I'd replace Russian with Spanish in that list.
Romanian is very useful though, because of its reasonably strong ties to latin. If you know Romanian then Italian, Spanish and French are more accessible.
Romanian is very useful though, because of its reasonably strong ties to latin. If you know Romanian then Italian, Spanish and French are more accessible.
As for your second point, as far as I know, Romanian's ties to Latin aren't only reasonably strong; Romanian is actually the most like-Latin language that is still spoken -- however, Spanish and French still sound horrible to me (and I took French for 11 years, in school).
Also -- and I just couldn't resist making this point -- do you really think that the French or the Italians are ever going to do something interesting enough to warrant learning their language? -- please note that I'm not saying anything bad about their past (that's awesome); but, if you're forward thinking, I think you're pretty safe assuming that they're glory days are (long) over.
Right now I'm at 5, Dutch (my mother tongue), Polish, German, English and French (the latter poorly through inactivity).
I very much want to learn more languages and I find that with every language added the next one becomes easier.
So there is no such thing as a language 'not worth learning', almost all of the languages spoken on the European continent are related in some way or other anyway (even Hungarian and Finnish).
Whether a language is 'ascending' or 'descending' in influence can certainly guide your priorities but I'd definitely not rule them out simply on that basis.
However, I don't share it. I believe that one should spend most of one's time trying to do something awesome in one language -- as opposed to wasting time by learning 5.
Now, don't get me wrong, the fact that you now 5 languages is very cool; however, I don't think I'll ever use up that much time to gain those particular skills.
You see, I believe that if one were to draw a graph illustrating the relationship between the "awesomeness" of what one has done and the effort one has put in, the effort axis would be on an geometric scale, while the "awesomeness" one would be on a linear one. In other words, one has to put in a hell of a lot more effort to get something just a little more "awesome".
On the other hand, maybe learning languages is an integral part of what you "do"; or, maybe, it helps you relax.
Either way, and as in most arguments between somewhat-intelligent people, I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree -- please note that I'm using the "somewhat" prefix as it pertains to me; I'm pretty sure that you're just plain intelligent.
Oh, and: Merry Christmas. And a very happy New Year.
Dutch was unavoidable, English at 10 in grade school, working for a US based bank (but in Europe), French and German you get in high school in NL and Polish because I lived there and had a relationship with somone from Poland.
Currently Spanish is very high on the wish list because of spending some time in Panama.