French or Spanish?

[me.vicky]

I am required to take two semesters of a foreign language in order to graduate. My choices are French and Spanish. Now, hear me out.

On the one hand, my boyfriend has taken French before in high school and is taking French next year. And I think it would be cool if we could both speak it. You know, to each other. Yes, we're both sappy enough to think this is a good idea.

On the other hand, my dad would entirely disapprove of me taking French. He thinks it is a dying language, he has little-to-no respect for the French anyways, and he has told me before it would be more practical in this day and age to learn Spanish as a second language, as so much of the U.S. is becoming more immigrant-aware, if not friendly. Also, my dad speaks a little himself, and I believe at some point my (homeschooled) siblings will be learning Spanish too.

So, escapists, which one seems like the better decision? On the one hand, it would be cool to be able to speak conversational French with my bf; on the other hand, I'll lose that connection to my family.

 

[Anarchemitis]

The real question is if you choose to be Pragmatic or Emotional about such a concursion. Both being utilitarian in your decision or being romantic, both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Personally I would take the Spainish, however I have no idea about the status of said relationship and therefore it would not be within the calculations of my hypothetical judgment; the longevity of the relationship.
No offense intended, if perceived.

 

[Tasachan]

French would be extremely useful if you're planning on moving to Canada in the future. It looks very good on a resume if you speak both of the country's official languages (EVERYTHING here is labelled in English & French).
However, if you're sticking in the states I think you should go with Spanish.

 

[me.vicky]

Unless things go horribly awry, we'll get married right out of college in two years. So there's that.

But, yeah, Spanish is what I'm leaning towards. Family is the most important, after all.

 

[Nickolai77]

I'd recommend Spanish, i've heard it's easier than French and of course there are more Spanish speakers in the world. Plus, you can teach each other your respective languages- French and Spanish are similar.

 

[zombiesinc]

Unless things go horribly awry, we'll get married right out of college in two years. So there's that.

But, yeah, Spanish is what I'm leaning towards. Family is the most important, after all.

I would have chosen French myself, but in your situation, I'd likely lean towards Spanish as well. If taking Spanish means you'll be able to possibly help your siblings learn it, I think it's a great choice. And a father's approval is a great feeling.

 

[Fawcks]

If your relationship with your father was like mine, you'd pick French in a heartbeat, if that.

 

[Ham_authority95]

I am required to take two semesters of a foreign language in order to graduate. My choices are French and Spanish. Now, hear me out.

On the one hand, my boyfriend has taken French before in high school and is taking French next year. And I think it would be cool if we could both speak it. You know, to each other. Yes, we're both sappy enough to think this is a good idea.

On the other hand, my dad would entirely disapprove of me taking French. He thinks it is a dying language, he has little-to-no respect for the French anyways, and he has told me before it would be more practical in this day and age to learn Spanish as a second language, as so much of the U.S. is becoming more immigrant-aware, if not friendly. Also, my dad speaks a little himself, and I believe at some point my (homeschooled) siblings will be learning Spanish too.

So, escapists, which one seems like the better decision? On the one hand, it would be cool to be able to speak conversational French with my bf; on the other hand, I'll lose that connection to my family.

If being lovey-dovey with your boyfriend is what's important to you, take french.

But if you just want to be practical, Spanish would be hugely useful (especially on the west coast where there are tons of Hispanic immigrants).

 

[Zedayen]

Take Spanish. Afterward, or even whilst studying Spanish at college, learn French on the side. (though might be a little strenuous on the ol' noggin.) I've been told numerous times the easiest way to learn a language is love. Have your boyfriend/fiance speak French a generous percentage of the time, and you will pick up a lot over time.

If you can pick up these languages with relative ease, perhaps you can look at learning other languages as well. Being multilingual opens up many doors within most careers.

 

[Amnestic]

Spanish is a more widely spoken language and you are more likely to find uses for it simply because more people speak it.

I'd still go with French though. That your boyfriend speaks it (sort of) will help immensely. The best way to learn a language is to submerge yourself in it, so if the two of you primarily just speak it to one another (and I assume you spend a good amount of time together) it'll help the both of you.

Plus, I prefer French. I chose Spanish as my compulsory language because the teachers at my school were nicer for that class, but I preferred French on the whole. *sigh* I wish they'd offered Italian though.

 

[Freechoice]

Unless things go horribly awry, we'll get married right out of college in two years. So there's that.

But, yeah, Spanish is what I'm leaning towards. Family is the most important, after all.

But if you marry him, doesn't he become family?

Having had at least a little experience with both, I much prefer French. Learned a lot more (then forgot it) in one year of French than I did with three years of Spanish. However, that's just me.


Mais quand vous parlons francais, vous devenons tres intelligente et tres sexy.


Who speaks French? Did I get that right? Isn't saying 'sexy' in French awesome?

 

[superbatranger]

You don't have to necessarily learn just one language. Isn't it possible to take Spanish in school, and have your boyfriend teach you what he knows about French?

 

[Zaik]

I'd think it would depend on how far north you are.

The more north you get, the less useful spanish is.

While french-speaking Canadians aren't exactly common, there's a 1 in a million chance you could be working in some doctor's office or something and have one of them come in if you're close to Canada.

I guess the only other use would be if you went to France so you could get mugged, you'd be able to talk to the police.

 

[randomsix]

My advice to you is to see if your school has an Arabic program. Shit's lock it in an insane asylum locked in an insane asylum crazy, in a very very good way.

Also, I have on the authority of several disgruntled acquaintances that French gets more loopy than a skywriter writing "lololol" in script with later grammatical acrobatics.

Also, I am prejudiced against the scourge upon the linguistic plane which manifests itself as silent letters.

 

[Valkyrie101]

Unless things go horribly awry, we'll get married right out of college in two years. So there's that.

But, yeah, Spanish is what I'm leaning towards. Family is the most important, after all.

But if you marry him, doesn't he become family?

Having had at least a little experience with both, I much prefer French. Learned a lot more (then forgot it) in one year of French than I did with three years of Spanish. However, that's just me.


Mais quand vous parlez francais, vous devenez tres intelligente et tres sexy.


Who speaks French? Did I get that right? Isn't saying 'sexy' in French awesome?

See the corrections. Also, you missed the accents but I presume that was because keyboard + accents = . Also, on parle would work better than vous parlez, but both are technically correct.

Well, that's my French self-study done for the week.

 

[thahat]

go spanish i'd say. french is ANOYING and also, pretymuch useless. XD
well, except for maybe in canada. and ordering bread in france. but you'ld be ripped off in france anyway because your not a natural speaking frenchman XD, so dont even bother. they know english well enough to take your money from you equally well without speaking french, and its only usefull if your in the oil industry for PR-related purposes in france.
spanish though, is actualy more common than i would have liked XD.

also, the french pretymuch invented the idea of ecception to the rule in their language. the shitty thing doesnt follow any sort of normal order. AT ALL. >.<

 

[Caspertjuhh]

well, all I know is that spanish girls >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> french girls, and frech is a b1tch to learn.