learn portuguese! the world cup is coming up the olympics are there in 2016 and you are gonna wanna be working there when that shit hits the fan

improve your cad and 3d skills as well cause there is always some up and coming that wants to do it better than you and is at this very moment staring with bloodshot eyes at a computer screen who wants to take your crown and steal your thunder

or you could just kick back, relax and actually not worry about any of that shit and just go to rio and drink tequila on the beach and learn portuguese from some beautiful chiquita in a bikini

Thanks for the advice)
I believe brazilian portuguese is a good idea, but I'm afraid I won't be able to learn it from some beautiful chiquita in a bikini, because I'm a chiquita myself)))

well... LOL you never know they seem to be a pretty friendly people

reverse that then: you could learn it from some dude in leopard print banana hammock

the most useful language as a professional architect in the united states will be spanish as it will allow you to talk directly to many of the laborers on construction sites if necessary... as an academic architect, some combination of english/french/german/italian is the most useful.

Absolutely no for Arabic.

It's a very hard language (on par with Chinese). The difference (with China) is that in any construction process in the Middle East there are plenty of people who don't speak a word of Arabic (from the Western architect to the Pakistanese Labourer or the Chinese supplier). English is lingua franca.

Mandarin. Might as well learn it now so your prepared when China takes over the US.

yeah.. I don't think you can go wrong by learning Mandarin. It's always good to be to able to speak the language of one's future colonial masters. Unfortunately, I suck at languages.

scrap learning a new language you are already ahead of the game knowing 2. Most international firms speech english in their offices, i would focus on improving your design skills and 3d modeling.

I gotta agree with some of the earlier posters...Mandarin. I'm from Ireland, moved to China in 2004, set up an Architecture Studio and been doing very good since. That way you can add it to your CV and who knows maybe land a job at a firm at SOM Shanghai branch.

My experience here in China is that you don't necessarily "need" to speak Mandarin in order to work in the design field, but it definitely comes in handy at times, and you can be chummy with local clients easier.

AquillatheNun:
I'm glad you suggested Portuguese as a language worth learning...but in Brazil, we drink "Cachaça" (Portuguese pronunciation: [kaˈʃasɐ]), not tequila. I believe you have your Latin American countries mixed up. :)

This reminds me of that scene in James Bond movie from 1979: 007 is in Rio surrounded by Brazilians with sombreros (giant Mexican hats) speaking Spanish to each other.

take on a language (equals people, culture, region etc) that interests you 'architecturally'. would love to learn danish, even though it'd probably not be necessary since most professionals speak english. but i love what is going on over there.

Mandarin is always a good option.

Keep english, but get a New Zealand accent:

"According to a BBC poll, Brits find the Kiwi accent the most charming and prestigious outside of Britain and they prefer a New Zealand accent over the Queen's English."

http://travel.msn.co.nz/destinations/newzealand/874995/brits-prefer-a-kiwi-accent-to-the-queens

What does everyone think about Japanese? I'll be graduating high school at the end of this semester and also know a fair amount of French– Japanese is something I just started for other reasons but I'm curious as to how it could help in architecture (if at all).