For economic reasons, it was once fashionable to learn Russian, then Japanese. Today, the equivalent language is Chinese. The world is converging to English, but I can see Chinese being much more useful than Japanese or Russian ever was.
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How to evaluate the value of a language? Something like: # of speakers + their aggregate income - # of speakers who speak English, then predict growth of each variable. By and large, Chinese people can't speak English, including the younger generation. Many can read sort of.
Chinese vs. Russian: 10x more people Stronger economic culture, thus incomes China has its own internet (which is a huge deal) Chinese vs. Japanese: 10x more people More open to immigration
