French or Spanish

katliamom
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:17:31 +0000

Depends what you want to do. Spanish is clearly the more ‘practical’ choice since more people on the planet speak Spanish than French. However, French is an official EU language and is spoken in Africa (and parts of Canada) as well. If travel/work/life in the EU or Africa are something you’re interested in then that’d be a good choice as well.

Also, keep in mind both are Romance languages, when you learn one of them well, the other will come fairly easily after that.

You can also choose by exploring the literature/culture of each language. I studied French because as a young girl I fell in love with Paris. Then in my last year of high school I discovered Gabriel Garcia Marquez and fell in love with magical realism, which drew me to Spanish. Studying a language is more than learning new words: it’s the discovery of a whole new way of looking at the world.