I have taken high school French for about 4 years and Japanese for 3 years and about a year ago I stopped taking Japanese and I have recently quit French, because I hated it and was getting nowhere and I was finding the grammar very difficult and it probably didn't help that I had a terrible teacher. But I have found that after about 6 months, I miss learning another language and I was thinking about taking German. My mum was one of her highschools French as a second language speaking champions and she said French is only going to get harder and even more boring, so I don't really want to take it, but I was wondering about German? I can't pick up French again at my school and it doesn't offer German, so I will have to take nightclasses, but does anybody know from experience which language is harder to learn fluently and which is more useful? I don't know if I should take French, because I have some prior experience or German, because it looks like a cool language?
2007-12-23 13:00:58 · 8 answers · asked by мσℓℓу 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
And this probably doesn't help, but I know some basic Swedish and I really like the sound of the language, but it would be pretty useless taking it where I lived, but is it in anyway similar to German?
2007-12-23 13:02:36 · update #1
German is from the same language family as English. Generally, a language is easier to learn for a native speaker of another language in the same family.
I haven't gotten nearly as far as I wanted on either, but so far, German has been the easiest.
An interesting fact is that English is descended from Germanic, but when the French speakers invaded England, a great deal of their words were introduced. Thus, our language is closer in structure to German, with many of our high-level words coming from that language, but our everyday words coming more from French. I hope that helps.
I understand your frustration with a bad teacher. I had French in high school, but the teacher didn't speak any French. She had taken two years of Spanish in college, but had to teach French because they had the books. That turned me off French for many years, but I have recently gotten back into it.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
Bonne chance.
Viel Glück.
2007-12-23 18:32:11 · answer #1 · answered by Polyglot Wannabe 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
To begin at the end of your question, yes, Swedish is in the same branch of the Indo-Euorpean family as German. So is English, although it has so many imported French and Latin words that sometimes it's hard to realize that English isn't a Romance language!
My own experience has been that German is harder and less pleasing to the ear than French. If you found French grammar difficult, you'll very likely find German grammar more so. My advice would be to resume French in college, where you'll have a different teacher. If you still don't like it, German will probably be available there.
2007-12-23 14:20:14 · answer #2 · answered by aida 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
French is more like Spanish if you're reading it, but definitely not if your speaking it. English has more Germanic in it that Romantic. It depends on if you're young enough to train your tongue to pronounce French words. German would probably be easier to understand and to speak. When I took French classes, I was pretty good at the reading and writing part, but I couldn't understand native speakers, when I rented movies and stuff. It's not the same as language tapes. They use a lot of letters they don't pronounce. After plodding through for almost a year and a half, I realized I still couldn't understand NADA when people were speaking normally, and it didn't sound nearly as pretty when I was speaking it.
2016-05-26 01:55:42 · answer #3 · answered by marget 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
German and Swedish are Germanic family languages but German is more practical. I think you should learn German because its easier for a native speaker of English and you think its cool as well as the fact it is more practical than Swedish. French is a hard language to learn especially when the teacher sucks. If you don't like it then simply don't do it.
2007-12-23 13:16:01 · answer #4 · answered by rockstar_on_oboe 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
French is the more wide-spread language--- not just Europe but also Canada, Africa, and Asia... not to mention the U.N. Plus, you have invested a lot of time in it already, and contrary to getting more boring the better you get the funner it gets and the literature is great. It is also closer to Spanish and Italian than German is.
Germany, however, has more money, and that economic clout might be worth considering if interested in doing science or business in Europe. And, of course, the literature is great. German syntax is closer to English than is French.
2007-12-23 13:12:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Definitely take German! I thought it was going to be really challenging but it's quite the opposite. I got bored of Spanish so I decided to move to something different in high school and I'm so glad I did. I would say if you practice, then you will be speaking German fluently in no time. English and German are closely related so I say why not?
2007-12-23 14:18:27 · answer #6 · answered by HazelBaby 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
i've learnt both french and german, and found them both as easy/difficult as each other. i think both languages are beautiful but i think if you don't finish learning french, you might regret it when you forget it. IMHO i'd say finish what you started
2007-12-23 18:06:44 · answer #7 · answered by hopefully 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Pragmatic answer: go back to Japanese.
If you don't like that answer, follow your heart.
2007-12-23 13:31:26 · answer #8 · answered by Liz 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