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Anonymous
Outside of English, which language would be most beneficial in the whole of Europe?

Collegefag trying to decide between learning French or German and apply it from a media/journalist standpoint.
>> Anonymous
French, French people refuse to speak English.

Germans all learn English to an extant. Plus they're Nazis, why should you learn their language?
>> Anonymous
Arabic?
>> Anonymous
Compare the population of Germany + Austria + 1/3 of Switzerland to France + 1/3 of Switzerland and you have your answer.
>> Anonymous
>>26110
But like the guy before you said, they all speak English. So it's like comparing 0 to France + 1/3 of Switzerland.
If you want to go with 0 be my guest.
>> Anonymous
Learn both if you've got the time.

Now "Which one first ?" : I'd go with French, which is widespread around the world as well (also, other working language in the UN, along with British English).
Unless you're planning to specialize in finance or economics, then German first.
>> Anonymous
>>26088
if it weren't for us that dog would be barking in german
>> Anonymous
>>26110

Forgot Belgium ? north of Italy ? French as more native speakers. Who often don't speak English.

Plus, the French population is increasing, while the German population is decreasing.
Outside of Europe, you'll find people speaking French (but not English) in many countries like Gabon, Romania, Algeria or Vietnam. Many of those have booming populations.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>26112
OP here. I took three years of German in High School, but thanks to shoddy public education and general "not-caringness," I've found I've forgotten most of it, save for a few basic verbs and whatnot.

Considering German's difficulty, would it be best I try and pick it back up while it's still SOMEWHAT in my head? From what I've heard of French, people say it's fuckall hard or one of the easier languages.
>> Anonymous
>if it weren't for us that dog would be barking in german

No ; French has a clear tendency to spread against Germanic languages. In territories annexed by the nazis, they had to implement the death penalty for speaking French.
In Flanders, they have to punish school kids for speaking French (and not Dutch) in the Dutch zone.

And when the Germanic tribes (including the Franks that gave their name to the country) crashed into the Roman provinces of Gaul, in the end they ended up with a Latin language, not a Germanic one. Despite having conquered the Gallo-Romans.

I suspect the reason is : talking a girl into sex is 100x easier in French. And I'm a (mostly proud) German btw.

>if it weren't for us
"us" being the Russians ?
>> Anonymous
>From what I've heard of French, people say it's fuckall hard or one of the easier languages.

It's rather easy in the beginning but is almost completely impossible to master perfectly. There must be very few, if any, people in France who can claim to have "perfect" spelling and grammar (due to an inordinate number of intricacies).
It's not hard to reach a point where you can be as fluent as, say, 95% of the French population. Past that point, good luck - but don't worry, the remaining 5% will typically be well-mannered so it won't matter.
>> Anonymous
>>26121
>talking a girl into sex is 100x easier in French

Thread over ?
>> Anonymous
>>26111
Germans can't speak English very well. Like the French, they get everything dubbed instead of subbed and have very little practise with the language they are trying to learn. Their countries both want to "preserve" the culture. In france, it's illegal to spend more than 20 minutes per hour (or somthing like that) playing English songs.
>> Anonymous
>>26125
Lol wut ? no
I have a French weaboo friend who has been watching anime almost 24x7 for 30 years now (since he was a kid), speaks fluent Japanese (so he doesn't even need subs). Not only hasn't he been sent to jail, apparently he makes a good living out of it, too (subbing DVDs, interviewing Miyazaki and stuff).

Now, it's true that French movies and singers make more money than the foreign ones, and that "the foreign ones" are not only English/American. But if you think that they are *forced* to choose French movies, or that American movies are illegal, you're out of your mind.
You can see a lot of English programs on French TV cable, and you can choose between dub/sub with the remote. And their police is NOT monitoring your choices, lol.
>> Anonymous
>>26125
It's true that they don't bother too much with foreign languages (they don't need too). And German and Spanish are common choices in their schools, along with Latin and (ancient) Greek. So many people in France speak crappy English, or no English at all.

It's not illegal or something, though. You can watch American TV all day, in English, in you want. They have CNN, at least two BBC channels, and perhaps others.
>> Anonymous
Frenchfag here :
Many American directors, like Orson Welles and Woody Allen, are way more popular in France than they ever were in the US. Some American movies have been shown for 20 years non-stop in small theaters in Paris (once a week only, though). And subbed, not dubbed.

So, no, it's not illegal, or disliked. Several French studios invest big money in foreign movies, in fact (German, Japanese, Italian, Indian, and yes, even American - and plenty of others).

