I concur, forgot to mention Spanish for some reason :lookaround:

Even though Russian, Chinese, Japanese etc. businessmen can/could speak English, it's always better to talk with their own language (at least to some extent, chit-chat if nothing else) as it gives impression that you care & respect them in addition of helping them to find certain English words/phrases.

Most people in the Nordic countries understand Swedish if you were to travel in those areas.

I vote German or Russian, just because both are so cool, haha.

German is probaly one of the most important business languages to learn, plus I found the similarities to English made it very easy to learn. Otherwise Russian or French would probaly be the next best to learn, with Russian being the most awesome.

I think it sounds horrible and it's hard for me to understand why some people regard it "cool". However that didn't stop me from taking one course of it at high school.

How did the course go? :)

Personally, I don't think Russian sounds cool nor beautiful.

I sucked so bad that I won't reveal any details ;)

I have also read two courses of German and they went a little bit better. If I could just find some spare time I would study it independently but the politics takes quite a bit of my time.

I'd go with German or Italian. You can find someone who speaks English just about anywhere, so learning another language is just bonus points with whoever you're speaking to. German and Italian tourists are everywhere, so you'd do yourself a favor learning their languages, especially if you want to make acquaintances.

I'd stay away from Russian unless you're thinking of going to far eastern Europe. It requires too much work for a language not as widespread in Europe.

Scandinavian languages are kinda useless unless you're going to be spending time up there, because you're going to find A LOT of English speakers. But, then again, you're going to find a lot of English speakers everywhere.

Basically, just find a language you're comfortable with.

EDIT: Finnish is especially useless. =P

Well the amount of those tourist groups really depend of a country, but learning a language for some Italian tourists here and there isn't worth it.

True, there's only some 5,2 million people speaking it as first language but at least it's logical language, to certain extent. For example a word "kirves" ("axe") is pronounced exactly the same way, "kirves" without any turning or twisting.

I've seen more Italians and have had more encounters with Italians than any other group (besides Germans). It's more logical to know Italian than any other European language in my eyes, unless you're going to do business.