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French vs German vs Spanish? Difficulty & Usefulness?
Spanish people are very proud, we all know that. Only the reasons for this is unknown;-)
to ignorant :they are proud to see the number of speakers of spanish . don't you think this is a good reason to be proud ?? Have you ever noticed the amount of speaker of spanish in the world? think twice before posting a stupid comment like this.
Gallophile's comment is the most stupid oppinon i ever read in my life!! he is an idiot who doesn't even know his name..how can you say spanish is a behind of Italian , russian and german whattt are you kidding me !!!!!!!you comment makes no sense and you are an idiot.
You're more idiot than I am Glenda and you're so ignorant! What I mean is Spanish is behind Italian, and German in Europe. If you talk to somebody from Central Europe in Spanish including Germany who has no knowledge of other cultures outside Europe they would respond in Italian.
How could you be so stupid! Spansih is important only in entertainment and commerce(because of LatAm and large number of speakers) and probably literature but if you're you insist that Spanish is important in the fields of science, technology, medicine, engineering, and space exploration, peolpe who are involved in those field would not only laugh at you but they would conclude that you're that you're not only ignorant but hallucinating because hispanic world did not excel on those fileds.
By the way, did you find the one that I posted that Spansih is taking over India or were you happy. I said I only accessed a website containing that misinformation because there's someone who posted a message here who has gotten the information on the internet without verifying the reliability of the information or maybe it's a product of his/her imagination.
And stupidity and being idot shows on what you posted that I don't even know my name. You fool how could I not know my name when it is far simpler to memorize than the information that I accumulated by reading. Why don't you use your common sense. Gallophile is my PSEUDONYM that I use in this foum. If you don't know its meaning you know what to do. To make it easier for you to understand it's the same as writers use a PEN NAME instead of their real names. I want ot use it in this forum and i'ts none of your business if don't want to use my real name in this forum it's my prerogative.
Gallophiles are angry and it's understandable. We are now in the 21st century and not in the 19th. Not even their Italian or Spanish neighbours learn French any longer. The level of French in New Zealand, South Africa or Australia is so low it could make you life. It comes from a time when the British Empire exported its solutions to the Commonwealth. I reckon it's now more important for an Australian or New Zealander to learn Chinese or even Vietnamese although Spanish is growing. What languages are spoken on the other side of the Pacific in front of Sydney or Brisbane? English to the North and Spanish to the south. Even the small French-speaking island of New Caledonia has to learn perfect English if they want to trade with their neighbours.
It is an official European Union Report and not an Internet chat room, which states that French is more popular among the "middle age" European civil servants and Spanish is growing and growing among with Europeans under 30.
BY the way, the only people who don't seem to really be bilingual are the native English-speaking ones. A lots of them are for a number of reasons but not out of sheer necessity.
To say people will answer in Italian rather than in Spanish in Europe is also one of those démodé tricks the French are so proud of. France has always wanted to lead "latinité" (you know, people speaking Romance languages) but Spanish is become a pain in the arse regarding what they would want.
The fact is millions of young French kids learn Spanish and hardly any young Spanish young kids learn French any longer. That is a fact and it can be easily checked if you've got the time and patience.
The days of the "grandeur" of the French language are well over. Only the French and their francophiles (sorry, gallophiles) don't seem to realise.
By the way, I speak French reasonably well but, then again, I'm one of those Spanish exceptions.
The Spanish proud? No kidding! The Americans, English, French, German, Italian or Zulus are not proud at all? Is that another joke?
It was me before. I forgot to put my name and to edit.
Changes:
it could make you laugh
among Europeans under 30
A lot of them
Spanish has become a pain in the arse regarding what they would want.
To Guest Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:20 am GMT : I'm not mad if ever I got mad it's because somebody in this forum called me stupid and idiot.
I talk to German and Hungarian tourists and we talked about languages when I mentioned "como se esta?" and "come se llama?" and they exclaimed you're talking to me in Italian and they replied to those questions "Molto bene" and Io mi chiamo". I insisted "No it's Spanish" and then they said "Sorry, we thought it was Italian because we are more familiar with it."
Practical people see there is nothing to learn so much from Spanish again I I'll mention that in science, medicine, technology, etc. Hispanic world didn't excel in those fields. It's not a knowledge center or powerhouse. It's good only for international trade and entertainment. Admit it or not, Spanish is less prestigious than French, English and even Italan, and German.
