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| Thread: German or French? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 25, 2012 11:44 PM |
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German or French?
Which fourth language should I try to learn in accordance to these factors:
- How easy it is for a germanic person to learn it.
- How widely used it is in EU politics.
- How withspread the language is through the world.
- The relevance of the languge in the future.
- Culture (mainly understanding horror movies without subtitles).
I'm currently leaning towards french.
I already know very, very basic spanish.
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Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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Corribus
Hero of Order
The Abyss Staring Back at You
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posted May 25, 2012 11:50 PM |
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German.
->> More relevant to EU
->> Obviously is part of Germanic family
->> Germany = Beer, France = Wine
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Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
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posted May 25, 2012 11:54 PM |
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I agree German is soooooo easy. French is far more sophisticated though, so if your aiming high I'd take french.
As for spanish, the most common first language in the entire world, so if your going into business then I'd take that.
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"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted May 25, 2012 11:55 PM |
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Quote:
German.
->> More relevant to EU
->> Obviously is part of Germanic family
->> Germany = Beer, France = Wine
GAH.
You're slowly becoming my mortal enemy.
French is more relevant on a wide scale though since there's a good amount of native speakers outside of Europe. German is pretty isolated.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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Minion
Legendary Hero
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posted May 25, 2012 11:57 PM |
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If EU is part of your future plans, I'd take German. Also German is very similar to Swedish (some say even easier than Swedish, more logical)
France if some particular area interests you.
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"These friends probably started using condoms after having produced the most optimum amount of offsprings. Kudos to them for showing at least some restraint" - Tsar-ivor
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Vindicator
Supreme Hero
Right Back Extraordinaire
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posted May 26, 2012 12:05 AM |
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Finish learning Spanish first, easily more useful than either of them.
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2012 12:08 AM |
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I already study Spanish and absolutely suck at it. But I will fix that this summer.
Seems like I'll be studying german then. I recongnise a lot of germanic words because of swedish. But I've heard the grammar is pretty hard.
____________
Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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Lexxan
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Unimpressed by your logic
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posted May 26, 2012 12:17 AM |
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Edited by Lexxan at 00:18, 26 May 2012.
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German. German all the way. The Grammar is EXCRUCIATING to learn though.
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2012 12:20 AM |
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Edited by xerox at 00:21, 26 May 2012.
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my mum studied german so maybe she can help me >.>
I also have a lot of friends who study german because learning a third language is mandatory here unless you got like downs syndrome and are incapable of doing that
I remember years ago when we were on a dolmus (bus) in Turkey and a really old turkish woman started asking her stuff in german >.>
But then there are a lot of turks in Germany.
____________
Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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Corribus
Hero of Order
The Abyss Staring Back at You
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posted May 26, 2012 02:13 AM |
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I didn't think German grammar was that difficult, tbh. Weirdest thing was how they put verbs at the end of a sentence. That's snowed up.
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I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later. -Mitch Hedberg
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fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2012 03:06 AM |
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Edited by fauch at 03:07, 26 May 2012.
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isn't it at the 2nd position actually? except for past participles which are at the end of the phrase I remember well?
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JollyJoker
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2012 07:31 AM |
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If you suck in Spanish you will suck more in French. That's guaranteed. For someone from Sweden German is probably easier than for someone from a Romanian language country including English, but still.
Take Russian.
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Corribus
Hero of Order
The Abyss Staring Back at You
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posted May 26, 2012 07:32 AM |
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Screw that. Learn Chinese.
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I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later. -Mitch Hedberg
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NoobX
Undefeatable Hero
Now, this is a paradox...
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posted May 26, 2012 07:42 AM |
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Cor is right. The Chinese is the language of the future.
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Ghost said:
Door knob resembles anus tap.
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Darkshadow
Legendary Hero
Cerise Princess
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posted May 26, 2012 08:20 AM |
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Quote:
Cor is right. The Chinese is the language of the future.
Hmm...to text wall derail or to not text wall derail...
Anyway why not learn both? Actually screw all the other suggestions and start learning Nahuatl.
Don't say I didn't tell you when undead Aztec's enslave us.
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NoobX
Undefeatable Hero
Now, this is a paradox...
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posted May 26, 2012 09:02 AM |
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Has Darksy just said a smart thing?
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Ghost said:
Door knob resembles anus tap.
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Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
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posted May 26, 2012 01:41 PM |
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Quote:
Don't say I didn't tell you when undead Aztec's enslave us.
Ignorance is bliss, I'd prefer to not hear about how they'll take away my manhood while I slumber.
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"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted May 26, 2012 01:48 PM |
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I think there are pros and cons to both languages. I actually think French will prove marginally more useful on the long run, but I guess that's very situational. French will offer a good deal of synergy with Spanish, for better or worse. German will be closer to your native language, particularly as a Dane I share a lot of words with German. This boht means that German might be easier to learn, but also that German might be easier to do without (as you will probably be able to read some German even if you haven't learned the language) - but then, having learned Spanish, the same might be true about French. Oh, and don't take French because German gramma is bad, because French gramma is nightmarish.
So I don't really think I can recommend either clearly over the other, but I do think improving your Spanish will be a good idea either way, because that's a language I never learned but have had use for several times (I do get by in Spanish courtesy of my limited French skills, however).
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What will happen now?
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The_Polyglot
Promising
Supreme Hero
Nuttier than squirrel poo
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posted May 26, 2012 02:46 PM |
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Why not learn both? That's what I'd do. 
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Shares
Supreme Hero
I am. Thusly I am.
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posted May 26, 2012 04:40 PM |
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Edited by Shares at 16:47, 26 May 2012.
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Well, frensh might be more useful on the global scale, since France exports more culture than Germany. You are however in Sweden and the odds are that you will run into a lot more german than frensh. Germany is pretty much only used in Germany and some nearby countries, and is closely related to pretty much all germanic languages, so it shouldn't be hard to grasp for you, since you already know both Swedish and English. After that you pretty much understand Dutch automatically (I was in Holland for a week and that was enough for me to understand what people were saying, even though I can't speak a word of dutch).
However, as I said, France exports a lot more culture, especially historically speaking, so regarding movies there should be a lot more alternatives for you. Especially if you back a few decades, and since France had some colonies frensh is actually used elsewhere (like in Canada and a bunch of African countries). Frensh shouldn't be too hard to grasp either, since it is, despite what a lot of people are saying, rather related to english. After that you may have an easier time learning italian, spanish and latin, and they are all very useful languages (well... italian is only useful in Italy and due to it being related to latin, that is a huge part of european languages).
Personally I'd go with German. It's a useful language to have in the germanic third of Europe, id est the third that I am most likely to visit and I already know a bit of latin, so I have no reason to learn one of those languages for linguistic utility.
EDIT: And to meet the idea that german grammar is hard I can only say that all grammar is rather difficult, but the german system what with the inflection of words to further define them is very similar to the swedish method, and the way they add articles before words is very similar to english. The unique thing is how central gender is in the language, but the concept is easy to grasp, though the identification often needs to be instinctive, rather than logical, just like inflection in swedish often is.
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