Best second language to learn for a native english speaking programmer?

Posted by Tom Dignan on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Tom Dignan
Published on 2010-04-26T00:52:41Z Indexed on 2010/04/26 1:03 UTC
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programming

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foreign-language

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business

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international

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career-development

I have always wanted to learn a foreign language, but I would like to pick one that can also help me the most in my career. I'm in the US, so it is not necessary for me to learn a second language to influence my career success, however I think knowing one and speaking it fluently could potentially put me in a more interesting career than if I did not. I would like to be able to travel the world, especially if I could have a reason to go one place or another.

Which leads me to my question: What is the best second language to learn for a native English speaking programmer? (Especially from the US)

Some ideas that come to mind for me are Mandarin, German, Japanese, French...

I am looking for experienced opinions though!

Thanks.

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