It's just that if more American directors nowadays could make movies that are targetted at audiences above 13 years old, it would work better here.
>> Anonymous
Outside of English, the language with the most speakers in the world is Spanish i think
>> Anonymous
>>26155
No, it's mandarin Chinese, and it's raising.
Hindi and Arabic also have more native speakers than English, IIRC.

OP was asking "Outside of English, which language would be most beneficial in the whole of Europe?", though, so French and German are the top choices indeed.
>> Anonymous
>>26155
I second this guy.

I lived in Germany for 2 years, and any German worth speaking too speaks English. If they don't speak passable english its because its some old German farmer dude, or they pretend to not understand you.

I'd say Spanish, or Russian. French as a distant 3rd. If you speak English and Spanish you can communicate with just about anyone in the hemisphere. If you got a real serious hard-on for western europe, then learn French, but the French are assholes.
>> Anonymous
>>26123
>>26121
why do you put spaces before your question mark?s
>> Anonymous
>the French are assholes

I'm German and work in France, they're no more assholes than anybody else. Ditto for just about every country I've travelled to.
And my vote goes to French (I had to learn it for business, I don't regret it).
>> Anonymous
>I'd say Spanish ... If you got a real serious hard-on for western europe

Because, Spain is less "western europe" than Germany or France, right ?
* facepalm *
>> Anonymous
>>26173
Its really more of a Mediterranean country.
>> Anonymous
>>26170

Because I can ... and some languages, and some English books, do it that way. I find it more readable.
There's no clear rule in English. The Oxford dictionary advises against it, but I learned English in Cambridge. So taking the opposite way is a foregone conclusion, of course, lol.
Plus, English is only my fourth language, so please don't be too hard on me, m'kay?(I mean, *m'kay ?*)

And in Spanish, the ? is upside down, and at the beginning of the sentence.
>> Anonymous
>>26174

So are Italy, Malta, Cyprus ... which are even more Mediterranean (Northern Spain borders the Atlantic). And Southern France (or Corsica) are Mediterranean too. Point?
>> Anonymous
>>26121
German and other Baltic languages aren't as well organized as Latin is. Knowing one latin language (French, Spanish, Italian, and to a lesser extent, English) enables you to at least get the general gist of what's going on when you read another romance language. That's thanks to our root words, prefixes, and suffixes which build to form the whole word, and explain it's meaning together.

Many other languages don't have this system. Especially the Asians, where the Japs will combine the words for Water and Thread to make a word which means nothing at all related.
>> Anonymous
Thanks to tourism, migration and cultural and economic dominance German is spoken all over Europe.
>> Anonymous
>>26177
>and to a lesser extent, English

Agreed for all the other Latin languages but not English! it's true that a large proportion of English words come from Old French or Latin, but the meaning have often diverged, and today can even mean the exact opposite!
These "false friends" can lead to embarassing situations. I suspect that's why people that don't speak French have some bad experiences there with French that don't speak English. They're both understanding something else, sometimes the exact opposite of what is meant.

http://french.about.com/library/fauxamis/blfauxam_a.htm?rd=1
>> Anonymous
>>26179
>These "false friends" can lead to embarassing situations.

Haha, true. I once heard French people talking about two guys "doing business" and understood that they were having an affair. "Faire des affaires". They wondered why I was blushing.
>> Anonymous
Just use Babelfish to translate your texts, ffs
>> Anonymous
French.

Most people in Europe speak French and/or German. But in Germany they speak a fair bit of english, and if you're ever lost in Germany the German language is a joke so you'll be able to find your way.

Russian if you're dealing with slavs.
>> Anonymous
>>26178
German cultural dominance?
In many places, they only know two words of German, "Heil Hitler". This gets boring pretty quick.

Unless you're talking about German sick porn?
>> Bizarro Godot
>>26183
German, despite the fact that it looks nothing like English, actually sounds pretty similar. If you know the rules for pronouncing the words, just read them out loud and you'll probably be able to figure out what they mean, so long as it isn't a super complex idea being conveyed.
>> Anonymous
>>26185
Falls du nicht mit der Sprache ebendieses Landes in der Mitte der alten Welt aufgewachsen bist oder diese fließend beherrschst, hast du keine Ahnung, was hier steht. Habe ich Recht?

Get that? If not, my point of "you can only understand German easily if we are using words derived from a foreign language" is proven.
>> Anonymous
>>26184
i smell a brit. ever went to poland or hungary?
>>26187
"eben dieses" wenn du schon versuchst klug zu klingen, dann schreib es auch richtig.
>> Anonymous
>>26183
slavs are forgetting russian at an alarming rate (they still taught russian when i was a kid in post-communist poland. ten years later they dont anymore) and are actually becoming increasingly proficient in english with each passing generation (english is now mandatory in public schools)
>> Anonymous
>>26191
>i smell a brit.

