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Q: What second language would you want your kid to learn if they were 10 years old today?
Would it be Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish, or ??? (I am assuming your primary native tongue is English) My pick would be Chinese with Spanish a close second.
If they were 10, then probably Zulu or Mohican. If they were 9, then maybe Vulcan. If they were 11 plus, I'd rather not talk to them and send them off to a boarding school.
Is word police 'they' or 'it'?
Scandinavian:
not Chinese police, they just let you sit in a room while they go sit in another room and scratch random body parts.
icnif77:
The word "police" is rather special. It has no singular noun form. Something like that: police over there is securing the scene would be incorrect.
Why not Latvian or Swahili if you are not taking the question seriously? I thought parents try to help their kids prepare for the future? Are you guys parent material?
At 10, it would be 4th language. My kids would speak Chinese, my native tongue and English prior to 10. Maybe French, Spanish or German or Engluage.
We plan to rise our kids in no less than 3 languages
* With Mom, speaks in Mandarin
* With Dad, speaks in French
* Outside home, speaks in English (we plan to emigrate soon)
So at 10 years old, in an English school country, I guess most local schools would offer either French or Spanish. With my wife, we already speaks English with a French accent mixed-up with a good dose of Mandarin vocabulary.
Spanish. I know it's the language I learned after English and I'll probably end up with a Spanish girl, but yeah it's worth it. It's one of most spoken languages in the world, just look at south america. It offers an incredible discount on any other romance language, and the culture is absolutely incredible. I love Spanish and south American music, dance and food, it's the perfect trifecta. The literature, especially short stories and poetry, is exquisite. A language I can't recommend enough even though the irregular verbs, myriad tenses, gendered nouns and emphasis on the subjunctive make it much harder than those losers who say "at least you learned an easy language" think. and if you speak it fluently then there is no shortage of absolutely beautiful countries and islands to which you can retire for really cheap (I guess that's for me).
English. Her first language is Thai. (but this is one of those 'if' questions. I think OP was asking what is the most desirable second language if English is primary language)
Well, I can only speak for myself. The language/s I wish I were fluent in is Thai, French, Spanish, Italian. (engualage wouldn't hurt either 
)
My pick would be Chinese, then Hindi. Your kids will grow up to a very different world, so will our kids (if I ever will have some). The 2 most populous nations in the world are China and India. In our time, English is the most used language and will be for the longest time. But with China and India coming up fast economically, if think our future generations will need these languages. If you look at every major city in the world now you are bound to see more Chinese and Indians. Heck, Indians in Hong Kong even speak Cantonese more fluently than locals here!
louischuahm:
Yes they do but Hindi is spoken more than English. Besides, Hindi is one of ten of their national languages.
I would consider these languages in this order: Spanish, German, French, Japanese and Arabic.
Don't say, you haven't been warned last night! 
Everybody, except Ted and Royce! They both know, I have a 'de-tact-or'…metadata and thingies
I would have my kid learn English, Mandarin (no point in learning Cantonese), Spanish, French and the fifth possibly...
German or Russian.
For the second language I think Chinese would be best because Spanish and French are easier to learn as the kid grows up.
Hola, I'm Patricia. I have a spanish school in Shanghai near Shanghai Stadium station.
Study Spanish in Shanghai. Spanish courses in group and private lessons.
All Spanish levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. We also offer DELE preparation courses.
Courses for children, youth and adults. Also courses for official tests for kids (DELE Escolar).
Courses and guidance to study in Spanish universities. Processing of documents.
All our teachers are native and has TSFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate.
Group classes are 4-9 students (small groups).
Private Spanish classes can be in our school, in your office or in your home, at the time you wish.
Our school is close to the Shanghai Stadium subway station.
You can contact us by email: directorpatricia@spanishshanghai.com, WeChat mon84106 (chinese and spanish) or liuxiaxia83 (spanish and english) , or telephone: 180-1759-6015 (Chinese and Spanish), 136-6179-4197 (Spanish and English).
