|
|
French vs German vs Spanish? Difficulty & Usefulness?
Benjamin
In those days of which I began to learn French, I found it very embarrassing to distinguish always whether a letter should pronounce or not when I read a simple piece of text, and often hesitant about something like how to read syllables together & etc. A few days later, I had no choice but to give up learning French reluctantly. So it was really a pity that I came up against the pronounciation difficulties that I've Never had when I ever learned English, German or Italian. So far, I still can hardly read French texts very fluently according to Horrible French pronunciation's rules.
For usefulness...
If you plan on spending time in the Americas (including the United States) then choose Spanish. I'm not going to glorify it or anything like French and German have been so far. All that is inferred.
If you plan on spending time in Central Europe, choose German.
German is also almost unheard in the U.S, unless you interact with Mennonites, many of whom speak Spanish (only 2 of the Mennonite men that I've encountered don't). However I'm not sure if it's Low German they might be speaking...
If you're spending time anywhere else, choose French. But in the Americas, French is almost unheard...
In Louisiana there is a VERY small French-speaking minority. No more than a few thousands scattered around. And its declining in numbers.
For difficulty...
Spanish is super-easy pronnunciation-wise. The grammar is also easier than French because its consistant. There are many less irregularities within the language. German pronnunciation is not as easy as Spanish but it is not much harder.
French on the other hand is harder. Pronnunciation is not impossibly hard, but there are many homophones and etc. that limit understandability and progress when compared to the other languages.
(Well, at least for me). The irregularities are also present in grammar, of which I have found German to be easier than French. Although knowing English won't help you much with German grammar.
One thing I like about Spanish, is that it can be used to understand the other romance languages. Spanish and Italian are very similar, I can read an Italian article and understand most of it just with the Spanish I know. Spanish also helps GREATLY when learning French. All one has to basically do is learn the differences between the two to become conversational.
i would say Spanish or French. German is only spoken in Germany mainly.
Easyness would be Spanish.
All the languages that exist in this world should be equally important.
And every language enthusiast has his own favourite language category.
They could choose any languages according to their respective feelings.
But when it comes to applying for a good job, getting a raise or promotion, people tend to choose a/two helpful 2nd/3rd foreign language besides English. And it also depends on where you live, and what you do, and what you like and so on. Generally in Asia, for example in China or Japan, German will be the first choice for Chinese/Japanese to learn German, and the 2nd choice may be French, the 3rd choice, Spanish. Although the people those who want to learn Spanish are seemingly on the increase in recent years.
French is the 2nd language learning in the world, for me you should choose French, it will be more interesting for you, Spanish and german can be an other option, but if you travel a lot, the best choice is french.
Where else is French useful in, other than France and the African countries?
"A", ":)" has describe exactly where French had some influence, in another point you can see Francophonie official site
<But in the Americas, French is almost unheard...>
Not true. In the STATES it's not heard very often, but it's the sole official and most spoken language in Quebec (around 6 million speakers), and co-official in New Brunswick. It's also co-official with English throughout Canada, spoken in many Francophone communities, as well as studied by most Anglophones there.
Even in the U.S., there are native speakers--besides Louisiana, there are still a number of French Canadians living in New England and elsewhere. (As well as the hordes of "snowbirds" who vacation in Florida in the winter.)
And if you count the Caribbean as part of the Americas, French is official in several places, like Haiti, Guadaloupe, and Martinique. (Even though most speak a creole as their first language, many can use standard French.) Same thing for French Guiana in South America.
Spanish is obviously the foreign language most spoken and studied--by far--in the States. But French still holds a strong second position, well over third-place German. I know a lot of people who take the time to master French, despite the infuriating pronunciation. You'll only find a fraction of the opportunity to hear or read it here compared to Spanish, but thanks to the Quebec market it's still available--the majority of DVDs sold here with a foreign language track offer French--much more than Spanish--and a number of products give info in French as well. And it's still concidered a prime language here to learn for business, especially for companies selling to Canada or Europe.
We are just confusing our poor customer here.
Yet I advise you to learn Spanish first, because it's the third most spoken language in the world.
As said, French would have been my first choice, but since everyone says how difficult it is, I'm not confident that I will be able to master it well. Moreover, it will be counted into my school grades, a risk that I'm not willing to take. However, I intend to learn it eventually.
My qn is: Will taking Spanish make the learning of French easier next time?
The German language still seems rather important in areas such as commerce, science and technology. Does anyone think that the usefulness of German is/will decrease in the near future?
