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German or French?

DeSnousa

DeSnousa

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 20, 2005
1,616
0
Brisbane, Australia
Well recently I have thought about learning a foreign language, however I'm stuck on deciding which one. German or French? I would like to visit both countries one day. So my question is what would you prefer and most importantly which will be the easiest language to learn?

A bit of background, my first language is English and I speak Portuguese quite well as its my parents native tongue.
 
DeSnousa said:
Well recently I have thought about learning a foreign language, however I'm stuck on deciding which one. German or French? I would like to visit both countries one day. So my question is what would you prefer and most importantly which will be the easiest language to learn?

A bit of background, my first language is English and I speak Portuguese quite well as its my parents native tongue.
Click to expand...

I did German all through high school and found it pretty enjoyable and easy. There are many similarities between it and English - probably more so than with French. French sounds much better and romantic, German is kind of guttural and harsh.

Each language has it's advantages and disadvantages so it's kind of hard to pick one over the other I guess.
 
If you already have Portuguese I would go with French. The structure of all latin languages is quite similar even if the vocabulary and verb usage differs. So there's more chance that you will become fully fluent in French, and as a bonus learning French will improve your Portuguese.

I also find that once you have two latin languages sitting in your head, it's really easy to extrapolate what you know into the others, so you'll find you will be able to understand Italian, Spanish, and even Romanian when you come across them, even if you can't easily communicate back.

German on the other hand seems to have a structure all of it's own, the three genders make it extremely difficult to learn, and for some reason every German on the planet speaks fluent English anyway :)
 
max_altitude said:
I did German all through high school and found it pretty enjoyable and easy. There are many similarities between it and English - probably more so than with French. French sounds much better and romantic, German is kind of guttural and harsh.

Each language has it's advantages and disadvantages so it's kind of hard to pick one over the other I guess.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, I just came across this,

Depends on your native language, if English, German is easier to leran, if Spanish or Portuguese, French or Italian is easy. The younger you are the easier it is to learn..less first language resistance.
Click to expand...

Apparently German would be easier for English speakers. However speaking Portuguese (similar to Spanish), French also sounds like a good choice. However my English is much better.
 
dynamicv said:
If you already have Portuguese I would go with French. The structure of all latin languages is quite similar even if the vocabulary and verb usage differs. So there's more chance that you will become fully fluent in French, and as a bonus learning French will improve your Portuguese.

I also find that once you have two latin languages sitting in your head, it's really easy to extrapolate what you know into the others, so you'll find you will be able to understand Italian, Spanish, and even Romanian when you come across them, even if you can't easily communicate back.

German on the other hand seems to have a structure all of it's own, the three genders make it extremely difficult to learn, and for some reason every German on the planet speaks fluent English anyway :)
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That is a very good point, thanks :) What languages do you speak and what made you decide.

At Abstract why do you feel French is easier?
 
German can sound more like English than French does, but it is extremely hard to speak grammatically correct German. The grammar constructs are arcane and not always following pre-defined rules. The key to learning any language fast is to stay away from people that can speak your native language. This will push you hard to try and speak their language.

My choice goes to German though. Quoted from Wikipedia
Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 110 million native speakers
and another 18 million non-native speakers.

Worldwide, German accounts for the most written translations into and from a
language (according to the Guinness Book of Records).
Click to expand...
 
DeSnousa said:
That is a very good point, thanks :) What languages do you speak and what made you decide.
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I speak Spanish well, but also quite a bit of Italian and French, and some Catalan. I have property in Catalunya, but learned Spanish because Catalan is nearly impossible to learn unless you are living within 100 miles of Barcelona. However, learning some Catalan was still necessary to deal with the bureaucracy and I found that once I knew the basics, hearing people speaking it became a lot easier so picked it up as I went along.

