French or German

[Uriah Heep]

My granddaughter has to decide this week on whether to take French or German for the last two years of primary school. Simply, which is easier and which would be best?

[chazza]

Having studied both, I would say French was the easier language for me to learn. I found German more like latin (which I had major problems with), and stuck German for 2 years before giving it up at the first opportunity, and managed to take french for 7 years and get an A Level in it

[missjef]

in my opinion i would say german was easier, though i did both at GCSE and loved them both. i think they are both really good languages to learn, i would say either really.

[OBonio]

Personally, I found German easier but I think that was down to my teacher rather than the language itself.

[BigMac]

I did both for 'O' level and enjoyed them both.

I don't think you can say one is easier than the other - but if she has already studied some French but no German, then it may seem easier to take French; at the very least she willbe familiar with the language. However, she may want or prefer a change - of teacher as well as language. There is no right or wrong answer.

As to what would be best - well, Chinese would be very useful given the way the Chinese economy is growing and the increasing influence the country will have on global affairs.

Of French and German, however, it may be that French is more useful given the number of French speakers/French speaking countries around the world compared with German speakers and German speaking countries.

[jessikiller]

Living in both countries at some point in my life [my father is in the RAF] I've studied both, and i believe German is the easiest option, however.. she may find that French maybe of more use to her.. afterall theres quite a few other countries in the world than speak Frence, French Canadians for example. I suggest you talk it through with her.

[dzug]

German is generally easier to pronounce than French for someone whose native tongue is English.

[Uriah Heep]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. This morning the letter went back to the school with the tick in the box for French. Like the comments about Chinese though. Never heard that English speakers found it easier to pronounce German, any idea why and is this the same for Welsh/Irish/Gaelic speakers?

[jump79]

I have never taken German, but think French would be more beneficial in the long run, since it's widely spoken after English, Spanish and Chinese (I think).

Whereas, German, not so much, really.

[mikey0118]

In the UK, it seems that just about every schoolchild in the country is taught how to speak French.

I'd recommend being different and going for German instead. I studied both languages up until GCSE, at which point, I had to decided whether I wanted to do continue with both of them or just one. I went for German.

Many of the words sound remarkably like their equivalents in English, so it's a relatively easy language to learn.

[higgirach]

Oh my god! They do german at her primary school! Thats a bit advanced lol Anyways i did german for one year at my secondary school and hated it! Its very hard, much harder than french manily due to the strange word ordering and verb endings that dont seem to follow any pattern! id definatey recommend french!