French or German?

Question

Please explain why either is better.

Answer 1

I’m French and I learned English but when I had to choose a third language, I chose German over Spanish, because I was told that it was more useful for business and industry (also it was much harder to learn than Spanish so you looked smarter learning it…). My, my, what a mistake that was! German being useful for business and industry was a complete lie…unless you’re in Germany…(that lie is still going strong, according to PB_GenX’s answer). English is the international language now.
Spanish was the third language I should have chosen and then Mandarin Chinese for the fourth one (which I am learning now). My learning of German was a complete waste of my time. The only good it did was make it easier for me to learn Dutch when I got a friend there…nothing to do with business and industry…

Also German sounds awful and the grammar is a torture (even for French people) and worldwide it is only spoken by about 126 million people, most of them in Germany.

If you want to go anywhere in the world, first, know English, then French or Spanish (for 2nd and 3rd), then Mandarin Chinese if you go to Asia. Don’t bother about German.

Countries where French is a national language:
http://www.fll.vt.edu/French/francophonie.html
Belgium
Benin
Burkina-Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Democratic Republic of Congo
Djibouti
France
Gabon
Guinea
Haiti
Ivory Coast
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Mali
Monaco
Niger
Republic of Congo
Rwanda
Senegal
Seychelles
Switzerland
Togo
Vanuatu

Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html]
Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000
English 514,000,000
Hindustani1 496,000,000
Spanish 425,000,000
Russian 275,000,000
Arabic 256,000,000
Bengali 215,000,000
Portuguese 194,000,000
Malay-Indonesian 176,000,000
French 129,000,000

Answer 2

Having studied all 4 at various levels, I'd say that German is the toughest. The spoken German is really handy for an English speaker to gain knowledge of. Spanish and French are linguistically established the equal manner. Latin is the foundation of each Spanish and French, and Latin is an excessively pleasant language, although the sentence constitution is bizarre, and so they must have a gender attached to each unmarried factor. German, nonetheless, is without doubt one of the grammatically so much complicated languages available in the market. They even conjugate their articles. These humans are whacked out (no offense to them).

Answer 3

French is much more commonly used. ( 300 million people speak it fluently, or as mother tongue.)They speak it in Africa, Europe, the States (Louisiana) Canada and other places (54 countries). It is also much easier to learn. And being so similar to Spanish and Italian, if you already know one of the two, it will be a lot easier, or if you ever plan on learning them. It is also influenced by the Germanic language Frankish. And next to English, it is the most taught second language in the world. German is hard to speak at first, and, although similar to English, much harder to learn. It is much less common (with only 95- 120 million speakers, around the world) and is found in a much smaller part of the world compared to french (mostly in Europe, although both languages are spoken in Luxembourg regularly). In my opinion, go for french if you want it to help you career wise, otherwise, why not both?

Answer 4

I don't think that there is a clear cut reason as to why either is better than the other. In my opinion it is a matter of preference. It also depends on where you plan to work and/or travel. If you plan to be in west Europe, Canada, or Africa your best choice would be French. If you plan to be in east Europe, German. Both of these languages show some difficulty in pronunciation and grammar but they also share similarities with English as our language has extensively borrowed from both languages. Personally I prefer the sound of French and have therfore decided to learn this one, but I'm not trying to bash German. Like I said it's all about preference.

Answer 5

German! Why? Because, English is a Germanic language and there are many words in common between the two. The grammar is also similar. German is used much more often for business and industry also.

French is not that valuable to know, in the grand scheme of things.

Answer 6

Neither is better than the other. I took German in high school because I was interested in German history, literature, and culture. Take a look at both countries and which interests you more before you decide which language to study.

Answer 7

French sounds good, like they're always seducing.
German sounds awful, like they're always angry.

French has the feminine and the masculine.
German has the feminine, the masculine and the neutral!

French Grammar is hard but German is harder.

If you know French, you can use it in France, Louisiana, Canada, Africa...
If you know German, it's useless unless you're in Germany.

Answer 8

It's difficult to choose one of them. I speak german, and I am learning french. I love both. My suggestion: study german first, because it's easier to an english speaker, and then, study french, too. Good luck!

Answer 9

I've heard that German is quite difficult- like the english language it has a lot of exceptions (eg. mouse - mice while house -houses) and the accent is appears to be quite a tricky one. I do French and yes it definately has it's difficult areas but it's probably easier to grasp and understand.

Answer 10

German, similar to English... Not too much, though...