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by erikb 4038 days ago
> Global understanding of what?

Language learning

> it's grammatical structure won't help you with any other language that you do use

Actually it will teach you something real. It may be artificial but it possesses the ability to get an idea that's in your head into the head of another person. Therefore it's real. Also artificial languages don't come from nothing. They are based on what its author knew about languages.

> Wouldn't learning a more widely spoken/used language be more advantageous[...]?

Depends. If it's related to a language you want to use, then yes. But a real language also has disadvantages like exceptions to the grammar rules, illogical rules (Do you know that chair is male in German?), and a dominant group of people who pushes that language forward without considering your situation (natives are kind of arrogant in that way).

I learn Chinese for over 5 years and am not fluent. I also know a lot of Chinese who have spent considerable amounts of their lives (some up to 20 years) and are still easily distinguished as foreigners when speaking German. If your native language belongs to one of the bigger European families then it might only take 6 weeks to get your Esperanto to fluency! So if you have never acquired a second or third languae by yourself then learning one of these two might help you learn to learn languages (I can tell you from experience that it's something you really need to learn if you want to get to any reasonable level in another language).

Last but not least the question in the previous comment wasn't "What's the most valuable thing to do right now?" but the question was to choose either language A or B.