French vs German vs Spanish? Difficulty & Usefulness?

<<French: important in European Union, Africa (lot african countries, without counting its dominating places in Indian Ocean), Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), North America (Canada, Louisiana), South America (Haiti, French guyana Guadeloupe, ...) and Oceania (Polynesia, New-Caledonia, Vanuatu...) also Antartica (french territories). 7 continents. >>

French is not spoken in Antarctica. How many times do you have to be told that it is impossible to inhabit that frozen continent.

<<French: important in European Union, Africa (lot african countries, without counting its dominating places in Indian Ocean), Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), North America (Canada, Louisiana), South America (Haiti, French guyana Guadeloupe, ...) and Oceania (Polynesia, New-Caledonia, Vanuatu...) also Antartica (french territories). 7 continents. >>

French is not spoken in Antarctica. How many times do you have to be told that it is impossible to inhabit that frozen continent.

That would only make French spoken in only 6 continents.l

Well, who cares if a language is spoken Africa, Asia, Oceania or whereever if the OP asked for a language he can use in EUROPE

You are wrong. It has been proven all the "pengouains" speak French although in some colonies parent pengouains are shifting and "les petits" speak English or Spanish.
We French, of course, are annoyed. We only expect this to appen with our historic regional languages or with creoles and patois spoken in our world colonies.
La Francophonie has decided to wipe out pengouins from the face of the Earth but the climatic change will take charge of this, in the next 50 years, without any cost to la grandeur de la France.

In 2100, when the climate in Antarctica or l'Artique is like the Côte d'Azur, nousautres les français, will move en masse to the new areas and we will leave desertic Paris for people speaking English, Spanish or other regional languages.

Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)

Official languages:

Vietnam:Vietnamese
Laos:Lao
Cambodia:Khmer

None of these countries has French as an official language.

Of course: French is not spoken in Asia. But the most important is this:

Spanish is the second most important language in the world. I support this idea because of several important reasons:

1. It is the second most spoken language as mother tongues, after Chinese.

2. In Internet, it is the third language in users, after English and Chinese. Taking in account that if you speak Spanish, you understand written Italian and written Portuguese, you understand 15% of users, more than Chinese.

3. According to several sources, Spanish is second in economic power, only after English.

4. It is the most spoken language in 25 countries (English only in 8 countries, and 2 in French).

Sources: World Bank, Britannica, Wikipedia, Instituto Cervantes and Google.

Quantity is a poor substitute for quality. Maybe it's the 3rd language in users, but not in registered domains and creating web sites

have a look at
http://www.webhosting.info/domains/country_stats/
http://wikipedia.org/

Where's Spanish there?
There are even more wikipedia entries in Polish, Dutch and Swedish than in Spanish!
And where is Spanish in Science, Literature and so on?

You are right with one thing: A lot of people speak Spanish
But it is and will stay a language of the uneducated underdogs of the world.
Apart from Spain ...

French is not just spoken in 2 countries but in more than 35 countries. Those who says that it is just spoken in two countries are ignorant and have reading comprehension problem. Too bad he didn't count Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and DOM-TOM.

At least French is still spoken and studied in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Unlike Spanish which is already dead in the Philippines when it was ruled by Spain for more than 300 years and carry Spanish surnames. And it is not spoken by 25 countries it's supposed to be 20 minus Paraguay(Guarani), Peru and Bolivia(Quechua, Aymara), Guatemala(Quiche). That leaves 16. It is no longer spoken in Equatorial Guinea.

English is not just spoken in 8 countries but in more than 50 countries.

Spanish is no use in the world of learning like science, technology, arts, literature, philosophy and so on.

The officials language of great organizations are:
The language of the JO: French and english
UNO official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish; language working: french and english, the secretary (Bam Ki-Moon) speaks: English and French.
The postal union: french only (but invented by an american...)
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile: French and English
Sports organizations as: FIFA, FINA: French and english
NATO: French and english
International Court of Justice: French and English
European Space Agency: French, German and English
World trade organization: French, Spanish and English
Interpol: Arabic, English, French and Spanish (but headquarters in Lyon)


On WIKIPEDIA:
"French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English"

Satisfechos?

What is interesting in this discussion is that Latin Americans have leveled-up with the French (Euro rubbish) and are now discussing with them! You can see Peruvians discussing with the French, BUT you won't see a Gabonian discussing with a Spaniard.

Why??? Because... Well, the French people don't want you to know this, but 85% of the Francophones live in an "extremely poor" country (at least this is what the UN says). So, those poor uneducated Francophones that live on trees in the wild African deserts and have never seen a computer (or a telephone!) won't even be considered in this discussion. Latin America looks like a developed country compared to those countries. Besides, French might be spoken in 30 countries, but who cares? ONE, they're only spoken by a small minority in every country. And TWO, the countries where French is spoken are microstates (AKA "joke states"), even if you added the land area of 10 of those countries you would still have a land area smaller than Venezuela!