Lol, no, I'm a (slightly weary about this) German. I get it in most European countries, exceptions being the Netherlands and France.
The nazis poisoned everything they touched, apparently, too, since even Wagner is "nazi music" to some. It may take a while to recover.
>> Anonymous
>>26196
Why do you kill Jewish people?
>> Anonymous
>>26192
Yep, Russian should be on the decline now, except perhaps in Serbia. I wouldn't recommend it, either.
>> Anonymous
>>26197
* sob *
Why are you doing this to us ?
* sob *

Especially the Italians, who were FASCISTS (and allies) at the time ?
Bah, at least the French have stopped doing this. See, I don't need you, I have decent friends.
>> Anonymous
>>26199
>Especially the Italians, who were FASCISTS (and allies) at the time ?

Bah, the Italians of Mussolini were evil, but incompetent. Kinda like the Team Rocket : hard to hate them.
>> Anonymous
>>26199
The French surrendered a long time ago anyways, they don't want to bring up bad memories.

Yeah I lived in Germany. Germans are so far removed from Nazis I was kinda dissapointed. I tried to talk to this German dude at a bar when I was a little drunk, about how much I disliked Turk faggot assholes, and he said "thats racist" I was dissapointed.

If anything, you Germans should be proud you caused you historically caused so much trouble. I mean look, the Russians still hate you, when I never met a Russian guy that didn't buy me drinks because I was an American Soldier. Thats got to mean something.
>> Anonymous
>>26196
oh man ein möchtegern Autonomer
>>26197
because they are greedy scum.
>> Anonymous
>>26205
>The French surrendered a long time ago anyways, they don't want to bring up bad memories.

Only part of them, and the few remaining gave the Wehrmacht a hell of a time. Even after they capitulated, Hitler still saw them as the best soldiers (after the Germans of course).
In Bir Hakeim, a small detachment, surrounded by the entire Afrika Korps, and outnumbered 12:1, held them back 3 weeks. And in many other wars, they thrashed us soundly.

>I was an American Soldier
Ah, is that your "French are pussies" story again? sorry guys, but here in Europe we are taught history. You'll need to win a few dozen wars (by yourselves) before we can take seriously with this.
You're doing a great job proving the stereotype that Americans are ignorant, though - you don't seem to know that you got your country through French military victories at Chesapeake Bay and Yorktown.
Seriously guys, history did not start in 1940. At least begin in 1776.
And if you're not taught Napoléon and Turenne at the military academy, pray that you don't get caught in a real war.
>> Anonymous
>>26205
It's a good thing we don't have many retards like you around.
>> Anonymous
>>26201
win
>> Anonymous
Napoléon wasn't an especially gifted commander though. The French had the advantage of nationalism as a result of the recent revolution. They were able to draft huge numbers of men, indeed more men then all of the Holy Roman Empire combined.

Any dummy can win with those odds.
>> Anonymous
>>26212
>Napoléon wasn't an especially gifted commander though.

You're ... kidding, right? only Alexander perhaps has more bragging rights.

>Any dummy can win with those odds.
The odds were against him since he was against the whole world (that had a military that mattered). Seriously, educate yourself, especially if you're in the army. It might save your life someday. Else, another guy that DID study Napoléon will get you.
>> Anonymous
>>26209
>>Blah blah french victories in 1734

I'am making a stereotypical American joke about Frenchmen. The Germans took massive casualties invading all those countries, the Benelux, France, Poland, and ,well, espeically Russia.

I know Merrikkka didn't win WWII, the Soviets did, the US just kept Western Europe Commie-free for several decades.

And no, I'am not swinging my cock cause I'am an American soldier, I was making a point that Russians still don't like Germans, while, even though the US and Russians have been aiming nuclear missiles at each other for 50 years, I never had one get politically asshurt when I talked to one.

Everytime I talk to a German he wants to argue politics, history, or whatever the fuck.
>> Anonymous
>I tried to talk to this German dude at a bar when I was a little drunk, about how much I disliked Turk faggot assholes, and he said "thats racist" I was dissapointed

You might want to remember how WW2 turned out for Germany?
- Hitler wanted to take land from Poland : in the end, Germany lost land to Poland
- He intended to fight communism : He turned Russia into a superpower, and a good part of Europe (including part of Germany) ended up communist
- Wanted to restore the pride of the German people : some of us are still insulted today
- Wanted to destroy the Jews : they ended up with Israel and a lobby in the media
- Wanted to prove that England, France and America were decadent democracies : they got a seat in the UN's SC
- Founded an empire supposed to last 1,000 years : collapsed in 12 years
...

