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Hey guys,
My friend is interested in learning a language, because she would find it fun and useful to her life. She is eastern european but enjoys travelling and is fluent in english. She is a qualified nurse, but now studying to be a beautician.
She read this article which compares Spanish with French languages.
She is leaning towards learning French, for reasons including "its a more major european, "1st-world" language" and "it would be rarer in certain places like USA, where a lot of people already speak spanish". She also thinks French would be "harder to start off with" but "easier as you get going".
We think choosing to learn a particular language is a very subjective thing, but I told her there might be several people on this forum who could provide some insight that we might otherwise overlook.
So which language, based on this extremely basic information, would you prefer my friend to start to learn? Why should she learn French rather than Spanish? Why should she pick Spanish over French?
We know that "learning a language" is pretty impractical? thing to do when it comes to job opportunities - people will say that a translators job requires fluency and is very competitive, and that many europeans (and spanish-speakers) also know english. But feel free to elaborate on these points aswell 
Here's a cool pic of a starcraft car you might not have seen before
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zti1C.jpg)
 
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spanish is probably more widespread but in less interesting places imo Id go wtih French!
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once you learn either the other is extremely easy to also learn, tell her to go for spanish first then french.
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If she is already leaning towards learning French I'd have her go with that. Spanish of the two for me at least was easier to learn. However not having to worry about taking them for credits, each should be easy with time. Basically whichever she thinks she will use most will be the most beneficial.
Awesome paint job on the car too!
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I think she should first decide which culture she prefers. Granted they are similar, but I find that learning a language is easier and more pleasant if the there is a cultural appeal as well. Personally I think I'd pick French.
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Spanish is more widespread, French is only usefull in France, French colonies, certain african countries and Quebec in Canada. Spanish however is spoken much more, great parts of America, both north and south do it.
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Spanish is easier and Spanish more useful overall.
Everything else is a matter of personal preference.
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That article is pretty BS in my opinion. I'm in highschool and got class in 6 different languages, including french. According to the article, spanish is easier because the pronunciation is easier. Yes, french is a bit annoying with stupid letter combinations and silent letters, but it's not a big deal at all. You'll get used to that very soon. just do what she lieks the most
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I'm in my fourth year of both French and Spanish classes, but I feel like I'm a whole lot better at French. It just seems more natural to speak, for me at least (maybe it was just because of my teachers' different teaching styles)... Although it certainly has its quirks, French's seemingly-odd grammar structures are surprisingly easy to think through. Like she said, overall, French takes a bit to get used to, but it's definitely becomes easier as you learn more.
I'd advise your friend to learn French- and it's extremely easy to pick up the other after learning one!
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being spanish myself cant really tell how hard it can be to learn spanish :p
but i can tell you that the average spanish citizen knowledge about english its _VERY_ poor and being able to speak spanish/english can pretty much get you a job almost guaranteed here.
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As spanish myself i would recommend spanish objectively. Pronunciation and spelling are way more simple at spanish than french, and both use the same structure at grammar and syntax. So once one is mastered it provides a solid base to learn the other. However french is used, apart from france on switzerland aswel, 2 of the best european countries to go and work there, so depending what he's planning maybe would be worth the effort to try directly french.
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I'm spanish but I'm also learning french so I think I can give you some good advice.
My opinion is that Spanish is definitely easier, especially when it comes to pronounciation and spelling (words are pronounced as they are written). In French, it is more difficult and could be a bit confusing. Grammar is very similar (if not the same) in both languages.
If I had to choose, I'd learn french. Spanish can be learned after learning French properly. I admit that there is a larger amount of people that speak Spanish than French (over 450-500 million) but I feel like French is more useful especially when applying for certain jobs. Also, when travelling, you can find somebody that speaks French almost everywhere with whom you can talk.
Hope it helps your friend!
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i have yet to see a foreigner speaking spanish proficiently
anyways spanish is gonna be way more useful than french, it is way more widespread + there's not as many multilingual speakers that know spanish
but of course your head may explode while studying spanish because of the frustration caused by the million exceptions in grammar, syntax, vocabulary, etc. that this language has
as a person who speaks both spanish and french i'd suggest anything but spanish. the thing with spanish is that it may seem easy to learn at first but to master it is almost an unachievable feat. this could be applied to many other languages but french, in comparison to spanish, is way easier to master.
spanish people will not notice how itchy spanish language is because they're used to it, and will commend studying it due to arguable reasons such as ortography or pronunciation, but if you value your mental sanity or being actually good at speaking a language, spanish is not a good choice, unless you're some kind of genius or a language gifted individual.
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If she is already bilingual I don't think it will matter which language she chooses first. If she's only going to learn one language though, I would choose French because most people in Europe speak a multitude of languages and French is pretty well known throughout Europe and Africa. The reason why I said it might not matter which language she learns first, if she learns both is that French and Spanish are somewhat similar and therefore if she learns one, -if she decides to learn another it will be much more easier. I am taking french for my 6th year in college and I find that the people who know or are at least familiar with the Spanish language have an easier time than people who do not know Spanish beforehand.
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I'm french and lived in an spanish speaking country for 13 years so i know very well both languages
From my point of view, spanish is alot more usefull, widespread and easy to learn.
French is harder and is not speaken in many places... however, it still has some merit in many people eyes, important people in industry and economic areas speak it and girls love it.
I would still go with spanish tho
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I'm surprised, I thought more people would say Spanish over French. In my eyes French just isn't as useful a language. But I know jack shit Anyone else have anything to add?
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Bleh, her reasons for preferring French are annoying and nonsensical (why would you go speak French where there are almost no French speakers?). If she wants to miss out on the bigger amounts of literature, cinema, theater, music, culture, etc. from Spanish speaking countries then French is fine. As for which is harder, I'd say that at least Spanish orthography makes more sense (I know enough French to read books comfortably).
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Naturally Spanish is more widespread; you can usually hear a Hispanophone speaking from across your building, usually uttering four times as many words as a normal person, while producing a tenth of his semantic content. Not that I generally get talking with them, as they are always eyeing the nearest blonde girl in the pub. I don't know what they say in Spanish, but the French call a certain kind of person a dragueur, which I think is the rule rather than the exception in Latin America.
Tell her to learn French.
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There will be more Hispanics nearby than French ready to kick your ass for when you decide to spew out your prejudicial garbage too. Something to bear in mind.
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EPT
