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3rd language = French, German or Arabic? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5764 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 9 of 19 03 January 2010 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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French rulez!
It's a trivial language after Spanish (so that can boost your confidence in language-mongering) - It's useful in almost all of Africa - It has pretty poetry, fiction and films - ... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ZeroTX Groupie United States Joined 6134 days ago 91 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 19 03 January 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Where in Africa is French spoken? I mean which countries/regions? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5535 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 11 of 19 03 January 2010 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language#Africa 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Muz9 Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5523 days ago 84 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Somali | Message 12 of 19 03 January 2010 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Arabic will take you several years to get to a decent level! I tried but quit, because at same amount of time I could be fluent in French, Spanish and German combined. It is a matter of prioritizing.
What also put me down was that Modern Standard Arabic is not even a 'real' living language, it is spoken only by educated Arabs and you would sound like a uptight person if you spoke Arabic like that to an average Arab. The large myriad of dialects is also something to take into account, it is almost safe to say that Arabic consists of many different languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5494 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 13 of 19 04 January 2010 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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If I were in your position, I would study French first. If you want to travel through
Western Europe, you'll be set with Spanish and French. Of course you could visit France, Belgium (South), some of Switzerland and Spain with no problem, but those languages will also help you in Italy and Portugal if you plan to visit either of these countries. Many people speak French throughout the rest of Europe for a variety of reasons. If you only plan on visiting Germany for part of your trip(s), you will get by fine without speaking much German because a lot of Germans speak English well. However, if you plan to spend a good amount of time in places like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you would of course be better off learning German instead of French. I think some people (mostly older) in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe speak German too. While a great language for travel to the Middle East, its literary tradition and likely good job prospects in the oil sector, Arabic would be totally useless from a travel and everyday life perspective in the USA and Europe. So my final thoughts are: Study French for a year. It won't be too hard since you know Spanish already. Once you have a basic fluency in French, begin studying German while continuing with French. Start Arabic in a few years. Try a little bit of all three if you want to see which one you like best, then stick to one for a while before going to the next. Don't try to learn them all at once, although I'm sure German and French at the same time is quite possible. Most importantly, we can all give you good reasons to learn one language over another based on our own bias. Heck, one language might even be better than another. However, choose the one you are most interested in and will be of the most use to YOU. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ZeroTX Groupie United States Joined 6134 days ago 91 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 19 04 January 2010 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all of the great advice, guys! I haven't made a decision yet, but I am seriously pondering the options. It should be made known that in my line of work and in the place where I work, I encountered a lot of foreign language speakers with very limited English abilities. Most speak Spanish, but after Spanish the next most common language would probably be Arabic, followed by Urdu and a number of African languages that I'd never even attempt to learn.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5807 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 15 of 19 04 January 2010 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with pretty much everything that Canada38 said
except that I would also add that you should drop Arabic for Italian [joking!] because I love Italian so much. Edited by ChiaBrain on 04 January 2010 at 4:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5494 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 16 of 19 04 January 2010 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Even better, drop all three in favour of Italian. :D Joking (kinda) ZeroTX, if you ever plan on learning a language just for fun, Italian might be a good choice. I think it is an interesting language. It lies halfway between being very useful (Spanish, Mandarin etc.) and totally pointless except in specific situations (not naming any to avoid debate). If you learn French, and know Spanish, I bet you could be talking Italian in six months. Just a thought for the future. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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