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In reply to the discussion: I just found out my kid's kindergarten class is teaching Russian 40 mins per day. [View all]sarisataka
(22,216 posts)Given US demographics Spanish would be the "best" second language.
However you never know what language might be useful.
In an operation related to Kosovo & Bosnia I worked with 17 different nationalities. Had I known Russian I could have communicated with 7 of them, one being Ukraine. As it was, the Moldovan dialect of Romanian is similar enough to French that I could work directly with them and act as liason with English speaking nationalities.
I was also injured during the same operation and needed stitches. There was a Hungarian unit that had a doctor with them. Hungarian is very different so he and my Moldovan friends spoke in Russian, this being shortly after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. They then spoke to me in Moldovan which I understood with my knowledge of French. If I even have the opportunity I hope to learn Polish and Lakota