How many people can I easily communicate with if I know English, Russian, France French, and Mandarin?

You ‘re looking at it the wrong way. For instance, with French you could also talk to a lot of people in Northern and Western Africa. The real question is : where are you going to meet them ? What will you talk about ? I speak English, French, Chinese, some German and Italian and I can assure you that the real question still : who are the people I am interested in talking to – and who are willing to talk to me ? Where are they ? How can I find them ?

Even if you learn a thousand languages, it won ‘t actually increase dramatically the number of people you can talk to. It will increase their diversity. To learn a language is mostly to learn a culture , and it takes a lot of curiosity. Then it takes a lot of time to meet people you can actually talk with. The process of learning a new language is long and can be painful. Only the people you ‘ll meet   will make it worth it.

Don ‘t count, just make new friends and enjoy !

This text was originally published in quora.