[pb7]

I am also originally from Moldova and speak the same 4 languages. If I had to guess, this is fairly common in Moldova -- at least in private schools.

I would say there is a very mild advantage, even recognizing vaguely similar words in other languages when traveling. I find Russian to be very useful in a way that French and Romanian aren't.

English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish are the most "useful" as they each unlock a large part of the world that tends to prefer its own.

Edit: Spanish is probably on par with the others.

[AdrenalinMd]

Oh, salut ! (Romanian "salut" not French "salut", lol)

It's indeed still useful when traveling to those countries that speak these languages. But that's mere few weeks per year. English could have worked anyway as everyone is becoming proficient in English.

[AnnaPali]

> Romanian "salut" not French "salut"

I always loved the Romanian joke where someone says "mersi" and then you reply "oh, I didn't know you were French" but I suppose that comes up with many words.

[type0]

I don't agree on French not being very useful it has lost some status but you can get by with it in many places of the World and I would put Hindi and Swahili on that list too.

[rippercushions]

Some interesting thoughts on what additional languages an English speaker would find the most useful for travel worldwide: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/35348/as-a-native...

But you need to make a lot of assumptions as to what is really the "most useful".

[seri4l]

Add French to the list (unlocking the rest of Africa) and you have the 6 official languages of the United Nations.

[jacooper]

I think Spanish should be on that list tooz since its one of the core languages out there right?

[pb7]

I mentioned it at the end but yeah, probably on par with the others. It "unlocks" all of Latin America minus Brazil and few Dutch/French territories, but even Brazilians speak varying amount of Spanish.

[yonaguska]

I've found that with Brazilians, even if they don't speak Spanish, I can speak Spanish at them and scrape by. It's much easier that me relying solely on English to communicate, fwiw.