I took German in college, lived over there a semester, and have yet to use it in my professional life. I even worked for two years for a German company and travelled to Munich 4 times! Spanish would have been more practical. It really depends on what you want to do with your career, but as far as a language you can’t go wrong with, I vote Spanish. If you want to work for the FBI or in military intelligence, you should take Mandarin, Arabic or Korean. We shouldn’t be encouraging our kids to take German and French since they are really of no use except in niche areas these days, and personal enjoyment of course. Assuming we want our kids to learn what is useful.
