French, German or Spanish most useful modern foreign language?

[Naturelover5]

Out of those three which will be the most useful in the future & why?

Spanish, spoken by vast numbers of people globally.

It's an impossible question to answer unless you define "useful". Useful for what? Working? Travelling? Watching foreign Netflix?

Someone will always say Spanish because it's spoken by lots of people, but that doesn't necessarily make it the most "useful".

Are you trying to decide on a language to study? Because if so, out of those I would go with the one you enjoy most as that will make learning much easier.

Interesting info graphic here. Spanish is much more widely spoken miro.medium.com/max/799/1*KIt-lzVZv3HpS7r8i-1ZSg.png

Spanish

Spanish, definitely, the only one I've ever used/seen/heard spoken when working in global roles for 2 huge companies.

Spanish spoken by more people. But if, say, you/DC doesn't like the heat, likes punctuality then culturally it may not be the best match.

Learning a language opens doors, but it takes time and effort. Enthusiasm helps significantly with that and helps therefore get to a better level. Mediocre Spanish vs excellent German, for example, isn't that useful, even though more people speak Spanish globally.

I personally have used French more than Spanish or German as I’ve visited France and Morocco many times but only been to Spain a couple of times. But then I live in the SE so France really isn’t far. I have found myself in Spain needing to talk to people without any English at all a couple of times, and once in the US a waiter didn’t understand my accent and I ended up requesting agua which he did understand!

You could argue as there will be lots and lots of people fluent in English and all three of those languages none are going to be massively useful?

Spanish

Spanish. USA will be a majority Spanish speaking country in another 30 years or so. Plus used in South America and Spain obviously. More widely used than French or German.

I would say French and Spanish. If you have those 2 plus English you will be good!!

Should add, depends totally on where you live or plan to live. Here, we speak French but I am surrounded by people who speak 3 or 4 languages fluently so feel a bit useless!

As a former MFL teacher who has learnt all 3 languages and taught 2 of them, I would say Spanish overall (Spain, South America and others). Then French (France, Belgium, Switzerland & parts of Canada and Africa). Then last German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland).

Also, imho, German is the harder language of the 3 to learn in the first place. Despite it being similar sounding to English. French has lots of silent letters. Spanish is more phonetic.

At the end of the day though, the best language to learn is the one that the person is most interested in for whatever reason that may be 😉

No, thinking about the dc when secondary rolls around.

Depends on the context - French is traditionally the language of diplomacy and is still (with English) a key language used within big international organisations including the UN (though Spanish is also one of the UN's official languages, too). French is also spoken in large parts of Africa, as well as within Europe. Spanish is, as mentioned, spoken by many more people and in large number of countries across the Americas (and also seems to be a relatively straightforward language to learn comparatively). German is probably the least used but obviously useful if your children want to live or work in Germany, Austria, parts of Italy and Switzerland.

To be honest, in a school context I think it is more about picking one you like or have a certain affinity for - and using that to get a flavour of what learning a language is about. If your children like it, they may wish to learn another! People I know who speak a number of languages have a strong feel for how languages can be structured and adapt their knowledge to learn a new one.

As you’re only talking about school, I’d say whichever language captures the child’s interest. They’ll only really make use of any language if they want to, so a interest in learning other languages is the most important thing. It’s all very well Spanish being the most widely spoken, but if they turn into the kind of adult who avoids the local restaurant for the ex pat run English menu place… they’ll never use their basic mostly forgotten GCSE scrape of a pass Spanish anyway. Not one to over think.

I speak French and Spanish and have used them in Europe and Africa
I am now learning German too but only because we want to spend extended periods there when we retire

As a French speaker... Spanish. If you mean useful as in using the language to communicate, that is.

French is a beautiful and interesting language with great literature and cinema (let's not dwell on the pop music...) but you can survive anywhere that French is spoken, if you speak English.

Also the French are super-intolerant of foreigners speaking French, which is not helpful, when you are trying to learn. We are an Anglo-French family and all speak both languages but, a couple of years ago, a waiter in Paris heard us speaking English to each other, and pretended not to understand anything we said in French, including my uncle and aunt who are from ..Grenoble 😆 Not an unusual experience. They really don't make it easy, then they moan when foreigners are too intimidated to try out French.

Spanish - 4th most common language spoken (after English, Mandarin Chinese and Hindustani)

Well, depends what for?

In my industry (performing arts) it’s French at training level, German at employment level.

I’m a native Spanish speaker and I use it in maybe 10% of my work projects. German features in 80% or so of them. Currently not using much French but it was definitely needed a few years back.

So, it very much depends on whether your child already knows what they’ll be doing in 20 years time. Most 11 yo’s don’t - so choose whichever.

For secondary, I think it depends on your child’s interest and ability level. If they already struggle with English and spelling then it makes little sense to do French, as it makes about as much phonetic sense as English - so go with Spanish, it will take the pressure off the writing and reading aspects.
Otherwise, best go for what appeals to them. Language appeal is very personal - some people love the sound of German, some don’t. Some feel an affinity with the French or Spanish language for no reason whatsoever and that’s fine, you just go with it. There’s no best choice in my opinion.

Spanish, definitely, and it’s not even close. It is one of the world’s most widely spoken international languages. Probably second only to English as a global language, but still a long way behind obv.

Unless you are actually planning to live & work in Germany or Austria, learning German feels pretty pointless to me. I travel to Bavaria most years, and my clumsy attempts to communicate in basic deutsch are welcomed, but almost always met with a reply in fluent English, because our language is so embedded in their education system.

My friend from South America told me that if your can speak Spanish and English you can converse with 80% of the world's population! Not sure where he got that from.

I would echo those saying Spanish - it's also pretty widely spoken as the US's second language after English in many states and you see it on signs, hear it being spoken, etc.

Half-French here. It really depends on the purpose, but I recommend French. In my line of work (banking) french is really useful. A lot of Brits here speak French too and I feel knowing french gives you more credit with a lot of british people too. I also speak spanish, but hardly ever use it in work context. Also knowing French will help one break into french speaking circles. Also it's a beautiful language with a lot of literature with nuances that would be lost in translation.

My DP speaks mandarin and it has helped him in his career a lot.

I did French and German at uni and work in both languages and I would say go for Spanish!