So, contrary to what you seem to think, we didn't win WW2. So, don't try Nazism at home, folks. It's a mistake we won't make again, try to avoid it too. It just doesn't work. If Hitler hadn't attacked Poland, he may be remembered as an iron-fisted but mostly okay chancellor.
>> Anonymous
>>26215
>Blah blah french victories in 1734
OR 1944 (some French soldiers got the PUC from FDR). OR Iraq 1991. Not Iraq 2003, though, which I suspect is the explanation? but they're in Afghanistan since 2002. Should they leave?

>the US just kept Western Europe Commie-free for several decades.
For which we will be grateful. You also rebuilt Germany. And Americans working in the factories were war heroes. We like you. The French like you too. Just don't spew bullshit.

>Everytime I talk to a German he wants to argue politics, history, or whatever the fuck.
True.
But, if you're not interested, let's talk about something else, shall we?
>> Anonymous
>>26215
>>I was making a point that Russians still don't like Germans

Actually, out of all European countries we (Germany) have the closest relationship to Russia. And while WW2 didn't exactly help with those relations our people still have more in common with the Russians than with many European countries. (And since I deal with Russians everyday I know most of them feel the same)

>>Everytime I talk to a German he wants to argue politics, history, or whatever the fuck.

We're kinda like the Japanese: We like to act all friendly and interested. In reality we don't give a shit. In fact I had more constructive political discussions with my smegma than with the average American while I was over there.
>> Anonymous
>>26216
I'am half-joking there. I didn't expect Germans to be a nation of Stormfront faggots. I just don't like Turks, and thats just my personal POV from when I was in Iraq, and in Germany. "Thats racist" was the last response I thought I'd hear, is all. I'am not racist, I don't hate Arabic people, I just don't like the nation of Turkey and the things they did in the past, and I don't like the shit they do now. Fuck them.

>>26217
You sound like a typical German. I'am happy Europe was'nt overun by communists too. Its the only good that came out of our participation in Europe in WWII.
>> Anonymous
>>26215
>Everytime I talk to a German he wants to argue politics, history, or whatever the fuck.
its considered polite here to talk about something else than just the weather.
>> Anonymous
>>26219
Typical ass-backwards American retard.
>> Anonymous
Just learn both, goddamn.
>> Anonymous
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>>26219
>> Anonymous
>>26219

ITT turk are arabs
lulz
>> Anonymous
French.

Most Germans already speak English, and French and English have a long history that goes way back.

In other words, they have good "historical synergy".

Wasn't the EU proposing to make French the official parliamentary language or something like that?
>> Anonymous
>>26094
Surely that's a little harsh. I speak a bit of German and I would never consi-WENN ES DEM INTERNATIONALEN FINANZJUDENTUM IN UND AUSSERHALB EUROPAS GELINGEN SOLLTE, DIE VÖLKER NOCH EINMAL IN EINEN WELTKRIEG ZU STÜRZEN, DANN WIRD DAS ERGEBNIS NICHT DIE BOLSCHEWISIERUNG DER ERDE UND DAMIT DER SIEG DES JUDENTUMS SEIN, SONDERN DIE VERNICHTUNG DER JÜDISCHEN RASSE IN EUROPA.
oh um.. uh...excuse me...
>> Anonymous
>>26306
I lol every time I see this
>> Anonymous
>>26228
obvious butthurt commie eurofag is obvious
>> Anonymous
>>26306
lulz indeed
Mein Kampf?
>> Anonymous
VERFLUCHEN SIE DIE JÜDEN
>> Anonymous
OP, ignore this shit, the only thing that this depends on is where you're going to go. Whilst fags can argue between German and French all day, both languages would be all but useless if you end up going to somewhere like Spain or Italy, or maybe even Greece. German would probably make some sense in that a lot of other languages are very similar. Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are all closely associated, as are literally hundreds of dialects dotted in and around several of these countries.
>> Anonymous
This board seriously needs to be merged with /n/, jesus christ
>> Anonymous
>>26088
latin... everyone speaks latin
/thread
>> Anonymous
>both languages would be all but useless if you end up going to somewhere like Spain or Italy

On the contrary; since I've learned French I can get the general idea of some conversations in Spanish or Italian. And many people in North Italy speak French. The Po valley seemed almost bilingual to me.

Anyway, my $0.02 (or rather, €0.01) : both French and German, French first. Don't dismiss the literature, movies ... in these languages, either. There are some very cool things.
>> Anonymous
>>26374
excuse me wtf r u doin
the thread is closed dude
>> Anonymous
>>26128
no, illegal for radio stations to play more than 20 minutes of english/non-french
>> Anonymous
>>26529
Then don't listen to those? CDs, intarwebz radios, mp3s, iPod...