Page 1 of 2

French or Spanish?

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:00 pm
by eloise
My DS has to choose between the two in year 7. Has anyone any experience or thoughts on which language would be the most beneficial / easiest to learn? Thanks! :D

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:10 pm
by solimum
French: FOR
Just across the channel for practice/ school trip etc
Probably the most common 2nd language amongst Brits
Lots of French ski resorts!
Spoken in France, Belgium and ... Martinique? Plus some bits of Africa?
French wine & food
Read Tin-tin and Asterix in the original - or Camus

AGAINST
Many French words sound nothing like they're written with lots of silent letters eg C'est, sais sound the same
The French are our traditional enemies and hate the fact that English words keep creeping in (le weekend) so make up spurious French sounding neologisms instead which sound absurd
Whoever heard of "four twenties and nineteen" for 99
A ridiculous number of accents to remember



Spanish: FOR
Spanish wine, tapas, beaches
Barcelona FC - OK then Real Madrid!
Spoken not only in Spain but in much of South America (therefore Argentinian/ Chilean wine, the Andes, the Amazon etc)
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain

AGAINST
The Spanish speak so fast it's impossible to understand!
Not so much skiing in Spain
In parts of Spain they speak Catalan or Basque anyway
There are strange ways of pronouncing some letters
They have upside-down exclamation/ question marks!
Torremolinos in August...



OK, only semi-serious I know. Why not try visiting the BBC language websites and see if either language inspires him

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:13 pm
by zee
Spanish is generally believed to be easier and it is certainly more useful (it's the second language of the USA, the mother tongue of more than half of California, used in all of S America apart from Brazil and also of course in Spain).

On the other hand, if your daughter has already got a good grasp of French, eg from primary school, she may prefer to stick with what she knows.

Arguably the most useful languages are two of the hardest for Europeans: Mandarin and Arabic!

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:15 pm
by zee
Ha ha. Solimum squeezed her post in while I was writing mine. All good points excpet for Barcelona FC: Barcelona is in Catalonia (they get very upset if you refer to it as Spain) and although Spanish (=Castilian) is spoken, they prefer Catalan or even English, in my experience.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:19 pm
by solimum
That's true Zee , although at least in Barcelona there is enough Castilian spoken for it to be worth trying out a few phrases in my experience. The languages spoken by the players would be an interesting mixture!

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:08 am
by Zed 1
Just gave my DS the choice of languages, too. Chose spanish and when I asked why..... simply said spanish football, of course!!!! :lol:

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:21 pm
by eloise
Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply. Solimum, the BBC link is very useful; DS, on reading the replies, was swaying towards Spanish, until he heard a sample on the link - it is indeed a very fast spoken language. Decisions, decisons .... :D

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:18 pm
by medwaymum
Hi Eloise, just wondering, does your son find one easier than the other? Reason I ask is my dd is in year 7, studying French and Spanish, and finds French much easier. Its a personal preference I suppose. If she had to make a choice, I would urge her to choose the one she finds easier and more enjoyable.

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:15 pm
by zee
Mine did several years of French at prep. Year 7 grammar was 2 lessons per week French and 1 Spanish; year 8, 2 lessons of each, and by the end of year 8 he was better at and keener on Spanish, despite having had so much less teaching in it.

But as that's a sample size of one, I wouldn't necessarily read too much into it.

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:47 pm
by solimum
zee wrote:Mine did several years of French at prep. Year 7 grammar was 2 lessons per week French and 1 Spanish; year 8, 2 lessons of each, and by the end of year 8 he was better at and keener on Spanish, despite having had so much less teaching in it.

But as that's a sample size of one, I wouldn't necessarily read too much into it.
Sounds very like my daughter - having enjoyed a series of french clubs etc during her primary years and starting official school french in yr 7 she "hates" French (in the way only a 15 year old can) and much prefers German which she started in Yr 8.....