Which would be the more useful GCSE language - French or German ?

[NorbertDentressangle]

DD will be choosing her options over the next few weeks. She will need to choose French or German (or possibly both).

She gets on OK with both (better than I ever did!) and doesn't really have a preference.

Would you say one is more useful than the other?

More likely to have a holiday in France? My holidays always seem to end up like some bizarre Franglais O level oral - j'ai perdu ... this; les enfants ont les mimes headlice dans les cheveux; je voudrais un rendezvous pour le chien.

German

pmsl Atiao - I know exactly what you mean

I would have thought French is more useful. Ds1 chose German for GCSE and is doing Spanish as well. He finds German easier than French - so did I and so does ds2. I love listening to Germans talk - it's all so angular and spikey....sorry slightly off topic there

French more useful internationally. N Africa already mentioned, but couple of countries in s-e asia too. German for the literature (sorry Francophiles and French MNers). I also find that in professional life, Germans speak English much better than the equivalent French (but they do all speak English, so not really much in it on that ground).

So on balance, French more useful

I think French is more useful for Anglophones, on the whole.

(Spanish)

I would have had more use for German. There were two quite distinct philosophical directions in Europe, and I would have benefited much more from knowing German than French. More German philosophers than French studied the philosophy of the late Hellenic period, and it would have been useful for me to read German translations of original Greek scrips as back up to my own translations, as so much had not been translated into English, or any other European language for that matter. (At least not back in 1997 when I was pondering my phd thesis) As a generalization, the French were not as keen on the Ancient Greek and Hellenic world as the Germans were, so German for me.

I think it is relative to what she wants to do in her life. My son is more engineering minded, so he is keen on German.

I did both at school and French further.

German is very easy at GCSE but gets much harder with grammar further on.

French I have found most useful for work and general understanding when travelling. French is used as a second language in other European countries and in some African countries. I find that with a bit of both languages I can guess a lot of related European languages.

If she's good with languages, do both, if not, I would say French.

but we are only talking GCSE at the moment. Has anyone taken French or German for GCSE and been fluent at the end?

agree sparkling - at GCSE level what difference is it really going to make? If you're keen on languages you'd do both anyway… I did, and the way my life has panned out German is by far and away more "useful", but it wouldn't have been if I'd moved to Bordeaux….

I don't think it's possible to answer the question with a sensible answer tbh. Just go with the nicest teacher/what your friends are doing, or something!

That's how I feel Heinous, more important if doing it for A Level and beyond. DS1 enjoying German at GCSE but no idea if he intends to carry on, and I have never heard him speak it at all.

he couldn't wait to drop French.

I'd say French is more useful for holidaying - as generally the Germans I have met speak English very well and are keen to do so. Whereas a lot of the French either couldn't or didn't want to speak English.

My DS is going to choose French, not because he listens to me but because he's been learning it longer and says he feels he has a better vocabulary in it. And German has 3 genders which he thinks is just too much!

Links between French and Latin might be useful when studying medicine.

French has Latin roots. Might be useful for learning Latin medical terminology...

Thanks for all your thoughts everyone.

We've got a few weeks to decide and a parents evening before the deadline but I think she's going to choose French, with a vague chance that she may actually opt for both

I had the opportunity to ask one of the language teachers recently and she said to go for whichever she enjoys the most (but ideally do both).