I started a level 11 wizard and I chose the Imp from the list of Improved Familiars. I was wondering about the Inevitable Arbiter for the near-invincibility that is regeneration(chaotic)(the serious downside is that when it is unconscious it can't fly and it weighs like 60 lbs, which is too much for 8 str wizard to carry around) and the cacao daemon for its resistances, but I finally decided on the imp because it seemed useful in and out of combat. An at-will invisibility flying creature with DR, SR, and fast healing to deliver touch spells for me? yes please! It was the best for roleplaying as well because I am a tiefling. It also has all my skill ranks, which means I get 2 tries on knowledges, spellcraft, etc., and can speak(both verbally and telepathically), but above all: it has hands! This seems like a pretty useful creature, but it is really limited by its 40 health.
This leads me to these 2 questions:
1. Since it has hands, can it use a staff? If I invest enough points into UMD, it could have a decent chance of succeeding.
2. Can it learn different languages than me if I invest in Linguistics? It was our rogue's job to learn a lot of languages, but she will be leaving to college. If it could learn different languages, then I would get 2 languages per rank. It would also be an amazing translator because it can tell me everything through telepathy!
Remembering that it is tiny, you may have to check strength and weight to use a staff. It can definitely use your UMD ranks and ts Cha to use a wand. An imp familiar makes a great buffer.
Assuming you have a consular imp, it can use telepathy to be a fantastic translator. I don't think there is any rules support to learn different languages than you. It is using your skill ranks, not gaining its own ranks as you level.
I just looked it up, the imp's light load is 16.5 lbs. The staff of evocation, which is the one I am using, is 5 lbs.