What foreign language to take?

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Everyone hates the french. Go with german it sounds better. ICH HABEN EINE BRUDER!! Only german can make "i have a brother" sound intimidating.

Ich habe einen Bruder.

 

[alphatarget1]

German is more influential in Europe than French, IMO.

Can't say the same for the rest of the world...

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Deutsch.

 

[slpaulson]

I think German is probably easier for an English speaker to learn.

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Everyone hates the french. Go with german it sounds better. ICH HABEN EINE BRUDER!! Only german can make "i have a brother" sound intimidating.

lol.. i think it's "Ich habe einen Bruder"

German gets my vote!

 

[BrokenVisage]

Another vote for Spanish

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Spanish is the easiest and will have the largest chance of being useful from your choices.

 

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Deutsch.

 

[mercanucaribe]

First of all, you should not be planning to work in IT after college.. that's at least 8 years away! And also, French is probably more useful than German, but Spanish is the most useful. I've never heard of business in Western Europe being conducted in French. That sounds like a load of crap. Most Europeans speak English as their second language.

 

[czech09]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: czech09
French. It's spoken more around the world.

But enough people in France speak English so that you'll never have any issues. You can't say the same for Mexico, Spain, and South America.

Yes, however he exclusively said he's deciding between German and French so hence I said French and included the reasoning. I've taken all 3 classes and am pretty good with German and Spanish. I know the basic phrases in French.

Difficulty:

Spanish/German about the same relatively easy.
French is a bit tougher especially the spelling/grammar.

 

[WildHorse]

Suggest reconsidering your rejection of espanol.

If you ever hope to get by in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, you'd want the Spanish.
As time goes by that's more & more true, as they absolutely overrun us here.

Actually, for a high school freshman, it might be a good plan to take the first year in Latin.

I never had Latin, but it's a root language. I've heard that some familiarity with Latin helps you to more easily learn other languages that grew from that same root, like French, Spanish, others.

edited to fix my bad typing

 

[totalcommand]

Spanish: easy, widely used, hella useful.

 

[Taqwus]

From what I seen
Most useful in Americas -> Spanish
Most useful abroad -> German
Most useful in the future -> Mandarin, that is going by predictions that CHina will become the next economic power house

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: Taqwus

Most useful in the future -> Mandarin, that is going by predictions that CHina will become the next economic power house

FTW

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: Art Vandelay

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: czech09
French. It's spoken more around the world.

But enough people in France speak English so that you'll never have any issues. You can't say the same for Mexico, Spain, and South America.

Obviously you have never been to France

But I have...not speaking French ever got in the way

 

[LS20]

german help ya improve yer english.

 

[Motek]

I have done both languages for GCSEs here in UK (11th standard exams)
I found German much easier only because my French teacher was absolutely terrible.
I ended up with an A in German and a shocking B in French..
So I think they are both pretty easy, if anything French probably easier since German has too many forms to remember like Accusative Dative Neuter etc..