Talking about in the Pacific in Australia and NZ as in the US it French is part of high school curriculum. You said that only tiny New Caledonia use French. What about French Polynesia. Imagine the Philippines was under Spanish rule for more than 300 years along with Marianas islands and Guam and when the US took over it has been displaced by Englsih in less than a century and to think that the citizens of those islands have Spanish names and surnames.
On the other hand there is a renaissance of interest in French in Vietnam. When I entered the chat room I was surprised that many of those who enterd the French chat room were youths. I told them I am not convinced and they invited me to view their webcam and that's the time I was convinced. In addition there were also Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese whose second language is not English but French. if you are not convinced, go to the French room of Yahoo Messenger to find out.
And where did you get the information that lot's of people in France speak Spanish? In the internet again? Goodness.... They would rather learn English or ven Italian or German because it's more practical.
You said that "the grandeur days of French is over". We'll here's my response the grandeur days of Spanish will never come because it lacks prestige and there isn't so much to learn from it. Sorry to disappoint the hispanic world and the hispanophiles.
As I mentioned before go to your local foreign language schools and ask the admistrator "What foreign language aside from English which has the largest number of enrollees?" Well that could only be French not Spanish.
To sum up, as follows,
In my opinion, Spanish, is obviously easier than French at the aspect of the rules and difficulties on pronunciation, but comparatively similar to French when it only comes to grammar, syntax and vocabularies. Personally, although I can read loudly French words quite accurately, I still found it really difficult to speak out long texts gracefully for Non-Francophonic learners. And both Spanish and French have a common character that as a rule they're spoken too fleetly to be understandable while talking with foreign learners. In terms of above-mentioned problem, I just feel that German is correspondingly a bit slowly and clearly for us, at times, even Italian sounds more clearly than French or Spanish in the private conversation, therefore, maybe this is the reason why I chose German and Italian as my favourite foreign languages. In all conscience, I believe that every language has its importantce and necessity in certain fields or due mainly to strong individual interest. It would be insignificant for us to dispute by turns about "which language is the most important one." Just because it all depends on where you live, which you like, and what you learn it for. So, everybody, let's try NOT to be the dislikeful racialists or extremists. Finally, welcome to China, and welcome to learn Mandarin Chinese, and I'm very happy to talk with you in this forum.
My dear gallophile:
You only seem to read in accordance to your prehudices. I sent you a report from the European Union; no way you can read it without saying it's false. Even if it's from the official EU website.
I am Catalan and I live near the French border and I travel to France quite a few times every year. I know what I'm talking about. I speak French rather well but French is hardly taught at all any longer in Spain. A pity but the truth.
At random I have found a German web-site. Imagine, a German one and it also complains about the growing importance of Spanish in Europe. After all, people do come on holidays by the millions but you haven't read that either.
http://www.khristophoros.net/lvd.html
There is a long article in French, which as a Francophile you'll be able to read perfectly. Some French and some German scholars seem to start worrying at what they call the hegemonic position of English and Spanish.
It would seem 15% of French students took German as their first foreign language back in 1977 and it went down to 9,5% in 2.000. I imagine it's even lower in 2.007. Everybody, of course, takes English as the first language and the only reason why there are still some first foreign language students of German in France is probably, as I mentioned before, regions near Germany often speaking Germanics dialects close to Standard German (Alsatian, Lorainais, etc.)
At the end of the French language article you can link to a very interesting article by a French author. The title says it all:
L'hégémonie de l'anglais et de l'espagnol se renforce dans les cours de langue.
The hegemony of English and Spanish gets stronger in language courses.
It was published in "Le Monde" one of the most prestigious (if not the most) French newspapers. It's a French source and it's "Le Monde"... It's not just plain Internet chatting.
Regarding the importance of languages in Science and Technology it's almost all English. The rest (including Spanish, French or German) hardly count at all. Even the French write their scientific papers in English!
I'm sure you won't read this or you'll say it's absolutely different. It's your privilege. Reality is something else. Please open your mind.
Adios amigo,
My dear Gallophile and all my other friends:
I would suggest you read the whole articles called "Spanish language" in the English language Wikipedia. It will help you a lot to understand the importance of Spanish and whilst it may be true that some Vietnamese youngsters are learning French it is also true that Spanish is making a comeback amongst the Filipino youth, just to put a example.
