the framework of “you need to know the enemy’s language.”

[@josenegron-soto295]

Portuguese? Italian?

[@polyglotdreams]

I only chose one language from each language family

[@feltzer-fo3dr]

Was kind of hoping no. 1 would be Canadian.

[@polyglotdreams]

😆 🤣

[@gytan2221]

In my opinion: 1. English 2. Mandarin Chinese 3. Spanish 4. French 5. Arabic 6. Hindi 7. Russian 8. Japanese 9. German 10. Portuguese

[@polyglotdreams]

But I wanted only one Romance language

[@gytan2221]

@@polyglotdreams aight

[@RichardLee-bm2xh]

Thanks Sir, but you don't really need to explain the number 1, as if we don't know this number 1 language, we would simply have no way to understand what you are talking about 😅

[@polyglotdreams]

Lol true but I followed the same pattern.

[@Nitu_S.C.]

Nice video BUT the most important aspect, the elephant in the room, is learning a language for earning more money, thus having a better lifestyle. Let's be honest: we need it more than we want it. So it would be much appreciated to talk about what language is better to learn especially in Europe, job related, for 2024.

[@polyglotdreams]

But, I did mention that aspect. The difficulty is that, to a great extent, it depends on your profession and where you want to work.

[@manguxi]

Hi

[@polyglotdreams]

Hi

[@MrUdanafonseka]

No French?

[@polyglotdreams]

Only one language per language family and I already had Spanish

[@josenegron-soto295]

French?

[@polyglotdreams]

I only chose one language from each language family and Spanish has a stronger argument

[@gaminginfrench]

French is not on the list 😢

[@polyglotdreams]

Only one from each language family...

[@gaminginfrench]

@@polyglotdreams I know it got beaten out by Spanish.

[@karlmiller5009]

La langue anglaise ­n'existe pas. C'est du français mal prononcé.

[@gaminginfrench]

@@karlmiller5009 la langue Francaise n'existe pas. C'est du latin mal prononcé 😎

[@Helga2408]

What is this lady saying in Japanese, by the way? ぜんぜん わからなかった。

[@polyglotdreams]

About investment in artificial intelligence

[@theteachingcouple.online]

This year I want to focus more on my German, revise/practice a lot my Portuguese and maybe start a new language! 😍 M xx

[@polyglotdreams]

Awesome