<p>Which one should I take, and/or why?</p>
<p>french because you can use it in more than one country.
and it’s easier.</p>
<p>I’d say French because its used a lot more than Japanese.</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do really. If you want to become a sushi chef, then the choice is obvious.</p>
<p>I plan on taking Japanese second quarter.</p>
<p>Japanese, it’s cooler and more of a challenge.</p>
<p>haha, I’m taking both next year. i’ve had experience with both of them (japanese 4 years and french 1 year)</p>
<p>so, what’s more appealing to you: reading a Victor Hugo novel, or watching a J-drama? does the Japanese writing system put you off (will you be willing to put in time learning all those characters that could be used memorizing French vocab?) or do you think that’s an exciting challenge? if grammar’s not your strong point, you might consider japanese for it’s relatively simple conjugation. then again, if you aren’t good at vocab, french has the advantage of having tons and tons of similar words.</p>
<p>all and all, you should go with what you’re more interested in. they’re both foreign languages, and they’re both gonna require time and effort in order to become fluent. </p>
<p>tell us which one you pick! :)</p>
<p>If it’s just to satisfy language requirements, French, because it’s more useful. I take French though, so I might be a little biased. Japanese just seems very hard to me, with all the new characters and such. French is the same alphabet you’re used to, so it’s easier.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and take both! If you can. The question is, what did you study in HS? It is far better to continue with one language than to try to take on more. The foundation in any language is important. If you already have years of French behind you, and there is a reason to continue with language at college, then, improve your French.
(Vice Versa if Japanese was your language in HS and/or Middle School).
Now, once you have established a firm foundation in one foreign lasnguage-then simply branch off.
If you want to know which language, French or Japanese will help your career, the simple answer is, both.</p>
<p>I took Spanish, so French would probably be more familiar.</p>
<p>Japanese,</p>
<p>because France Sucks</p>
<p>BoyCott France!!!</p>
<p>French.</p>
<p>French is more useful and easier to learn.Japanese language has a completely different structure from English.</p>
<p>Japanese are willing to speak English,you even don’t have to worry about language problem if you want to work for a while in Japan.</p>
<p>Jason1117,</p>
<p>Take it from someone who’s lived a good while in Japan…most do not/will not speak English.</p>
<p>I learned Japanese for 3 years in undergrad, a year in grad (one more to go) and 1 year in Japan. I’m a bit torn on the experience. On the one hand, I’m a fluent Japanese speaker-- that’s pretty rare outside of Japan and Japanese expats. On the other hand, only about 120 or so million people actually speak the damn language. That’s a pain. </p>
<p>French, according to most estimates, is spoken by 115 to 500 million people.</p>
<p>I have no idea what that means, but hey, that means you either use it with the same number of people or with many more people. Either way, French is far far far far far easier to learn.</p>
<p>French because it has more international status, and because i’m taking it too :P</p>
<p>Well, if you want to watch the best animated movie ever (Studio Ghibli released under the title of Ou to tori) in its original language, you’ll have to pick French…</p>
<p>/I am no otaku</p>
<p>^^^
By you feeling that you had to make that disclaimer your are in fact proving that you are an otaku. :)</p>
<p>And learn Japanese, I’m a Japanese major and there isn’t a better way to go.</p>
<p>The asian markets are (according to most) the next big thing in business. I’d do Japanese over French as a business major mainly for that reason, however, ultimately, I would take Chinese.</p>
<p>if you want to become really fluent - French. I am currently fluent in Korean (which is easier to learn than Japanese) only because it was the only language I knew until I went to preschool and started learning English. when I went to France, it was easy enough to communicate just by translating an English sentence in my head into a French sentence out of my mouth - I can’t do that in Korea. either I know the sentence instinctively (usually I do) or I can’t say anything at all.</p>
<p>meanwhile French and English are similar enough (same writing system, similar grammar systems, etc.) that it’s relatively easy to become fluent enough to communicate easily.</p>
<p>I’ve learned (or tried to pay attention cough cough) both. One just personally and one at school.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you are more interested in. ARe you more into the japanese culture or the french culture? That’ll have a big say in what you’ll take in the end.</p>
<p>ugen64- I’m fluent in korean too but some people say korean’s harder. (to pronounce anyways) alot of korean people have no problem saying japanese words but alot of japanese people have problems pronouncing korean words… but then japanese writing system… ecckk. Stupid chinese characters…</p>
<p>I would take the easier one (which depends on the person) because ultimately the french person is going to be more fluent in english than you are going to be in French and the Japanese person the same.</p>
<p>uyulove…im taking japanese now, and well, that doesnt really matter, but yeah, japanese pronunciation is incredibly easy, especially compared to korean. As for the language in itself, i always hear japanese is tougher to learn (actually i was talking to someone fluent in korean and japanese yesterday about this) because all the lame kanji and bajillions of different combinations and pronunciations of them. I asked the person i was talking to why not get rid of kanji, but then i realized that they can’t because since every japanese consonant is combined with a vowell, they arent able to go past a certain amount of word variation, so they have to use kanji to tell the difference between written meanings since emotional tones arent always obvious in writing.</p>
<p>French is an incredible language, but then again, so is Japanese. I took four years of French in highschool and took the AP exam. Secretly though, I have always desired to learn Japanese or Korean. All languages have some beauty about them, and I believe that you’d be well off taking either or both. After all, why limit yourself? ^^</p>