What foreign languages are the most useful in life?

Question

I'm going to the 8th grade this year. I was given the choice between Spanish 1 and French 1. Which should I select?

Answer 1

There are advantages to both. Spanish is useful because "everyone speaks it." You will be able to communicate with the masses. It will not necessarily help you get a job, but it could hold you back if you do not have it.
Not as many people are studying French today. Because of that companies who need French speakers will hire you in a second because the supply is low. Even if you are not trained in their field they will hire you and teach you computer programs, etc. It takes years to learn to speak another language; other things can be taught in a shorter amount of time.
Think about these things and go with the one that you think you will like best. I speak both Spanish and French. Pronunciation in Spanish is easier and so is the spelling. French has some less complicated grammatical rules. Many will tell you that Spanish is easier. In the long run I think it evens out to the same.

Answer 2

Spanish

Answer 3

Spanish is in my opinion easier to learn. Most words are spelled exactly how they sound, and the grammatical rules are practical. I actually learned more about the English language when I studied Spanish. French, however, is great for banking and is commonly used in Europe and Africa during international business meetings. It all depends on where you live and what you want out of life. If you want to be able to communicate with the people around you, go with Spanish. If you plan on being in the big time making lots of money, go with French.

Answer 4

Depends on where you want to go. In the USA, I'd guess Spanish would be most benificiall. When you went to Central and South America, you could converse with the people there (in Spain, too, of course).
In Canada, you'd want French - it opens a lot of job opportunities. Also, if you took French, you could travel easier in France and several African countries where French is one of the offical languages!

Answer 5

If you want a better grasp of the English language, then pick French. Of course, I'm studying French in college, so I'm biased, but really you should see if you could take both languages, since Spanish is very useful.

Answer 6

depends. if you live in texas like i do or somewhere with a lot of spanish speaking people or plan on moving to one later, then take spanish. if you want/ like to travel, take french because a lot of different places speak it. i'm in 8th grade and im taking spanish 2 and french 1(i was in spanish since 1st grade)

Answer 7

HI,,, good to hear you are thinking about your future,,,,,

I took Spanish in high school.....because we live closer to Mexico.... believe it or not,,, when I went to Italy years later,, I found that I could understand and speak a lot of Italian from those classes i took in high school years before,...
Since then,, I have been to France many times and have picked up their language fairly well also..... but I suggest that you take the Spanish ,, and when you get to college,, maybe taking advantage of classes there in both maybe.....

Good luck

Answer 8

between spanish and french, spanish because there are 21 spanish-speaking countries, not including the U.S. but in the whole world, mandarain chinese is spoken by way more people. so start with spanish, cuz it's the easiest to learn.

Answer 9

Either French or Spanish will be useful.

Answer 10

I agree with so many others. Spanish will more likely come in handy to you someday (considering how many hispanics are in the USA and considering how close we are to Mexico, etc).

It will be interesting to see what other languages will be of value 5 - 10 - 15 years down the road. Chinese?