The article starts like this but it is much longer. After that, sincerely, there is little to be said and Spanish is definitely the most important Romance language in the world.
Spanish language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"Español" redirects here. For the football club, see Espanyol.
Spanish
español, castellano
Pronunciation: IPA: /espa'ɲol/
Spoken in: Mexico, Spain, most of Central America, the majority of countries and half the population in South America, over half of the Caribbean population, a large percentage of Andorrans, Equatorial Guineans and Belizeans, and 37 million people in the United States (12% of the population)[2]
Total speakers: ~ 420,000,000
Ranking: 2–4 (varying estimates)
Spanish (español (help·info) or Castilian (castellano (help·info)) is an Iberian Romance language. It was spoken by roughly 364 million people in the year 2000.[1] Current estimation accounts up to 400 million[2], making Spanish the second language in the world in number of speakers (after Mandarin Chinese) and the most widely spoken and the most widely studied Romance language. It is arguably the most widely studied foreign language for native speakers of English due to its perceived sense of practicality in a largely globalized 21st Century, as both languages have similar numbers of native speakers, are very widely dispersed on a global scale, and are spoken in many countries. For similar reasons, it is also the most widely studied foreign language in Brazil, which is almost entirely surrounded by Spanish-speaking nations.
etc. etc. etc.
Que lo pases muy bien y te deseo mucha suerte...
Do you have an inferiority feeling or something?
You seem very insecure to me! Is there something you need to compensate for?
I guess kindergarten time is over, or maybe not?
Gallophile's and "from Spain"'s postings show that you should definitively learn German;-)
Just having fun since Spaniards are supposed to have an inferiority complex. It's obviously not my case nor the case of most Spaniards. I'm just fed up with that French and Frenchyphile grandeur thing. Anyway, maybe you're right and it's time for a rest. It's back to Sesame Street for me!
As I said before, if you surf on the internet and visit SERIOUS and RELIABLE sources on languages (not as one person said before, that I was writing rubbish) you will see that I was right.
Spanish is the most important language around the world after English. If you visit the Cervantes Institute's webpage (the one in charge of teaching this language worldwide) you will see again I was right. And our friend "from Spain" stated the same by writing something from Wikipedia.org on this issue.
So, why are you still defending languages that have been largely overcome by Spanish in terms of usefulness, logic and beauty? I am Indian, I love my language (Hindi) but not only I but millions have fallen in love with Spanish.
Now, I am visiting Machupicchu in Cuzco, Peru, where Quechua is spoken, and there are obviously detractors, quechuaspeakers against Spanish. Quechua was the language of the greatest civilization in the world (sorry, but it's true) the Inca Empire, and Spanish has been destroying it bit by bit. Nevertheless, more and more people are learning Quechua, In fact, many Peruvians would rather speak Quechua to Spanish, as it sounds more interesting. But in terms of usefulness, etc., etc. Spanish cannot be beaten by any other language nowadays, It's a fact, friends of mine.
Ah, and if you want to understand spoken Spanish, you'd better come to Peru. You'll understand every single word.
Yeah there maybe more or less 400M native speakersof Spanish. But we're talking about quantity here not quality.
Even though there are only 85M native of French, it is supplemented by 250 near native speaker of it in former French colonies majority of whom are in Africa which shows no sign of declining as compared to English that is giving way to Swahili as in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and some other African nations. Plus the 50M to 100M second language speakers of it from different nations all over the world that were not under French rule and most of them are in Europe.
Spanish is confined only to Spain and Hispanic America and the only country where it is widely understood or spoken it could only be US because of large numbers of Hispanic immigrants there.
If you're gonna analyze the whole picture, French is an international lingua franca just like English and Spanish is not(I'm not provoking you, after all we're objectives). Can you give an example wherein two non-hispanic nations whose respective languages are totally different from each other would likely use Spanish as their lingua franca or common language so that they could communicate to each other?
The importance of a language in international role is not just measured by number of its speakers but the ideas contributes by its speakers to human civilization.
I just hope that Spanish will not become extinct in the Philippines because whether we like it or not it was ruled by Spain for more than 300 years ans Spanish values are partially embeded in their culture and so is French in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos despite the fact that they were ruled by France for less than a hundred years.
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