I'm going to try to learn a new language. Spanish, French, or something else?

[CharaS]

I took Spanish in High School but forgot literally all of it. French in Middle School but same thing. I feel so basic and lame for only knowing English.

So I'm going to try to learn one of these or something else over quarantine. What do you think? Any idea which is easier? Which is sexier, or more sophisticated sounding?

Spanish

French

Something else

[zeitgeist057]

Spanish is more versatile and useful.

French sounds sexier, but is less practical. Italian is also in this framework.

Portuguese is more beautiful than either, and about as practical as French.

Mandarin may become increasingly useful, and is also the most impressive, even if you only use it to order when you go to Chinese restaurants. Japanese is also along these lines.

American Sign Language (ASL) is also useful and easy to teach to your friends, so that you can all communicate with each other without most people understanding. It is also a great skill to have for many jobs, especially if you work in emergency services or healthcare.

[zeitgeist057]

I would also add that ASL obviousy doesn't "sound" sexy, but it looks very beautiful and is impressive, and again the work factor even as an interpreter there will always be opportunities.

[CharaS]

There's so many good options haha. It's honestly a choice between practicality and elegance.

[zeitgeist057]

@charas I think for the effort it takes to learn a language, I would lean toward practicality. Which is probs why I speak Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese mostly in addition to English, and just dabble in Mandarin and ASL.

[NamerOfStars]

Unusual suggestion here, but: ASL. The grammar's tricky if you already know English, but having a means to quickly communicate even in loud areas (or areas where you have to be silent) comes in handy a LOT more often than you'd think. Plus deaf people will appreciate it, and there's always the possibility of getting a job as an interpreter. Not sure how useful it'd be internationally, though.

[CharaS]

I really hadn't considered sign language haha. That's really interesting.

[NamerOfStars]

I will suggest learning the alphabet: twenty six one-handed signs you can practice while brushing your teeth. Even that much is surprisingly useful.

[laurieluvsit]

Well, usually French is sexier but the most spoken foreign language in the US is Spanish, so it seems that one might be the most practical :)

[CharaS]

Yeah, the main draw of Spanish would be how often I could use it. It's a whole group of people around me I'd be able to better speak with. Practicality rules, huh ;)

[Anonymous]

Korean because Kpop is awesome
Or Mandarin Chinese, the language of commerce and the future
I'm bored of European languages

[CharaS]

I don't know any, so it's hard to be bored of them!

[Suburbia_Wizard]

It varies. Spanish is easier when it comes to pronunciation and spelling. French has a sentence structure that is much easier to follow than Spanish since it's more predictable. In addition, French shares a lot more vocabulary with English compared to Spanish. When it comes to grammar, both languages are similar and require conjugations. However, in Spanish, the subject pronoun often gets removed when using a verb, because the endings are all different. This can get confusing for a lot of English speakers as we almost always have to include a subject pronoun when using a verb. This is where French is easier as its sentence structure is almost exactly like English. However, when it comes to past tenses, passé compose (French) can stump a lot of people compared to pretérito (Spanish). Pretérito only requires a single word whereas passé compose comes in two parts (consisting of the auxiliary verb and the past participle). In general, neither of them is harder than the other. However, in most cases, the more French you learn the easier it gets, while Spanish gets harder the deeper you dive in.

[Tea-Spaghetti]

I recommend French mainly cause I think Mexico is overrated. Spanish is easier though in my opinion and I wouldn’t mind learning Spanish for South American countries but just dislike Central American countries. Portuguese for Brazil is also nice. You can also try a German language like Dutch, German, Norwegian.
Or try something more off the boat like Russian, Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, Farsi, up to you. But for easiness I recommend Spanish.

[CharaS]

Why would you say Mexico is overrated? I mean I haven't been there but I'm curious.

[Tea-Spaghetti]

I just bad experiences with them and hear stories about violence so I’m discriminating against them sorry

[Gavilar1]

I'm studying japanese because they use romaji for English speakers, it's quite easy
You can count to 9999 within a few days of solid revision

[CharaS]

Huh. Japanese isn't even something I considered 😅

[Gavilar1]

Yea it's quite fun and you learn a completely opposite culture which makes the revision fun

[Tea-Spaghetti]

Chinese is more relevant these days than judgmental island japan is overrated Why are japanese so judgmental? ↗

[Avicenna]

French is a great choice. Definitely sounds sophisticated.

[MACTEP]

As the results of the election, Chinese would be the language to learn, unfortunately.

[FakeName123]

Well, do you want easy? Sexy? Or Sophisticated?

[CharaS]

Ideally all of the above?

[FakeName123]

Easy and sophisticated are usually contradictions.

Personally I don't particulary like french. Spanish definitely has some nice ring to it. Obviously I am biased to German and that's quite sopisticated since there is a lot of great german literature - but it's definitely not easy.

Japanese and Mandarin are quite interesting if you want to go for some very different language. Arabic is also pretty interesting, but their literature sucks quite a bit. It's mostly religion related.

[CharaS]

I get the contradiction now lol.

Japanese seems so popular. I really didn't expect that. I'll put some thought into it.

[Tea-Spaghetti]

Nah screw the Japanese I suggest European languages.

[Anonymous]

A lot of women learn French because it is a Romance Language

[Static_In_The_Attic]

I say go for sign language!

[fred_durst]

body language

[CharaS]

haha that's a good one ;)

[Nayyr]

je peux t'apprendre