Foreign language for children - which would you choose?

[phtthp]

in Asian context -

learn Malay.

SG is surrounded by big population countries like Malaysia, Indonesia.

currently in Malaysia - many kindergarten kids learning 3 languages, ie.
Malay, Chinese, English.

[phtthp]

xiaostar:

Indian is not a language.

India is the country, Tamil is the language.

[xiaostar]

phtthp:

xiaostar:

Indian is not a language.

India is the country, Tamil is the language.

Hindi is one of the official languages.
Tamil is a regional language.

[karenmok]

So which of the Indian languages is useful to learn? India is soon becoming an economic powerhouse.

[Attolia]

karenmok:

So which of the Indian languages is useful to learn? India is soon becoming an economic powerhouse.

Hindi.

[osim]

I think you should let your kid decide based on what they like and not for some end itself. What you predict will happen usually won’t happen 80% of the time. That’s why human has so much mental clutter and not using their brains fully. Better let them be present with their heart and mind. Fret not.

[phtthp]

think German and France are mature economy.

not sure if useful to learn German or French ?

[xiaostar]

karenmok:

So which of the Indian languages is useful to learn? India is soon becoming an economic powerhouse.

Most Indians in politics and business use English as a working language hence Hindi is not a popular language for foreigners to learn.

[xiaostar]

phtthp:

think German and France are mature economy.

not sure if useful to learn German or French ?

Many jobs in international organisations like united nations, interpol and international Olympics committee still use both English and French as working languages. You can see the list here
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_organisations_which_have_French_as_an_official_language

French is also useful because it is very easy to learn Spanish, Portuguese and Italian after you have mastered French. But it doesn't work the other way around - Spanish speakers have greater difficulty learning French than French speakers to learn Spanish because French is more complex and has much more difficult rules. Knowledge of spanish , Portuguese is very useful if you want to break into emerging economies like argentina and Brazil. Knowledge of French is useful for working in Africa - and there are many jobs there which pays very, very well especially in mining and commodities if you are open to the risk.

German is useful because the richest european countries are German speaking - Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Languages of other richer european countries like netherlands, Denmark and to a lesser extent Norway, Sweden are also closely related to German. In the emerging eastern European countries like Poland, knowledge of German is far more useful than English or French. German is also a popular language among engineering students because most of the leaders in engineering are German companies - SAP, Daimler, Bosch to name a few, all of whom have a large presence in Singapore.

That said, I personally think it is more useful to learn a regional language like malay, Thai or Vietnamese.

[MsPizza]

My 6+ year old daughter took Mandarin since K1 but she opted for Malay during Pri Sch. Shes still learning Mandarin & Arabic on a weekly basis. Having said that, anyone here keen on language swap? I can coach you and/or your child Malay for free on a regular basis and in return im hoping you can do the same for mine. We live ard Holland Village. Tks.