And no, Spanish is not dead in the Philipines, it's actually coming back. It's gaining popularity, because it's the language of the "elite with culture".

Also, once Spanish takes over the US (which it will according to the US Census Bureau), it will take over the world. In fact, Spanish now reaches as far as Canada and Australia. In Canada it's the third most-spoken language and there are over 150,000 Spanish speakers in Australia. Other countries, such as Japan and Italy are also feeling the "Hispanic effect".

The reason why Spanish is taking over the world is because poor Hispanics from Latin America are moving to the US and Europe to get a better living and they have GENERAL CULTURE and EDUCATION, unlike THE SAVAGE FRANCOPHONES FROM AFRICA THAT ONLY KNOW HOW TO HUNT ANTILOPES AND RIDE CAMELS.

I almost forgot, Spanish has made MORE CONTRIBUTIONS THAN FRENCH IN ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, FASHION...

Get my point? I hope you do, you're welcome!

<< The reason why Spanish is taking over the world is because poor Hispanics from Latin America are moving to the US and Europe to get a better living and they have GENERAL CULTURE and EDUCATION, unlike THE SAVAGE FRANCOPHONES FROM AFRICA THAT ONLY KNOW HOW TO HUNT ANTILOPES AND RIDE CAMELS.

I almost forgot, Spanish has made MORE CONTRIBUTIONS THAN FRENCH IN ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, FASHION...

Get my point? I hope you do, you're welcome! >>

In 40 years, Spanish will disappear from United States, English will necessarily get over it, with its Hispanic, the influence of the Spanish language will decrease...
And another point, the demography of Latin American countries are extremely going to fall in the years which follow...
At the moment, if Spanish holds a good place in the international languages, it's thanks to the demographic weight but we shall see for example the difference between the number of French speakers and Spanish-speakers in 30 years...

<<I almost forgot, Spanish has made MORE CONTRIBUTIONS THAN FRENCH IN ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, FASHION...>>

Hilarious!!
In arts? you are sure?!
All the spanish men who become great painters (as Picasso, Dali, Miró...) went to France to paint and learn the art.
Science?
14000 french inventions, and the spanish scientists and inventors?
Technology?
France is one of the most modern country of the world.
Fashion?
Oh yes, l'Oréal parce que je le vaut bien, as Pennelope Cruz said!
Do you know,
Christian Dior, Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint-Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, Marc Bohan, Callot Soeurs, André Courrèges, Lilly Daché, Claude Montana, Loulou de La Falaise, Christian Louboutin, Louis Feraud, Hubert de Givenchy, Daniel Hechter, Cyd Jouny, Christian Lacroix, Daniel Laurent, Jeanne Lanvin, Julien Fournié, Mohamed Dia, Jean Patou, Thierry Mugler, Paul Poiret, Lucien Lelong, Paco Rabanne, Sonia Rykiel, Hedi Slimane, Emanuel Ungaro and Madeleine Vionnet ??

<< You can see Peruvians discussing with the French, BUT you won't see a Gabonian discussing with a Spaniard. >>

Gabon is one of the most developed african countries....

GDP - per capita:
Peru $6,125
Gabon $7,055

Poor Gabon? No more than Peru...

Well, things are not black and white.

French is an important language, perhaps third in the world at this moment. It is not bad for a language spoken only by 115 million people. A lot of the Francophone countries are poor, and the most important FRENCH IS SPOKEN BY MINORITIES IN THIS COUNTRIES. For instance, Burundi, where French is official, is spoken by 0,75% of the population. (all of this data are from Francophone reports).

French is official in 28 countries, but it is the most spoken language in only 2 countries: France and Monaco. In Canada the most spoken language is English, in Switzerland is German and in Belgium is Dutch (perhaps people that write these Francophone reports are ignorant, Guest, but I do not think so, and they write percentages)

The same with English. It is official in a lot of poor countries, like Uganda or Kenia. It is the most spoken language in only 8 countries: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Trinidad, Jamaica, Australia and N. Zealand. In all other countries is second language (some 50 countries)

And the same with Spanish. It is spoken in poor countries and rich contries. It is the first language in 25 countries. So, it is the second most important language in the world. It is spoken by 500 million people around the world, more than German, French and Italian together!!!!!

Ah!!Mister Reality, Paco Rabanne is from Spain.

Oscar de la Renta... Carolina Herrera... Narciso Rodriguez....

<<And the same with Spanish. It is spoken in poor countries and rich contries. It is the first language in 25 countries. So, it is the second most important language in the world. It is spoken by 500 million people around the world, more than German, French and Italian together!!!!! >>

Since when did the number of Spanish speakers reached 500 million that's a big lie. There are 330 million native speakers of it and the number of second language speakers is just around 30 million.

In the Philippines, the present generation Spanish descent speak English as their first language.

Spanish speakers cannot take over the entire world. After a generation, they will be speaking the local language of the host nations where they migrated.