Let's hypothetically say that you lived in North America and only spoke one language fluently (American English).

And let's further hypothetically hypothesize that you wanted to learn a second language.

Which language would you pick (recommend) and why?

For someone living in the US? Spanish, most definitely. If you plan to stay there, that is.

If you plan to move to Europe then I would say go with French, Italian, German or Russian.

If you plan on staying in the US? Spanish, almost certainly.

Other decent options, especially if you plan on traveling, would be Mandarin or French. But Spanish is pretty much the best all-around second language you can learn at this point if you're primarily living in America.

Faroese. You could then use it to insult most everyone you meet without them knowing. You can also use it to feign ignorance when people you don't want to talk to try to start a conversation with you.

So the only English in North America is American. There is a Canadian version as well.

As for choosing a second language I would go for Chinese since that language will become more of an international language. And it might become like English is today.

But the most important thing if you want to learn a second language and you are not in a country that speaks it is to have excitement and drive to learn it sicne it will take a lot of time to learn it if you are not immersed in it. I suggest when learning to see about finding a community center for that culture since you have a much better chance of immersing yourself in the language. Books and Audio Tapes help but true conversations is the best way to learn the language.

Definitely Spanish. The 4 main languages of the western hemisphere are English, Spanish (largest), French and Portuguese.

I would recommend Spanish, as it's the most commonly spoken non-English language in the US.

Spanish will be a necessity in America one day, spanish ads on english stations and spanish ads on NYC city buses are just the tip of the iceberg.

Spanish ads on NYC bus and english stations? wow.

I guess spanish then...

Personally, I'd prefer german, danish, swedish, russian, norwegian, finnish, dutch, etc.

Elvish or Klingon. Or some obscure language, and learn it with a friend so you can communicate to each other when others are around and no one will know what you're talking about.

That was my reasoning too. There's no glamour in speaking the common tongue.

I'd say Spanish would be most practical. Especially if you live down south. It depends on what region you live in, really.

I've been learning Japanese for 5 months and I really love it. Having been to the country and making friends to talk to helps a lot though.

Learning any new language takes a lot of determination. I'd say learn what you want to learn, that way you'll have a lot more fun learning it, ergo make learning it much easier. If you want to become fluent, you have to use it constantly. Go to the country where they speak that language, and use it. There really isn't any better way to learn.

Depends on said persons interests.

If I was interested in say, japanese culture, then japanese. If I was interested in Norse culture I would go for Icelandic.

Then again I'm the type of person that needs some sort of motivation if I was to pick up something like a second language.

Spanish is a no-brainer unless I needed a different language for professional reasons.

Living in Europe, I picked French instead, but German, Russian and Swedish all would have been good choices in this particular corner of the world.

As someone who actually lives in the southern half of the USA, Spanish is not as necessary as people make it out to be.

Though if you want to travel around the Americas, then yes, I would recommend learning Spanish. French and Portuguese could be useful as well if for some reason you want to go to Africa.

German is fun. But otherwise, I don't know. I actually had never learned a second language (never took classes). The words of other languages that I know is mostly from self-learning or video games. (Recently, I kinda learn a bit more German words due to the Medic in TF2).

And honestly, I don't care about learning a second language myself... So I really don't know what to say.

Spanish or French, I live in the south and most people here talk Spanish, it starts getting a bit less useful the more north you go, but it's still pretty helpful.

I have to be constantly translating for my friends who don't know Spanish when we go out to the smaller restaurants, as well as other places.

Although Spanish is my first language while English is my second one.

Gibberish might come in handy, lots of people around the world know that one.

Which would be what exactly? What's proper to you, in your "neck of the woods", likely isn't proper to where someone else calls home.

As for the question at hand, considering OP has clearly stated the US, my best guess would be Spanish would be the most helpful...depending on where in the US you call home. I grew up in South Florida, where Spanish is extremely helpful to know, especially if you want a job. Currently, I live in the Midwest where it isn't nearly as useful to me.

So, the way I see it is that it's a matter of what (non American English) language is most prevalent in your area, and do you plan on moving out of the area in the future? These could be things you may want to consider.

Yeah, I prefer to be practical about it, but TBH, I can barely speak Pig Latin.

Probably Spanish. Maybe even Mandarin Chinese since we're all going to be speaking that eventually.

Me personally, I'd probably wish to know Spanish as well considering I live in southern US.

Many of the islands to our south speak the language...that and the other Spanish speaking nations to our South...including Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, and Venezuela. I'm sure I'm missing a few, but I'd venture to guess that might be the main reason why.