<<I don't really intend to work in S. America, but I heard that Spanish is fast becoming an important language to learn. I would most likely want to work in Europe, or at least be able to communicate with the people while there.>>
Than, choose either German or French or both of them. If you start learning both, you will experience which one suits better to you.
<<From what I have read, I have decided that its no point taking German, since the German people prefer to converse in English with foreigners.>>
I'm german. I would like to converse in German with foreigners, if their German is good enough for communicating. If there's real need for communication, e.g. someone have to catch a train departing in a few minutes, then, for fast and correct understanding, it's better to take English. But if someone really wants to communicate for improving his German skills, and there's time and opportunity, then, I think, many germans would give him the chance. I also would like to know if the dialogue partner wants to get corrected. Otherwise, I would consider it impolite to correct him. The other way round, I experienced that, if someone foreign speaks to me in German, he asked me rather private questions. I was not sure if he only wants to practice his German skills or if he was really interested in such private information I would never give to another person without real need to do so.
<<Actually, German spelling is very logical. Perhaps its orthography is not quite as easy as that of Spanish, but it's still easier than, say, that of English.>>
If you mean classical German orthography, then yes, it's quit logical. But if you talk about reformed orthography, then this doesn't hold. In reformed orthography, there are less rules, but these are more complex, more complicated and contradictory and require more pages for their description. The reformers also made it more difficult to learn the language, because they invented unusual alternative spellings for many words and provided some wrong ethymologies. Alternatives in spelling gives you a feeling of uncertainty in reading and writing the language and therefore makes it more difficult to read and understand the text. They tried to proscribe to write a lot of compound verbs as two words, even if this change the meaning of the word. This in effect means that they indirectly forbit lot's of words. Because there was and still is much protest against this reform and its prescribing and antidemocratic charater, especially concerning the forbitting of words, the list of such verbs was changed several times. (And most likely will be changed again in the future.) The reformed punctuation rules causes many sentences to be misunderstood or to become senseless, so even the reformed newspapers don't apply them. These rules enforces the reader to trace back and try to find out what the sentence could mean, even if you are a native speaker, so, its very annoying to read such texts. So, you will skip such sentences. The ''new'' double s rule was discarded for about hunderd years ago. This rule causes new kinds of errors and is only correctly applicable if you already know the classical rule. This ''new'' double s rule based on the length of the preceeding vowal also can't be applicated correctly due to different vowel lenght in different dialects. It also makes it difficult to perceive the word borders in compound words, also corrupting the readability of a text.
Conclusion: The reformed orthography makes it much more difficult or even impossible for a foreingner to grasp the meaning of a sentence or to learn to read, write, and speak good and fluent German.
Some very well known protesters against the reform say that the reformed rules are unlearnable.
It seems to me that they made the reform to bring down the German language.
Note that the ''new'' rules are only obligatory for school and office use! Note also that most printed products only apply parts of the reform, even if they claim to use the reformed orthography.
So, if you want to learn real German, learn it form a textbook in classical orthography.
well, i'll tell you... i speak english and spanish fully... and about french and german, i manage to build a easy conversations... but out of the three of them theres no easier or more diffcult language... which one would be easier for you depends on a lot of factors...
1. your age
2. the languages you already fully speak
3. your vocal skills
and a lot lot more... it is difficult for someone over the 30's to learn a new language, because they are already used to something. they are not as kids, who can be taught easily. but anyway, i'll tell you that the fact that you speak chinese mandarin comes in very handy. that one is the most difficult language to learn for adults. aside from that, every other language is easier to learn. spanish is totally phonetic, and once you've learned the sound of an specific conosant or vowell, you will not need to learn anymore pronunciations. 26 out of the 27 letters that make up the spanish alphabet have only one sound. in french and german, thats not the case... if you chose one of those two, you'll have to learn about three, four, or even five different pronunciations for one letter only... anyway, the spanish is the 4th most spoken language in the whole world, and soon its going to become the 3rd, while french is the 11th, and german doesnt even gets into the first 15... if i were you i would bet on spanish as my best option... and i tell you this not because i have studied languages or something... i'm giving you this advice because i have learned the three languages, and i guess that's the best option to rely on, someone who has lived the experience of learning the three... anyway, you are the only one who can make up your mind... good luck then!! And any other doubt about spanish, english (don't think you'll have, but anyway...), french, italian, or german, just write!!
|