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Which languages to learn to maximize the number of speakers is a traditional exercise, going something like English, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, French, Arabic, Hindi, Swahili, Bengali, Portuguese, Japanese, German... But what if you wanted to learn one language per family, while maximizing speakers?
English, Mandarin, Swahili, Arabic, Indonesian, Tamil, Japanese, maybe Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai; possibly Korean; Hungarian. This can be seen as how to learn up to 12 useful languages while minimizing the possibility of any re-use to make your life easier. :)
Of course both lists can look different if weighted by one's personal probability of running into the language or speakers thereof.
English, Mandarin, Swahili, Arabic, Indonesian, Tamil, Japanese, maybe Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai; possibly Korean; Hungarian. This can be seen as how to learn up to 12 useful languages while minimizing the possibility of any re-use to make your life easier. :)
Of course both lists can look different if weighted by one's personal probability of running into the language or speakers thereof.