Foreign languages - reinforce known or try new?

[arctictom]

I am conversational in German and Spanish , I would recomend Spanish first , learn the basics , several good programs , including Michael Thomas , and Synergy Spanish , Spanish has several thousand words in common with english.
Dont treat it as a task or like its a code ,its just people trying to communicate , and its fun, and keep at it , kind drives my wife and family a little nuts , I love new cultures and language, so for me its great fun I talk to every one that will give it a shot.
ummmm the short answer , Spanish .

I personally found german very different , and oddly natural, but more difficult than Spanish.

[308Mike]

Language learning rankings:

Language Difficulty Ranking

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has created a list to show the approximate time you need to learn a specific language as an English speaker. After this particular study time you will reach “Speaking 3: General Professional Proficiency in Speaking (S3)” and “Reading 3: General Professional Proficiency in Reading (R3)”

Please keep in mind that this ranking only shows the view of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) and some language students or experts may disagree with the ranking.

If there is a language in this list you would like to learn and it is in a high difficult category, don’t let this stop you from learning it. Even if they are ranked as difficult, it does not mean that they are impossible to learn and maybe it is not hard for you at all.

Category I: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Languages closely related to English
Afrikaans
Danish
Dutch
French
Italian
Norwegian
Portuguese
Romanian
Spanish
Swedish

Category II: 30 weeks (750 hours)
Languages similar to English
German

Category III: 36 weeks (900 hours)
Languages with linguistic and/or cultural differences from English
Indonesian
Malaysian
Swahili

Category IV: 44 weeks (1100 hours)
Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English
Albanian
Amharic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Burmese
Croatian
Czech
*Estonian
*Finnish
*Georgian
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
*Hungarian
Icelandic
Khmer
Lao
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
*Mongolian
Nepali
Pashto
Persian (Dari, Farsi, Tajik)
Polish
Russian
Serbian
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Tagalog
*Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
*Vietnamese
Xhosa
Zulu

Category V: 88 weeks (2200 hours)
Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers
Arabic
Cantonese (Chinese)
Mandarin (Chinese)
*Japanese
Korean

* Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category.

[workinwifdakids]

Thanks for that, Mike!

Interestingly enough, though, Spanish and Japanese (rated the easiest and hardest, respectively) are both syllabic rather than alphabetic languages. Assuming the Japanese is written in romaji or you're trying to pronounce Japanese, I can teach you how to decode (i.e., read without comprehension) anything in Spanish OR Japanese in about an hour, and you'll sound like a native with a week's practice.

I've always found that interesting.

Regarding the original question, I would say that you should do whatever you want. I don't think it will matter.

[Windy Wilson]

An interesting story; my mother only spoke German until she was five years old, at which time she enrolled in school. The first time we visited relatives in Austria she found she could understand every damn word they said, she just couldn't actually SAY anything, the words sort of blocked up. As I said, I could speak TV German, but I had major trouble with the accent, so we'd go somewhere where I'd ask for something, they'd answer, and I'd look at my mother who translated for me, and I'd answer.

Once a girl walked up to me in a big plaza holding a camera out to me. She posed with her girlfriends, I took their picture, and gave her camera back. My mother told me that one girl told the one with the camera that I didn't understand what she said. I told my mother, she was right!