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French vs German vs Spanish? Difficulty & Usefulness?
Germany is not the third strongest in economics...thats straight up b.s.
yeah...Germans are innovators...anyone remember the efficency of the gas chambers? German really has no purpose to learn unless you plan on moving to Germany...or if you're into German cinema....or German porn
French...ok...French...as someone who lives in Louisiana let me just say to all of you with the whole "well it's spoken in alot of places in america" i live in cajun country....cajuns don't even speak french anymore, its as good as dead here, and same with most of canada.
Spanish has waaay more speakers and is on the rise. If you live in the south west you should especially chose spanish anyday. I've taken all three languages and Spanish is by far the easiest and the most applicable to daily life.
plus...German and French sound like someone who has waaay too much saliva in their mouths and need to take a good spit.
You want to know the best language to know over all though????
ENGLISH
yeah you might be able to speak it pretty well but how does it sound when you speak it? You're judged more by how you speak english in america than by any other language. (I realize that this post is totally gramatically incorrect, but that's just because i'm being frank)
Take someone who speaks not a lick of french but speaks perfect english and writes beautiful papers and they will beat anyone who does speak a forgien language but is only mediocre in their abilities to speak English, the language you will most likely be speaking to customers and superiors in.
Chris : « Germany is not the third strongest in economics...thats straight up b.s. ».
L'Allemagne est, et de loin, le premier exportateur mondial toutes proportions gardées. Les États-Unis sont (très) loin derrière. D'ailleurs, sans l'Allemagne, ce sont les Soviétiques (et non les États-uniens) qui auraient aluni les premiers.
I'm from Lousiana and I'm both French Canadian and Cajun extraction.
I just want to make a correction that French is not yet dead in Lousiana and more so in French Canada. Although its use in Lousiana has indeed declined but a few hundred thousand still speak it. A lot of Cajuns are relearning their ancestral language through immersion classes. Now when we talk about immersion, it means it's more than just getting yourself studying another language.
Actually the other US minority languages are at the point of getting dead.
Let's just all admit it: if you care about culture, civilization, history, science, and the like, the choices are obvious: German and French. Even if you are more practically-minded and you like business and trade, go for German. Why do you think the most famous business foreign language in America is German?
It's not that Spanish isn't useful -- it is if you are going into certain fields such as public health or corrections (i.e., you want to work in a prison) or social work, for example. But if you are going to be a Ph.D. candidate in America, PLEASE look at the language requirements they have and TELL ME how many times you see "preferably French and German." Hardly ANY graduate department at an American university would EVER recommend SPANISH for a Ph.D. program except for the Spanish language itself, or its Iberian sister Portuguese, perhaps.
So, my message is to the original poster: do you care about culture or are you moving to the Southwestern United States or Latin America? It really depends on your goals. If you are getting into business or economics, PLEASE take German. In fact, German is the top choice for the new century but French is still a nice choice for a classic Western education.
Just remember: it is not the NUMBER of speakers that is important, but what those speakers are talking about. I have lived in three European countries and been to many more, and I can say that it was a close tie between the French and Germans about who was more cultured. The Germans are the most highly cultured people in the world, in my opinion. Their standards for education are unsurpassed in the western world. Just look at all the amazing scientists, artists, and especially composers they have produced, not to mention how many of their writers have won nobel prizes for literature. I suggest reading Heinrich Böll -- he is great!
The Hispanophiles are trying to ram their Spanish culture down everyone's throats and to pretend that their cultural achievements have been something close to that of the francophone, anglophone, and germanophone countries. Besides Cervantes and the now-trendy Garcia Marquez, what have the Hispanics contributed to world culture? And please, if you like music, you will choose German. That's a given.
Good luck to you. I hope you make a good choice.
P.S. I would rather take a dead language than Spanish. In fact, I took five years of Latin and one semester of classical Greek and don't wish for a second that I took Spanish.
Well, you are wrong.
In USA:
Spanish is spoken by:
-42 millions of Latinos (officially) in a lot of States, not only California, Texas, New Mexico or Florida. In New Jersey or Illinois is very spoken
-10-12 millions of illegal Latinos speak Spanish too.
- 6 millions of students speak this language in different degrees in USA.
-4 millions of people in Puerto Rico. You need to remember that Puerto Rico is an associated state.
So, more than 60 millions of people speak this language in USA.
Perhaps, German is spoken by 2 million people. And French, cajun and French creole by 2-3 million people. In conclusion:
EUROPEAN UNION+UNITED STATES+CANADA:
SPANISH: 105-110 Millions of speakers
FRENCH: 80-85 Millions of speakers
GERMAN: 105-110 Millions of speakers.
