The Next "It" Language: Spanish?

I've never studied Spanish officially, but I have studied the related language of French, and I am able to read Spanish at a rudimentary level just based on what I know from French and English. I get the feeling it would be relatively easy for me to pick up, as it would for most people who have studied another Romance language such as French, Italian, or Portuguese. The pronunciation is not hard based on what I know. It seems to me that the trilled "r" is probably the hardest sound for a native English speaker to make. Obviously, it is a useful language if you live in the Western Hemisphere since there are numerous Spanish speakers living on this side of the world. There is also a great wealth of learning material both online, in bookstores, and in libraries. It would seem to be a good linguistic investment. The one reservation I have is that due to its immense popularity as a foreign language, there might actually end up being a glut of people who know Spanish.

The Next "It" Language

After English, what is the world's "it" language? I'd be hard-pressed to argue that it isn't Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or Arabic, and I'd personally lean towards Mandarin just because China is making such strides economically and most likely will continue to do so. I have at least a tiny bit of familiarity with all of these languages (meaning I know at least a word or two and have some idea of the grammatical structure), and I think an exploration of the pros and cons of studying each one for those who want to increase their linguistic knowledge is in order in the next few posts. I'll start with Spanish.

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Welcome to my language and linguistics blog. On this site I will be discussing everything from language pedagogy to translation to how to use linguistics in daily life to my own weird linguistic- and language-related musings. This blog is for all fans of language and words. Enjoy!