HeadingNorth Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 French is spoken in many more countries around the world compared to German. True, but if that were your basis for choosing a language you would not learn anything other than English - except, possibly, Mandarin Chinese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I don't think the question is as simple as has been suggested in this thread. English - as in the language in common use - is imprecise. French (and a dialect of Norman French was one of my mother tongues) tends to be somewhat verbose. German is less prone to misinterpretation. A number of scientific texts are written German for that reason. But who speaks German? Do you need to speak German? I lived (for some years) in Baden-Württemberg. All of the people who lived where I lived could understand Hochdeutsch, but they spoke Badisch (and it was a different dialect to that spoken 25 miles away.) I now live (for part of the year) in Bavaria. (Not Germany, Rupert! ) They can speak German - but they don't. 'Mia red'n Boarisch...' The dialect spoken in my village varies significantly from that spoken 5 miles away - and the people who live 20 miles away speak an almost unintelligible language. Back to the original question: It might be a good idea to look into how well each language is taught in your daughter's school and to check on 'teacher turnover' in the languages department. The school my son went to was pretty good - apart from in German, which he took in year 9. There were 3 German teachers during the one year and there was a 4-month period when there was no German teacher at all. He didn't learn much. The school relied heavily on German Nationals employed (at lower than teacher pay scale rates.) They (unsurprisingly) didn't bother to stay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anywebsite Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 French is spoken in a few countries internationally, in Africa, etc. German is just Germany, Austria & Switzerland. If she's already done some French & doesn't hate it, then it's probably best to stick with French. Germany is quite a big important country too though, so I don't see any disadvantage if she hates French & decides to take German. Spanish should be first choice though, it's 2nd or 3rd in the world after English & Chinese. It's also a good easy option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vague_Boy Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 My daughter has less than 2 months to decide whether to learn French or German when she moves to secondary school in September. France and the UK are both bankrupt and Germany has money (real money, not debt). Get her to learn German and buy her a shoeshine kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Womerry2 Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I now live (for part of the year) in Bavaria. (Not Germany, Rupert! ) They can speak German - but they don't. True! My advice would be to start with French - it's not only the language of our nearest neighbours, but also spoken widely in Africa, especially in North Africa. For anyone with an interest in modern European history, French (the former diplomatic language) is very useful indeed. Once she has learnt the grammar of one language, she will find it easier to acquire additional languages. At this stage, the decision for one language does not preclude the learning of other languages - but it does pepare the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Vader Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 It depends on her experience of learning French and how she sees a language(s) fitting in with her career/future. If she enjoys learning a language and believes she may strongly wish to take it up above other things, then the option she has of doing French first at GCSE and then German may be something to consider. If she's choosing a language because she has to and is not really bothered/interested in learning a language, then, if she finds the French difficult to pronounce, German might be the better option. It is easier for us northerners to pronounce as many of the sounds are the same. If she has a career in law/journalism/medicine or of that ilk in mind, then, French could end up being most beneficial, as it is a more widely spoken, 'international' language. If she is thinking of a technical/engineering based career then German would definitely be the one to go for. Either way, once you've learned one language, it's easier to learn others as you build on patterns you have learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
River-Pete Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 French sounds nicer.. agreed. But based on experience from Intl Sales, German. We do business with lots of countries in Europe.. Germany, Austria, Belgium German and English works fine in all over Europe - except for France and Poland.. French wouldn´t work any better in Poland, so the only reason i see to learn the language is to impress on dinner guests.. ( French dinner guests ). If you think abt it.. its funny.. Everyone is considering if they might benefit form learning french, but the french doesnt seem to consider benefiting from learning english!!?? If Moses doesnt head for the hills... In short.. 13 times out of 10.. id choose German.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lounge Jay Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I dont think German is spoken anywhere outside Germany, whereas French is, with France being a one-time colonial power. We are fortunate though that English is the most global language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shane39 Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Why do threads asking a simple question always finish up with certain posters reaching for the history books? Just answer the question. It's German for me.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Sleeps Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Why do threads asking a simple question always finish up with certain posters reaching for the history books? Why do threads asking a simple question always finish in certain posters asking questions about what other people are doing when they talk about history? Just answer the ... oh, you did. Très bien. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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