Central Asian languages and Arabic is where the action is these days.
If a youngster wanted to be on the fast track, that's what I'd recommend they study.
People who spend the next couple years in Uzbekistan, or some such place, are the people who'll will have stories to tell their kids and grandkids.
I guessed wrong, back when they phased my old language out. I decided to jump ship to either Chinese or Arabic. At the time, I figured, man, Arabic is old news, China is where the action's gonna be.
That was in the late 90's. Who knew? Of course, for the longer term Chinese is a smarter move, but I had all but flipped a coin to make my decision.