Current Events > Should I learn German or French?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know very little German. Always wanted French. Dont really have plans to leave the US, but I would enjoy France OR Germany.

Just not sure based on how easy they are and practical.
---

Learn Arabic instead
---

French is easier
---

If you want to look good on a resume learn spanish. French and german are dying languages.

OpShaft posted...

I know very little German. Always wanted French

Then why are you asking this question
---

UnholyMudcrab posted...

OpShaft posted...

I know very little German. Always wanted French

Then why are you asking this question

I just meant that I'd already picked up a little so it would be easier.
---

French. It's the more beautiful language and AFAIK it's more widely spoken.
---

FLUFFYGERM posted...

French. It's the more beautiful language and AFAIK it's more widely spoken.

Pretty sure you're right. I'm just more German than French. Last name in particular is German af

Logic is telling me French, but German would be easier for me.
---

Also obligatory watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfnmkgmUDW4" data-time="
---

Deutsch ist wirklich die schnste Sprache der Welt. Seriously I couldn't love a language more. And it's actually the highest paying second language for people working in the US.

But if you want to learn French more, do that no question. Learning a language when absolute necessity isn't involved requires constant love and motivation.
---

ASithLord7 posted...

Deutsch ist wirklich die schnste Sprache der Welt.

C'est une ide absurde! Le franais est la vraie plus belle langue du monde; l'allemand est une langue monstrueuse
---

Spanish?
---

Choco posted...

French is easier

---

French is easier to learn, and you have more interest in it
---

German, so that when you're wooing a girl you can also be screaming at her.
---

Spanish is the most useful in the US overall I guess but I can believe the other poster who says German is more valuable here money-wise, simply because of the relevant industries. Id also rate Spanish a lot higher depending on where you live. Between German and French, Id learn German. Its the main language in Germany and Austria and it has a lot of use in Switzerland too. Also very useful academically, though French might have more use if youre a history buff (it was the European lingua Franca for many years after all, even leading to that descriptor).
---

French will get you further.

More native German speakers know English than native French speakers.

Who cares about practicality. I hate that mentality. Worry about which one interests you more. Which one sounds cooler to you? What music do you enjoy more, German or French music? That's the kind of stuff you need to focus on to figure out which language you want to learn.

Regardless of what you choose, check out Language Transfer on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/LanguageTransfer

They have a complete German course and an "introduction to French" course, and you can learn so much from them it's ridiculous.

Ultimately if you're doing more than just rote memorization of grammar structure and vocabulary, learning one language will make it a million times easier to learn a second, third, fourth language.
---

RoboLaserGandhi posted...

French will get you further.

More native German speakers know English than maybe French speakers.

I believe part of this is that the French just dislike American or British tourists anyway. Although I wouldnt disagree with your post.
---

These types of topics always irk me. If, right now, you are not in a position where you could really benefit financially by learning a "useful" language, forget about usefulness and/or difficulty. Go for the language that attracts you personally, be it for the language itself or for the culture (or cultures) attached to it. You'll get much more enjoyment and benefits out of a language you're interested compared to some other language you'll just learn because people are telling you it's useful or easy.

If you're in the situation where you think you like both languages exactly the same, just flip a coin and whatever the outcome you'll either be pleased with the result, or regret it. Either way you'll know which one you want to learn the most.

If your interest is solely based on the language and nothing else, then try learning what you can of one in a couple of weeks and do the same thing with the other one, that way you'll know which one interests you the most in that specific aspect.
---

I took German because I like it more as a language, but I admit that it would have been more useful for me to take French now that I am interested in Africa, where French is still spoken in many countries.
---

French.
---

German is fucking kickass language. Do you hear that shit

French is Spanish for people that don't like to smile
---

I wish I'd have had the opportunity to learn German just to read some of their philosophers in the original language.
---

French!

1) It's more widely spoken population wise
2) More countries speak French
3) It sounds very sexy, German sounds angry and grating
4) If you learn French and Spanish you can talk to anyone in the entire American continent. If you learn German you can speak to... Germans, some Swiss, some Belgians and a bunch of dweebs that listen to Ramnstein and think that German sounds badass.