Italian is down to having family over there, both in Torino and near Genoa. Although I can speak Italian, I never have need to write it, so can't really say I'm good at it as I know I make mistakes and have problems with written communication. I will be in Italy again in two weeks time, so I'll try buying some newspapers or books to improve on that front :)

Lastly, French was sort of mandatory when I was at school, but I took to it well enough and having France just off the coast definitely helps. I visit France quite a lot, even if I'm just passing through on the way to Spain or Italy, but having the language makes the world of difference.
 
french

more people speak french worldwide than german

orange = french

world-languages-map.gif
 
I did German in high school. Its very similar to English with easier pronunciation than French. However I now wish I had studied French as my family have a house in the South of France.

That being said I am currently learning Spanish. :D
 
hotboiled said:
french

more people speak french worldwide than german

orange = french
Click to expand...

That is only when taking into account secondary speakers. See Below

The following list is from Dr. Bernard Comrie’s article for the Encarta Encyclopedia (1998):
(number of native speakers in parentheses)

1. Mandarin Chinese (836 million)
2. Hindi (333 million)
3. Spanish (332 million)
4. English (322 million)
5. Bengali (189 million)
6. Arabic (186 million)
7. Russian (170 million)
8. Portuguese (170 million)
9. Japanese (125 million)
10. German (98 million)
11. French (72 million)


However, in terms of secondary speakers, Weber submits the following list:
(number of speakers in parentheses)

1. French (190 million)
2. English (150 million)
3. Russian (125 million)
4. Portuguese (28 million)
5. Arabic (21 million)
6. Spanish (20 million)
7. Chinese (20 million)
8. German (9 million)
9. Japanese (8 million)
Click to expand...
 
I would go with French. I always loved the sound of that language. I wish I could speak it.

A lot of people in Germany speak English, but if you only speak English and go to France you will have a much harder time.
 
Not wanting to get off topic but...

English only 320m native? Considering the population of the UK is 60m, the USA is 300m, Australia is >20m, then you have the majority of Canada's 32m, New Zealand's 4m, a large portion of South Africa and the Caribbean speaking English natively, I find that a rather low number.

BTW, how confusing is that map? Could they not have found some colours that weren't virtually the same as all the others?
 
dynamicv said:
Not wanting to get off topic but...

English only 320m native? Considering the population of the UK is 60m, the USA is 300m, Australia is >20m, then you have the majority of Canada's 32m, New Zealand's 4m, a large portion of South Africa and the Caribbean speaking English natively, I find that a rather low number.

BTW, how confusing is that map? Could they not have found some colours that weren't virtually the same as all the others?
Click to expand...

Yeah I found both things confusing as well. Perhaps it took into account that many people in those countries are immigrants, so they might speak English perfectly, but it was still not their first language. :confused:

Even then, those figures don't seem right.
 
Tymmz said:
I would go with French. I always loved the sound of that language. I wish I could speak it.

A lot of people in Germany speak English, but if you only speak English and go to France you will have a much harder time.
Click to expand...
precisely what I was going to say.
 
max_altitude said:
Yeah I found both things confusing as well. Perhaps it took into account that many people in those countries are immigrants, so they might speak English perfectly, but it was still not their first language. :confused:

Even then, those figures don't seem right.
Click to expand...

Dont forget England is immigrant heaven. Theres only me and markleshark that speak english overhere. :D
 
I'd learn German. It's quite awesome. :)

The only things I can say in it are "how much is it" "where's the water closet" "where are the viennese men?" and "no pants, faster!"

I wish I knew more German. :( :p
 
viccles said:
Do German. It's really really easy to learn
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German may be easy to learn but you won't use it very much if you go somewhere other than Germany. I would say French for a number of reason. 1. More people speak French than German and 2. because women love when you can speak French to them. haha
 
German is more useful in Europe than French as it is the second most widely known language after English. I am currently taking German and would like to learn more after I finish next quarter. But my schedule is going to be too tough to fit it in and studying abroad ist sehr teuer.
 
I would go with French. It has a much more pleasant tone. I remember flying to Switzerland and wanting to bolt from the plane when the pilot gave instructions in German. Not a comforting language.

Besides, if you speak French you can order easily at the pastry shop.
 
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