Is there a second-most important language?

If English is the universal language, is there a language second to it? Or shall say, what language is important to learn next to English?

English has become one of the most important languages for business and international communication. If you are thinking in those terms then it would probably pay to speak cantonese or mandarin as a second language (economicaly speaking). Arabic is also a strong asset now a days for jobs surrounding security issues or translation. Of course it depends what you want to do with your languages workwise. You can get by almost anywhee in the world if you speak english, french and spanish.

In Worldwide Aviation/Air Traffic communication English is the universal language....I'm not sure about other mandates primary or secondary.

More people speak Mandarin Chineese than anything else. Second place is Spanish. English comes in third though the economic impact of English speaking people currently makes it the most important one to know.

If you will limit your travels to the Western Hemisphere Spanish would probably be the best 2nd language.

Mandarin is the official dialect of China and since China will eventually own us it may be useful to know in the future.

id say spanish

probably spanish

most of the time I would answer spanish but I would consider a certain "dead" lanauage. Latin! Latin is the root to all romance lanauages. In my opuion after learning latin it would be easer to learn the other romance lanauage which inculde spanish frence portugess german and italin I think. but spanish would be the best to learn in america because of the spanish speaking population.

Well I dont know if it is the 2nd most important but French is certainly the 2nd most spoken language used. I would think that it would change for each circumstance, for instance if you were entering the tourism industry you would certainly consider learning Japanese

Well, if you gage a countries 'importance' by it's rate of economic growth then it's probably no surprise if I tell you that here in Britain they're now starting to teach Mandarin Chinese in some of the schools. Take that -and the fact that the Chinese make up about three quarters of the world's population and I suppose the writing's on the wall. In a few decades it will probably be considered THE most important language, (not that I think many westerners will find it easy to become fluent ...)

SOUTH AFRICAN