I currently have some free time to venture into learning a second

>>18453641

That's not how languages work anon.

If you're in Russia, Russian. and vice versa.

Language is only a tool. Nothing more.

>>18453653
Which is what would be using the language as; a tool to further increase the potential for finding opportunities for employment. I live in the Untied States in a region with a significant percentage of the population with a background from either Russia or China.

>>18453670
But it doesn't matter either way.
You still have to look for opportunities seek them out.

It's like me saying this hammer is the best in the world and then you saying you want to plaster.

What do you want to do?

>>18453676
I'll weigh my options, I should've rephrased my OP to "which out of the two is currently the most useful to learn". The idea to learn a second language only came to my head today as I read that learning a foreign language becomes more difficult after you reach your mid 20's.

>>18453700
To clarify, I have no real "urgent need" to learn a second language. I would just like to take advantage of the time I have to do so.

>>18453700
>>18453705
You've got the same answer though.

What's more useful to you?

If you want to pick up Chinese chicks (an example) and you've learnt Russian well you've got a problem.

I know the feeling though, trying to learn Hungarian. because that's the language that I settled on.

I'll give you another example. PHP is the most useful server language but if you want something in particular like certain Robots then Python more useful.

It all depends on what you want to do with it.

>>18453708
>>18453714
I'm leaning more towards Mandarin due to the larger base of materials and media available to study. I'll make the assumption that it's more difficult than Russian, but there are more outlets to make use of Mandarin where I live. Sorry for having to make you explain your point multiple times before it caught on.

If you're going for usefulness you'd be better off learning Arabic. 22% of the world's people speak it.

>>18453725
That's okay.

Mandarin is annoying to learn because of the pronunciations. If I were you I'd find either a teacher irl or go to >>>/int/ and see if anyone there wants to help you out because really with any language you should speak it but more so with Mandarin because of the soundings and pronunciations.

I've not looked into Russian but I know people who can speak it and they say it's fairly easy to understand though they were brought up with it.

Good luck with your studies anon.

Learn a programming language instead.

>>18453729
We had an arabic sub teacher who would try and convert anyone to arabic when she took over a language class. She learnt through singing apparently.

>>18453731
I'm a cs student but even I value languages. It beats programming. Unless you want into that or want a hobby don't bother with it.

>>18453730
Thank you, I found a few speaking courses nearby. I'll try to learn some of the phrases in the meantime while everything is in the process of being set up.

Learn japanese so you can watch anime raws