My 2-cents worth of observations on the topic:
1) Chinese (any of the several dialects) is nothing like what a Westerner understands as a language... the 'data' is mostly encoded in the the tone CHANGES, rather than the sound of the word (which is different to some of the other Asian languages that work on the overall-sound of the word, like what most languages do). I've spent a bit of time in the Far East, and lived a while in Taiwan, and had contemplated basing myself there for a lengthily period (years ago they had lenient student visas for learning Mandarin that only required a minimal amount of time in classes in order to pretty much live permanently in the country- and it may still be like this (?)). In all of my travels, I've only met a handful of Westerners who could speak Chinese fluently (and even less who could write it)... one of which who's mother is Chinese... so although it's a great idea, and I'd love to be able to understand Chinese, it is a tall order.
2) English is pretty useful... I'm a native English speaker (not that I do it very well), and have traveled extensively (and worked in many of the countries I've been in), and never found it all that difficult to communicate or get what I want or need. English is pretty good for IT too, because most of the well-supported computer languages are English-based (I'm not sure if they exist in 'translated' incarnations ?... I'm sure it wouldn't be all that difficult to do, so perhaps this is a moot point).
3) Spanish is what I've been trying to learn... it's reasonably wide-spread and I've seen it selected as a second language in Asia (in place of learning English)... its use is growing, and will likely be the national language in the States soon. The big benefit for some of us non-language inclined English speakers is that it's not all that far from English (perhaps, in part at least, because the two countries are neighbours, and there's been regular interbreeding in the monarchy and general populace over the last few thousand years (?))... and therefore a baby-step compared to Chinese
. Besides, Spanish is spoken in many countries that are sunny, have lots of natural beauty, and that one may want to (very early-)retire to once the world implodes (like in a few month's time).
