What would you consider Army critical languages at this point in time and in the future also (next 10 years)?

PVT Angelo Velez I think everyone will look at the current threats out there and the world and say that is the language you need to learn. I look at it from an educational standpoint as well. What will better serve you after your military career? The answer for me would be Spanish. Here is why. There are awesome opportunities and missions in South America as part of our continued Nation Building in that hemisphere. Not only can you get some very cool assignments with that language capability, but just think about the opportunities in the civilian sector being bi-lingual. Just a suggestion - look beyond your service time toward transition as well.

This is simply a thought, but one that might be valuable depending on what you want to use your language skills for. The Army has several langauges which they consider priority, but already have plenty of Soldier who speak them. Chinese and Spanish are two of the biggest in this category. While they are appealing languages for a lot of reasons, if you are trying to bring a rare but useful skill, don't pick a language like these. I know, the Army trained me in Chinese, but I don't come anywhere near the skill level of a native speaker, of which the Army has many. At the end of the day, no one really cares about my Chinese language skill accept for Finance when they are cutting my language pay orders.

Look at languages that are used in strategically important countries, but which the Army doesn't already have a lot of native speakers. Indonesian is a good example. Farsi is also valuable. You might also try to see if you can find Malay. All these languages serve strategically important populations, of whom their are few in our military.

In my mind and in order:
Farsi
Arabic
Mandarin
Korean
Urdu
Russian
French