What languages does your character know? How about the other PCs in your party, any idea what languages they know? More importantly do you even care? During character creation everyone always pays close attention to class, race, ability scores, feats and powers. Little thought is usually put into choosing languages. By dismissing language as an insignificant part of the character creation process you may be overlooking a little detail that could provide you and the party with advantages you hadn’t considered.
In order to make things simple it’s assumed that all PCs are fluent in Common (the human language). Other non-human races are usually fluent in the language associated with their exotic heritage. Depending on the race, class and background you choose for your PC you might even be trained in a few additional languages right from level 1. However, few players that I’ve gamed with give much thought to this important choice.
So what should you consider when choosing your PC’s languages? I know from my own experience I usually select the language spoken by the monsters I suspect we’ll encounter or I take the language associated with the races that make up the rest of the party. This way relies more on mechanics and less on character development. For that angle I suppose you should carefully consider the languages that make the most sense with the character’s back story. Regardless of how you make your decision once you’ve selected your PC’s languages it’s time to look at how to put that knowledge to its best use during the game.