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 Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:03 pm
Pyah, I put it here because a general discussion on the pros and cons of learning each language- particularly considering my current educational history- is essentially what I want. sweatdrop
I have a choice, next semester. I need to pick up another language, and my choices are basically French, German and Russian. I'm already going to be taking Latin (300-level/junior) and Greek (200-level/sophomore). I'm not really concerned about difficulty level here. I am somewhat concerned about usefulness, and primarily concerned with which class will be the most enjoyable to take. (If it's easy on top of that, hey, gravy.)
The pros and cons, so far as I see them, are:
French
pro: I can take the whole beginner's course in one semester with a transitional class.
pro: I'm gonna have to take it at some point anyway.
pro: It's Latinate. Simple.
pro: French was a major influence on the development of English. Shiny!
con: ...but it was Norman French, not Modern.
con: Major emphasis on speaking. I'm in this for the mechanics, and I am very concerned that I'm going to get two weeks in and lose all interest.
con: This is probably not going to be a geeky class, so I don't think my interests are exactly going to be welcome, much less catered to.
German:
pro: Very likely gonna have to take it anyway.
pro: German was a major influence on the development of English. Shiny!
con: Everyone else I know is already taking it. I'd feel slightly weird and clingy.
con: It may have neat phonetic structure, but it's still a speaking course.
Russian:
pro: It sounds fascinating.
pro: The upper-level courses sound even more fascinating.
pro: I'd be the only person I know taking Russian. Nyaha.
con: It's a four-credit course. That means it's going to be a little b***h, unlike the other two. Like I said, not that important, but...
con: It's really not going to be as useful, and in fact, should I bomb out of grad school it's going to be pointless. Then again, if I bomb out of grad school my entire life up to this point has no meaning and I'm going to have to resign myself to a life as a lonely bitter old cat man and hope I can get a job as like a librarian or something. razz
So, errr, what do y'all think?
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 6:53 am
If you're in it for the grammatic elements, I'd say Russian. If you're in it for usefulness, I'd say French.
Enjoyable is a highly subjective term; what is your definition of 'fun'? If complex grammatical structures are your game, Russian would be the most enjoyable. It's not useless; several hundred million people speak it!
If you really, really like verb tenses, go for French. French is actually an immensely spiffy language, and there would probably be more geeks in your French class than you. mrgreen
It's an extremely useful language, so there are plenty of resources out there for learning it;definitely a plus.
I don't really know very much about German, so I have no authority on the subject.
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Eccentric Iconoclast Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:36 pm
Eccentric Iconoclast If you're in it for the grammatic elements, I'd say Russian. If you're in it for usefulness, I'd say French. Enjoyable is a highly subjective term; what is your definition of 'fun'? If complex grammatical structures are your game, Russian would be the most enjoyable. It's not useless; several hundred million people speak it! Hee, true. Basically, fun means "stuff that's not in English"/"stuff I haven't seen before". So kinda like what you said. whee Quote: If you really, really like verb tenses, go for French. French is actually an immensely spiffy language, and there would probably be more geeks in your French class than you. mrgreen Hmm, really? What sort of neat verb tense-related things are in it? Thanks. 3nodding
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:32 pm
Greenling Pyah, I put it here because a general discussion on the pros and cons of learning each language- particularly considering my current educational history- is essentially what I want. sweatdrop I have a choice, next semester. I need to pick up another language, and my choices are basically French, German and Russian. I'm already going to be taking Latin (300-level/junior) and Greek (200-level/sophomore). I'm not really concerned about difficulty level here. I am somewhat concerned about usefulness, and primarily concerned with which class will be the most enjoyable to take. (If it's easy on top of that, hey, gravy.) German: pro: Very likely gonna have to take it anyway. pro: German was a major influence on the development of English. Shiny! con: Everyone else I know is already taking it. I'd feel slightly weird and clingy. con: It may have neat phonetic structure, but it's still a speaking course. Yes German is similar to english but it's very HARSH sound(worlds harshest)It makes it seem like every other word is a swear word(not just my opinion ,A Lot of people say this,even some people who are taking it say that), unless you like harsh language, or don't care go for it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:59 am
I think Russian is cool, but German will teach you quite a lot about English grammar and you can translate Rammstein songs! French would be quite useful in Africa, Europe, and Canada though, so I'd just go with what sounds best to you.
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:00 pm
Hmm...I honestly don't know enough about any of them to help you.
But, it depends on what you want, so...
If you want a language like English, pick German. If you want a language that has a lot of Latin roots, pick French. If you want something a little different, and you're diligent enough to learn a different alphabet, pick Russian. 3nodding
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Spanish Nerd Vice Captain
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Eccentric Iconoclast Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:42 am
Greenling Eccentric Iconoclast If you're in it for the grammatic elements, I'd say Russian. If you're in it for usefulness, I'd say French. Enjoyable is a highly subjective term; what is your definition of 'fun'? If complex grammatical structures are your game, Russian would be the most enjoyable. It's not useless; several hundred million people speak it! Hee, true. Basically, fun means "stuff that's not in English"/"stuff I haven't seen before". So kinda like what you said. whee If you want stuff that's not in English, Russian is what you want to learn. Both French and German are fairly similar to English, and Russian is not. It's both enjoyable and challenging in that regard. Quote: Quote: If you really, really like verb tenses, go for French. French is actually an immensely spiffy language, and there would probably be more geeks in your French class than you. mrgreen Hmm, really? What sort of neat verb tense-related things are in it? Thanks. 3nodding 22 verb tenses (at least gonk I think everyone's afraid to count), and more irregular verbs than regular.
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:22 pm
French.
In my opinion it's by far the most useful out of the three. It's an official language in more than 45 countries/regions and is spoken on all of the inhabitable continents (yes, that includes Asia - there is a French-speaking minority in Vietnam). German is isn't spoken very much outside of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and most people who speak Russian live in Eastern Europe/the part of Russia that's in Asia. That means that French can be useful for travel (especially once you take into consideration the amount of people who can speak it as a 2nd/3rd language). French is also the only language other than English that is an official language in the Olympics, and it is the official language of the Red Cross. I could keep going on and on, but I think you get the idea.
And as EI already said, French verb conjugations are enough to keep you amused for years, and then some.
Plus, once you learn French you only need to learn a few Spanish conjugations and you will immediately be able to understand 90-95% of written Spanish.
French also has some things that might interest you linguistically. For example, the pronounciation is different but more possible than that of German/Russian.
And last but not least: the culture. It is worth slaving away at the conjugations just to be able to enjoy French music, theatre, poetry, etc. Not to say that Russia/Germany don't have culture, but nothing beats French literature. Nothing. Even somebody who doesn't like reading much would enjoy reading in French.
So yeah...
French heart
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Eccentric Iconoclast Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:27 pm
Somehow, I knew you were going to say that. gonk rofl
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:46 pm
Eccentric Iconoclast Somehow, I knew you were going to say that. gonk rofl Gosh I should've posted for you. whee
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Spanish Nerd Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:16 pm
xd It's not that I dislike German or Russian, but you know... French... heart
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 8:40 am
Proudly_Jewish xd It's not that I dislike German or Russian, but you know... French... heart xD So I've noticed.
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Eccentric Iconoclast Vice Captain
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Spanish Nerd Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:15 pm
Eccentric Iconoclast Proudly_Jewish xd It's not that I dislike German or Russian, but you know... French... heart xD So I've noticed. We know dear. It goes with out saying. wink
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:02 am
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:55 pm
Proudly_Jewish xd It's not that I dislike German or Russian, but you know... French... heart I agree (QUEBECOIS hint hint)
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