I want to be fluent in 2 foreign languages Arabic and Spanish. Which one first?
I have studied bits and pieces of each language. I have a real interest in Arabic and believe that I will be using it for work in the future. Right now I live in El Paso TX which is full of Spanish speakers and have a pretty good opportunity to practice and be immersed in the culture here. I may not be here for more than a couple of years and would hate to let this opportunity go to waste. The answer I am seeking is which makes more sense to learn first in terms of time and efficiency? Is it better to learn the easy language first which would be Spanish and take hold of speaking opportunities here? Or would I be better suited to learn Arabic which I know is important to me and my work in the future? Believing that I could lean both, I just wanna know opinions on learning the easy one or hard one first. Also would it be stupid to let this opportunity of "immersion" pass me by? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Question

I want to be fluent in 2 foreign languages Arabic and Spanish. Which one first?
I have studied bits and pieces of each language. I have a real interest in Arabic and believe that I will be using it for work in the future. Right now I live in El  Paso TX which is full of Spanish speakers and have a pretty good opportunity to practice and be immersed in the culture here. I may not be here for more than a couple of years and would hate to let this opportunity go to waste. The answer I am seeking is which makes more sense to learn first in terms of time and efficiency? Is it better to learn the easy language first which would be Spanish and take hold of speaking opportunities here? Or would I be better suited to learn Arabic which I know is important to me and my work in the future? Believing that I could lean both, I just wanna know opinions on learning the easy one or hard one first. Also would it be stupid to let this opportunity of "immersion" pass me by? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Answer

My question to you is do you have an interest in Spanish at all or are you just learning it because you can? If you really are passionate about Arabic then learn Arabic. I live in a place with practically no Japanese speakers and I am learning Japanese. If you are really determined to do something do that. If you really want to learn Arabic learn Arabic. Who knows what will happen in the future if you do.

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your best bet would be to drop both and pick up russian first, then go back to spanish and arabic.

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I would certainly learn Spanish first. The best way to learn a language is using it, it makes no sense to swallow tons of grammar and not apply it, it's like learning mathematics.

Maybe you wanna see this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WLHr1_EVtQ

Take care!
Alejo.

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My advice is to learn Spanish Might fastest way , but when in your city many people who speak Spanish there and if you are going to live for a couple of years maybe you should try to learn Spanish and then the Arab language. If you want I could help you learn . good luck.

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Thanks for the help guys. I am going to learn both, but I will primarily focus on Spanish while I am here. It makes no sense not to when I am already around so many Spanish speakers.