To think Spanish is now more popular than French

[Dappy777]

Would you say Spanish is now a more popular second language than French? I mean in the U.K. I went to a rubbish comprehensive in the late 1980s and French was the only option. They didn’t even teach German (that I remember). Back then, if someone could speak another language it generally seemed to be French.

Today, French seems less popular. My friend’s daughter, for example, is doing an A-level in Spanish. When I asked her why not French she said “oh Spanish is much more useful. You can travel all over central and South America with Spanish. All my friends want to study either Spanish or Italian.” My cousin’s son also dropped French to study Spanish.

My dc have just left school but it offered Spanish, French and Italian. One of my dd’s did French at sixth form and she was the only non native speaker/child had a one French parent. In terms of confidence it was difficult for her and we had a lot of tears but it did push the level of the class up I believe. Dd just had a long train journey across France and spoke French most of the way to the French lady next to her. The lady said her French was very good so that was nice to hear. I just hope dd will keep it going because she is studying something completely different at uni.

I did French at school, spent time at a Spanish uni and became very good at Spanish. It hasn’t helped me with my career but looked good on the cv I suppose. Now circumstances have changed and I’ve flipped back to learning french again. I’m enjoying it much more than I thought I would.

I was taught French at school which was the only option at the time, 2 of my dc also did French (from reception) and 2 did German.

I wanted to learn Spanish when my school started offering it when I was a teen but sadly they had limited places so I stuck with French (I do like French). I’m attempting to learn Spanish now as an adult although struggling with Duolingo. Any tips from the language tutors?

Yrs I wish I had Learnt Spanish instead. I live in Spain also now but it's far more widely spoken across the world and much more useful

If you download the app "SoundCloud" there is a brilliant audio tutor series called "complete Spanish language transfer"
It's really good

Thank you! I’ll have a look.

Spanish is easier for sure. My son is doing Italian and Latin so I'm trying to learn as well. Don't think Italian is very useful but he insisted that that's what he wanted in secondary so.. I did French and Spanish and DH Italian so the good thing is that there is one subject he will have to help his son with.

I chose French over German at school simply because my brother did German.

I then moved to Germany as an adult for a few years. (I have enough German to get by in shops etc now.).

Duolingo is ok for basics, but limited imho.
I actually use a YouTube channel called Easy German - it's really, really good, and there's a sister channel called Easy Spanish, which might be worth a look too.

Sadly the only option now at my kids’ school is Spanish. No other languages.

Yes. The places where French is spoken outside Europe are basically West Africa, the French overseas Departments and Quebec.

Spanish will get you from Peru to the Philippines and from Cape Horn to California. Not much use in Africa, I admit.

Speaking as a language professional, I can see why it looks that way to outsiders, but honestly it is so short-sighted. AI translation is fine for low stakes stuff but it is way too risky for anything that might cause any harm, because it just makes shit up. Imagine the damage it can do by hallucinating. I saw someone posting on social media yesterday about AI mistranslating allergens in food packaging. That can literally kill people. We need people with more intercultural expertise now and in the future, not fewer.

Been so for at leat 20-25 yrs, I would say.

Yes. Definitely. We could only do French and German in my school in the 90s. I did languages at Uni, and the options were French, German, Italian and Russian. Now, in my son's school and at the same Uni I went to, where I still work Spanish is definitely the most popular language -exactly for the reasons you have highlighted

Meant to add, fortunately languages are very valued in my son's school. In the Junior School,, in Years 5 and 6, they did 2 terms of French, 2 terms of German and 2 terms of Spanish. They had to select 2 languages for the Senior School and all pupils do 2 languages until the end of Year 8. Then they can drop one if they want, but all pupils must take one at GCSE level. The teachers are very good and the results are generally excellent. My son is doing French and German and also does Latin and Ancient Greek. As a linguist, I am so pleased that languages are held in such high esteem still. I think they are such a wonderful skill.

From business point of view Spanish is better, there is more countries speaking it. What are you gonna do with French unless, in the future, company you work for either do business in France or some countries in Africa?

for that reason our daughter is doing Spanish at school :)

We export more to France or Germany than any Spanish speaking country

There was an amazing thing Suzie Dent said about German, English and French when she was one Radio 4 a while back. Something like French being like an elegantly manicured garden, and German like trying to pick your way through a wild tangled wood (that's not it exactly). She speaks fluent German,

They don't need too. Everyone speaks Spanish.

I think languages at school are useless anyway.
You forget most of it, or don't use it.

Best way to learn a language is to and live there for a while, or get a boyfriend/girlfriend/friend from that country.
These days you've got all these apps as well, if you want to learn at a later stage. We also have language cafes.

Properly done, with exchanges etc, language teaching is super valuable for business and promoting international understanding. Much more useful than RE for instance.

Yes, I have been told that "everyone speaks English in Germany". Until my son ended up in hospital in a small German town and we discovered that actually lots of Germans speak almost no English and we were very grateful for my dodgy old O level.

We live Germany and have had a few holidays there. That O level has been very useful

I think the Germans you meet in the UK almost always have excellent English. We get loads of them down here on holiday. When I try my shit German on them, they look politely surprised and answer in English.

Its probably regional. In the areas that were historically British or American garrisons, the level of spoken English is probably a lot higher than other parts.

Germans say that when British people try to speak German it is painful. Unless they have learned it throughly, it sounds like gibberish.

When Germans speak English, however, they often do so in a beautiful and elegant way.

Wow…that would have been unimaginable when I was a kid. Surprising how things have changed. I was talking to my mother about this the other day. She is 78 and did an A-level in French in the early 1960s. Back then, French was the language. She said Spanish wasn’t even an option (and she went to a fairly good grammar school).

Spanish is easier than French and much more widely spoken. So it makes sense that it's more popular. French is really a 'legacy' language now, in the sense that it was the language of culture and diplomacy in the 19th century, and up until WWll when it was displaced by English. But its importance has diminished greatly in the past 50 years. Even some of the former French colonies in Africa are phasing out French in favour of English now.

Spanish, by contrast, is the 1st language in several countries so its position as a global language looks much more secure.