Based on utilitarian purposes I'd learn Spanish instead, but French is a close second.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

ASithLord7 posted...

Deutsch ist wirklich die schnste Sprache der Welt.

C'est une ide absurde! Le franais est la vraie plus belle langue du monde; l'allemand est une langue monstrueuse

c'est vrai

, .
---

Shuto-uke posted...

French!

1) It's more widely spoken population wise
2) More countries speak French
3) It sounds very sexy, German sounds angry and grating
4) If you learn French and Spanish you can talk to anyone in the entire American continent. If you learn German you can speak to... Germans, some Swiss, some Belgians and a bunch of dweebs that listen to Ramnstein and think that German sounds badass.

Based on utilitarian purposes I'd learn Spanish instead, but French is a close second.

My fiance speaks Spanish and I'm picking some up. Figure she can do the Spanish and I'll do something else. I don't really enjoy Spanish anyway.

I want French for the reasons you said, but I just enjoy German. This is difficult for me.
---

OpShaft posted...

Shuto-uke posted...

French!

1) It's more widely spoken population wise
2) More countries speak French
3) It sounds very sexy, German sounds angry and grating
4) If you learn French and Spanish you can talk to anyone in the entire American continent. If you learn German you can speak to... Germans, some Swiss, some Belgians and a bunch of dweebs that listen to Ramnstein and think that German sounds badass.

Based on utilitarian purposes I'd learn Spanish instead, but French is a close second.

My fiance speaks Spanish and I'm picking some up. Figure she can do the Spanish and I'll do something else. I don't really enjoy Spanish anyway.

I want French for the reasons you said, but I just enjoy German. This is difficult for me.

I see.

French is easier to learn I believe. Plus imagine your wife speaking Spanish and you speaking French, it'd be sexy as fuck!

Learn Arabic
---

French is absolutely not easier to learn. English and German are fairly closely related Germanic languages.

German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Northern Italy, and by about 30% of EU citizens as a second language iirc

Educate yourself
---

Learning German is in my to do list. Sounds so badass.
---

Why not both?
---

---

. .
---

.
---

---

teepan95 posted...

---

teepan95 posted...

Why not both?

Eventually, but I want to be fluent, or at least close, before learning a third.
---

ASithLord7 posted...

French is absolutely not easier to learn. English and German are fairly closely related Germanic languages.

German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Northern Italy, and by about 30% of EU citizens as a second language iirc

Educate yourself

I'll ignore the angry swipe for discussion's sake.

I've spoken to many English speakers that have learned both. They say that German grammar is truly a pain in the ass, and they complain a lot about the 3rd gender that German has, and that Germans tend to fuse a bunch of words together to form a mega-word.

I'd really say that French is closer to English that German is to English. Look at this, for example:

English: What is the direction of the board of education?
French: Quelle est la direction du conseil d'ducation?
German: Welche Richtung hat der Bildungsausschuss?

English: Meet at the designated rendes-vous point, rapidly
French: Rendez-vous au point de rendez-vous dsign, rapidement
German: Treffen Sie sich schnell an der gewnschten Stelle

English: How was your annual performance review?
French: Comment s'est droule votre valuation annuelle des performances?
German: Wie war Ihre jhrliche Leistungsbeurteilung?

English: What is the utilization percentage?
French: Quel est le pourcentage d'utilisation?
German: Wie hoch ist der Auslastungsprozentsatz?

English was born as a Germanic language, but then it took a lot from French later on, some people would say it's a combination of the two.

ASithLord7 posted...

BTW your sig is awesome lol

coolcono posted...

teepan95 posted...

Is this like, urdu? I have a friend from Pakistan and this looks very similar to what he showed me
---

OpShaft posted...

coolcono posted...

teepan95 posted...

