What language should I learn?

What language?

  • German

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • French

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Spanish

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Total voters
    1
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Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
Parts of Switzerland speaks German, but it's such a different dialect that you'd have a hard time understanding it even if you spoke German fluently. I knew a Swiss and when I heard him speak to his family on the phone, I couldn't understand a word. Someone said it sounded like talking backwards. I believe German used to be spoken in Sudetenland in Czecheslovakia, but then the war happened so I'm not sure they still do. I think German also used to be spoken in the Tyrol region of northern Italy. I think the Alsace language bordering France is similar to German. I've even heard that there were pockets of German speakers in Russia. Yiddish seems pretty similar to German too.
 

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
The odd thing with Spanish is that its pronunciation is fairly different in Spain to the rest of the Spanish speaking world. I think some Spanish king had a lisp so they all pronounce 'c' as 'th', while the rest of the world doesn't. They all pronounce 'v' as 'b', except in Argentina I believe. It's also odd because other languages are spoken in large areas of Spain. Catalan is spoken in Catalonia. I believe Catalan is a bit more similar to Latin than Spanish is, as Spanish contains a lot of north African words from when the Moors ruled it. Basque is spoken in the Basque region, and is supposedly like no other language in Europe. I believe Galician is spoken in places near Portugal and is very similar to Portuguese. I think Spanish is more accurately called Castillian.
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
chap said:
Learn French.

German is spoken only in Germany and a very select few countries. Spanish is different from Latin Spanish and ... well you'd have to go to Spain. French, is not restricted to the country so if you tire of whiners you can make yourself understood in many other parts of the world. Plus, it's the second language of Europe
Alternatively, you could try Mandarin Chinese...

I think you are probably 100 yrs out of date with that view. Within Europe French is spoken in France and half of Belgium and possibly Monaco. (Unless you are referring to the EU where it is spoken by the French and half of the Belgians.) This is only because the French have dug their heels in to preserve its status. English is the de facto European language i.e. it is nearly everybody's second language and certainly German opens up not only Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland, the South Tyrol (in N Italy) to you but also the Balkans and points east.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
I went to the S Tyrol (N Italy) for my first foray into speaking my newly aquired Italian and found that they spoke German and Ladin - a local dialect!
 

Spinney

Bimbleur extraordinaire
Location
Back up north
Andy in Sig said:
...German opens up not only Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland, the South Tyrol (in N Italy) to you but also the Balkans and points east.
...and parts of the Dolomites in Italy. Having school level German (from loooong ago) but no Italian, I was rather relieved to find when we arrived that we had ended up in the German-speaking part.
 

HJ

Cycling in Scotland
Location
Auld Reekie
Plax said:
Poor Germany, hardly any takers for them. I work for a German company (used to be American but they got bought out) so German is still winning on that front. Anyway doesn't Austria and Switzerland also speak German in parts?

Even down into the north of Italy, German is also spoken as a second language in a surprising number of places, through most of eastern Europe to Turkey and beyond...
 

normgow

Guru
Location
Germany
I believe that speakers of German as a mother tongue form the largest group within the EU.
As well as the countries already mentioned there is an area of Belgium around Malmedy where it is spoken also I think parts of southern Denmark.
 

mr_cellophane

Legendary Member
Location
Essex
I gave up trying to practice my French in France. The locals would reply in English and make the whole exercise pointless. I would go with Spanish.
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
mr_cellophane said:
I gave up trying to practice my French in France. The locals would reply in English and make the whole exercise pointless. I would go with Spanish.

But then you wouldn't be able to talk to them at all. They'd just think, "Why iz zis geezeur parlant le spic?"
 
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