What are the best languages to learn?

[EquALLity]

I speak English fluently (native speaker) and Italian decently (learned from school).
I like learning languages, and I'm considering learning another one, but I'm not sure what.

I was learning Turkish with duolingo, but then I started feeling like it wasn't the best language to learn compared to other languages I could learn.

What do you think the best language is to learn, and why?
I'm thinking about Russian, but then that's a whole new alphabet. o_O A lot of languages are a whole new alphabet. o_O

Arabic is read from right to left, and Chinese is read from top down. Wtf xD

I think Spanish is really good to learn, but it's so close to Italian, so learning them at the same time might not really work.

[Red]

Spanish, since that can be very useful, considering it's one of the most spoken languages. You'll need it if your job frequently requires interactions with customers. I reccomend you learn it on your off time, especially since it's summer.

Plus, I'd bone up on my Italian in your situation, since I'd say you only learned about .1% of the language from school.

[teo123]

I've heard that if you learn Old Church Slavonic, you can basically understand all Slavic languages. I am not sure if that's true, though.

[brimstoneSalad]

Depends on where you want to live and what you want to do.

Spanish and Chinese are big based on the number of speakers. Spanish is more likely to be useful in the U.S. in retail or in politics. Chinese might be more useful in business.

[Jebus]

Depends on where you want to live and what you want to do.

Exactly. It also depends on what you already speak as this will determine how easy it will be to learn a certain language. Someone who speaks a Latin language can probable learn a couple more of those in the same time it would take to learn a Chinese language. Someone already fluent in a Chinese language can probably learn a couple of more of those during the same time it would take to learn a Latin language.

[Jebus]

I think Spanish is really good to learn, but it's so close to Italian, so learning them at the same time might not really work.

True. Learn one to near perfection before you begin to learn the next otherwise you will start confusing two similar languages.

[teo123]

It's said that you can't really mix up languages if you pronounce the words correctly, if you start learning a language by first studying its phonology in detail.