We also offer Spanish-Chinese translation.
And courses of French, Italian, English, Catalan, Chinese, Shanghainese, specific business and marketing language courses, painting for children and adults, etc.
********
帕特丽夏西班牙语和绘画学校在上海开班了。西班牙语课程包括小班制和VIP 。课程包含各个等级的西班牙语：A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2。我们也开设西班牙语针对DELE考试的预习班。
所有的课程都开设幼儿，少年和成人班，以及针对官方考试的课程。开设针对将要去西班牙留学的学员的课程，为学员提供留学方面的咨询和办理留学手续。 我们所有的老师都是母语为西班牙语的老师，都拥有TSFL（教授外国人西班牙证书）的老师小班制课程为4-9人VIP课程为您量身打造，可以选择在我们的 学校，在您的办公室或者在您的家里，上课时候也由您来订。我们的学校坐落在上海八万人体育场边上。您可以由以下方式联系我们：directorpatricia@spanishshanghai.com， 微信：mon84106, 电话：18017596015刘老师（中文和西班牙语咨询）13661794197（西班牙语和英语咨询） 除了西班牙语外，我们学校还提供以下课程和服 务：中西翻译，法国语课程，意大利语课程英语课程，加泰罗尼亚语课程，汉语课程，上海话课程（沪语），书法课程，和所有绘画课程。
Besides English I would prefer my kiddo to teach German. I think German is quite popular in other European countries. though I am not sure never been to Europe
My son is 4, and he learns and speak actualy with 3 languages. what will be his next, let he decide 
My native lang. is not english it was my 4th lang I have start to learn when I was about 10 y.o. 
, chinese is 5th and I will really go for Italian when I'll make my way to it. ( that's why I offen mix all the languages in one sentence )
German is the only 2nd language for an english speaker that corrolates to a higher income when accounting for other variables (like that a person exposed to a 2nd language enough to become fluent is likely to be slightly better off anyway) and even then it's just +4%
I wouldn't go the Chinese route, because it just doesn't move the needle on your prospects much. There also isn't a ton of chinese art or literature that simply must be experienced in it's native tongue...maybe that will change but maybe not.
I'd probably go German, French or Japanese...not for monetary reasons but just that those are all great places to visit and they have (and still) produce art that you can experience better in the native tongue.
I would generally agree with expatlife26 regarding French and German. Not so sure about Japanese although it would be very dependant on where you think you will be during the next 10 or 20 years.
If Europe, I would go with German or French, if America Spanish would probably be the best second language. If you are looking at staying in this part of the world - maybe Chinese or French.
Generally y I would say that French, Spanish, German and Chinese (Mandarin) would be the best languages to start of with. All of them would allow your kid to communicate with large numbers of people while hopefully getting some use of it in future work.
expatlife26:
I'm not a huge Japanophile myself either, but I know smart people back home who did in fact learn Japanese to better appreciate japanese cinema and literature.
I respect that Japan produces original art which intelligent people can really get into. Whereas you definitely can't say that about China.
I'm not trying to be biased or judgmental against China or anything, most places DONT really produce significant quantities of meaningful art with international appeal.
But yeah I think for languages that really can open doors for cultural appreciation (Literature/film/travel/etc.) I'd go French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian for my top 5
Eorthisio:
People often forget that French has hundreds of millions speakers and almost a billion potential speakers (who can't access education) in Africa, some countries such as Nigeria even plan to change their primary language from English to French because they are surrounded by French speakers. The number of Francophones is expected to go from ~300 millions today to ~700 millions by 2050, making French the fastest rising language in the first half of the 21st century, no thanks to declining France of course.
My son will speak Chinese from home, and probably some garbled 'Engluage', which I'll be spending years with him trying to correct. As a 3rd language, Dutch would be the logical choice for a British/Dutch citizen, though I wouldn't be disappointed if he learned Spanish instead.