Is this like, urdu? I have a friend from Pakistan and this looks very similar to what he showed me

I posted Urdu

I don't recognise what the other guy posted <_<
---

Shuto-uke posted...

ASithLord7 posted...

French is absolutely not easier to learn. English and German are fairly closely related Germanic languages.

German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Northern Italy, and by about 30% of EU citizens as a second language iirc

Educate yourself

I'll ignore the angry swipe for discussion's sake.

I've spoken to many English speakers that have learned both. They say that German grammar is truly a pain in the ass, and they complain a lot about the 3rd gender that German has, and that Germans tend to fuse a bunch of words together to form a mega-word.

I'd really say that French is closer to English that German is to English. Look at this, for example:

English: What is the direction of the board of education?
French: Quelle est la direction du conseil d'ducation?
German: Welche Richtung hat der Bildungsausschuss?

English: Meet at the designated rendes-vous point, rapidly
French: Rendez-vous au point de rendez-vous dsign, rapidement
German: Treffen Sie sich schnell an der gewnschten Stelle

English: How was your annual performance review?
French: Comment s'est droule votre valuation annuelle des performances?
German: Wie war Ihre jhrliche Leistungsbeurteilung?

English: What is the utilization percentage?
French: Quel est le pourcentage d'utilisation?
German: Wie hoch ist der Auslastungsprozentsatz?

English was born as a Germanic language, but then it took a lot from French later on, some people would say it's a combination of the two.

On my phone so cant post examples now, but you used sentences with latin words or french loan words, so of course they look similar. You can do the same with German and English sentences.

Personally I find German grammar to not be all that difficult, and aside from the -ch sounds, German pronunciation is all easy to an english speaker, and german words are for the most part spelled as they sound
---

ASithLord7 posted...

Shuto-uke posted...

ASithLord7 posted...

French is absolutely not easier to learn. English and German are fairly closely related Germanic languages.

German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Northern Italy, and by about 30% of EU citizens as a second language iirc

Educate yourself

I'll ignore the angry swipe for discussion's sake.

I've spoken to many English speakers that have learned both. They say that German grammar is truly a pain in the ass, and they complain a lot about the 3rd gender that German has, and that Germans tend to fuse a bunch of words together to form a mega-word.

I'd really say that French is closer to English that German is to English. Look at this, for example:

English: What is the direction of the board of education?
French: Quelle est la direction du conseil d'ducation?
German: Welche Richtung hat der Bildungsausschuss?

English: Meet at the designated rendes-vous point, rapidly
French: Rendez-vous au point de rendez-vous dsign, rapidement
German: Treffen Sie sich schnell an der gewnschten Stelle

English: How was your annual performance review?
French: Comment s'est droule votre valuation annuelle des performances?
German: Wie war Ihre jhrliche Leistungsbeurteilung?

English: What is the utilization percentage?
French: Quel est le pourcentage d'utilisation?
German: Wie hoch ist der Auslastungsprozentsatz?

English was born as a Germanic language, but then it took a lot from French later on, some people would say it's a combination of the two.

On my phone so cant post examples now, but you used sentences with latin words or french loan words, so of course they look similar. You can do the same with German and English sentences.

Personally I find German grammar to not be all that difficult, and aside from the -ch sounds, German pronunciation is all easy to an english speaker, and german words are for the most part spelled as they sound

Yes... English borrows a lot from French. That's my point :)

It's not the be-all-end-all, but the State Dept. does consider German slightly harder for a native English speaker to learn

https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm

30 weeks for French vs. 36 weeks for German
---

UnholyMudcrab posted...

It's not the be-all-end-all, but the State Dept. does consider German slightly harder for a native English speaker to learn

https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm

30 weeks for French vs. 36 weeks for German

I had no idea this list existed. This is awesome.

If you're in the US without plans to leave, Spanish would probably be the most useful.

coolcono posted...

, .

I started dating a Russian girl and have started trying to learn it and holy shit it's difficult. It's like you have to translate twice; once to actually say the word and again for the meaning of the word.
---

coolcono posted...

, .

, .
---