But you need to add 400 millions of LatinAmericans that speak Spanish...
Sam,
If I am the one you are talking to, please reread:
"Just remember: it is not the NUMBER of speakers that is important, but what those speakers are talking about."
So should everyone in America be learning Chinese or Hindi or Urdu, then? If you go by that logic, we should study a foreign language merely by how fast its speakers can reproduce. Lovely.
Many of us in the western world have deeper reasons for studying foreign languages, such as cultural heritage, appreciation of our western values, scientific research, literary criticism, etc. Spanish-speakers unfortunately haven't contributed very much to western civilization in terms of literature and music. I will admit that they have made some great contributions in art, but if you go strictly by the numbers, as you seem to be so fond of, then Spanish-speaking people are clearly not the winners in the western culture arena -- German, French, and English are.
But hey, to each his own: you seem to be of the mindset that might makes right and you also seem to think that how many people speak a given language somehow gives that language more importance. Spanish is NOT an important language in Europe. If I lived in Europe, which I have three times, I would be even less inclined than I am now to study Spanish for any reason. I already know the big three of Europe: German, French, and English -- if I had to take a fourth I would choose Russian or Italian before Spanish. At least the Russians have a great literary tradition!
Obviously you care little about western culture or you would never suggest that someone should learn Spanish.
Sadly, there are way too many people who share your viewpoint in this matter.
Sam,
By the way, I am "wrong" for having an opinion that differs from yours?
hey chez nous...i'm in highschool right now....wanna know something?
abot 30 people in a school of 2,100 in Lake Charles, LA (smack dab in cajun country) take french immersion!
know how many broussards or guillories i know that speak french? 000000000
hey chez nous...i'm in highschool right now....wanna know something?
abot 30 people in a school of 2,100 in Lake Charles, LA (smack dab in cajun country) take french immersion!
know how many broussards or guillories i know that speak french? 000000000
Chris,
WOW is all I can say initially to your woefully ignorant ramblings. Germany is INDEED the 3rd largest economy in the WORLD and the NUMBER ONE EXPORTER in the world -- sure beats our trade deficit -- the GERMANS have a trade surplus, because EVERYONE WANTS WHAT THEY MAKE. Cars, clocks -- technology -- where have you been? Oh, I'm sorry -- IN LOUISIANA.
And the way you talk about how French and German sounds? I once worked with someone who was admittedly pretty much a white trash skank and even SHE said, "Eww... Spanish just sounds DIRTY." We all have different ideas of what sounds nice to the ears, Chris, but not everyone agrees with your slam. And Spanish is FAR from pretty-sounding. Frankly, it makes me cringe when I hear it. It sounds "chatty," as one economics professor put it in a politically correct way. I haven't heard Spanish from Spain, so maybe it is not as grating on the nerves like Latin American Spanish, but still... French is beautiful and German is just cool. I love that it is sing-songy and it sounds particularly nice when children speak it. Real Germans don't speak the way Hitler did who, by the way, was not even GERMAN.
You probably didn't even go to college, and if you did, you probably majored in something practical or vocational, not academic. I'm getting REALLY tired of know-it-all people like you who have absolutely NO sense of culture and knock everything that's not what they consider to be "practical" or for the masses. It's DISTURBING to say the last. THANK GOD we live in a representative democracy. If we lived in a direct democracy the tyranny of your mob rule mindset would destroy western civilization as we know it.
Regards,
Libelle
hey libelle....um...i'm in highschool dumb bitch...yeah...how bout that? and i'm going to tulane...suck on that one....and uh...what the hell would you take the advice of a skank for? You must know sooooo much about culture Libelle....enlighten us all please....we're the dumb unitellgient folk ain't we now?
Is germany in america? NOOOO
And so what i got that part wrong? Does it change the fact that unless you're going to be going over seas you will NOT be using german for the most part?
Go on and feel like something special, I don't want my ignence to upset ya none.
This reminds me why I got rid of AOL chat....dumb hoes that know nothing about you yet think they have the whole story. How republican of you Libelle! Have fun rambling on a forum you guys, I'm outie
hahaha
Chris,
I knew it would be futile to attempt to talk to someone like you. Your ignorance knows no bounds. I couldn't resist, though. People like you just are just way too much fun. And you actually thought I was speaking of Republican with a capital R? MY POINT IS MADE. Thank you.
Hmm, I wonder what YOU'RE majoring in at Tulane... have fun.
Regards,
Libelle
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