<p>By the beginning of next school year, I will have taken Spanish for two years and I want to pick up French also, because besides English its the only global language. I really want to study both and I would really like some suggestions, especially from those who are currently doing it or have done it.</p>
<p>I have a couple of friends who are currently doing that at my school. They took French first for two years, then Spanish. For some reason, they think that Spanish is easier than French. I personally don't know.</p>
<p>I was going to do that. In all honesty, it depends on the program at your school. Here's my story.</p>
<p>I've taken French since 7th grade, I'm now a sophomore in French 3. I wanted to take up Spanish as well, and studied it from a book over the summer. When I got to the Spanish 1 class, it was full of a bunch of goof around, f uck up freshmen and some lame sophomores and juniors. The teacher was right up there with the lameness to, but let me take some tests to see if I qualified for Spanish 2. I got a 97% on the first test and a 95% on the second...a 60% would have qualified me. She refused to let me in the class because I worked an afterschool job and was involved in theatre. I thought that was incredibly f ucked up so i just went into a PE class to fullfill my requirement there. </p>
<p>Another story happened with a friend of mine. He's your classic Asian, 4.5, glasses wearing acadmia crazed... type of guy. His freshman year he took French 1 since he didn't do a language in middle school and it drove him crazy. He said the people were all a bunch of people who had failed, etc and that he was going nuts from it.</p>
<p>I say, if you're really serious about taking up the language, learn it from some other means: not a high school class. A community college course would be wonderful, studying it yourself to get some basics from a book would definately be beneficial. Finding a class outside of school, etc.</p>
<p>It's highly doable. I know of one girl who took Japanese 1 her freshman year and plans to continue until the 4th level in her senior. She also picked up Spanish starting her sophomore year. Spanish and French should not be too hard since they are both Romance languages and share some similarities, so if you are up to it, go ahead and do it.</p>
<p>Just to warn you French is going out of style, although the French are desperate to prevent it. With all the new members of the EU the official language is heading from French to English.</p>
<p>scarletleavy is right about the EU, but French could be an asset if you wanted to work in Third World development: Haiti,, francophone Africa, or were interested in current social developments in France.</p>
<p>French culture--film, literature, philosophy, food--are well worth exploring and the language will give you much more insight. Also, for English majors, French is valuable for understanding the history of our language and some nuances of vocabulary.</p>
<p>Foreign languages can be loved for their own sake and not only for their "usefulness". I am a firm believer in "no knowledge pursued with enthusiasm is ever wasted."</p>
<p>my sis is learning spanish and i'm learning french. i can barely say 'pig', while she can speak almost fluently. spanish is def. easier when it comes to pronounciation, but both languages' grammar is really really hard. french sounds better, but it's really hard to speak. </p>
<p>francais! francais!</p>
<p>My D is currently in French 3 as a sophomore, and this year also added Spanish 1. She found that after knowing so much French, Spanish is tremendously easy for her. She plans to continue both languages throughout high school, as she feels being multi-lingual is important in our increasingly multicultural world. I would highly recommend taking up a second language if you have time in your schedule.</p>
<p>I took spanish 1 in middle school. I then took spanish 2 and french 1 in the same semester frosh year. Taking them at the same time helps with the other. I can definitely say french is LOTS easier. I wanted to take span 3 and fren 2 sophomore year but my guidance counselor wouldnt allow it because i didnt have enough elective credits which is ridiculous. anyways, taking both is great. french is a cakewalk compared to spanish, although it may just be the teacher.</p>
<p>Whoever said that French is losing it's ground as an international language....is....well wrong. :D French is the main language along with English as the common international language is many international organizations such as the UN, NATO and the IOC(in all of these, employees are usually required to be fluent in both). Also, countless human rights groups, in Africa aswell, French is the language used throughout the most part as the official buisness language and professional language. </p>
<p>The EU, does not have an official language and it won't for a long time. English is not "replacing" French as there is nothing to replace. However, French is widly used in the EU with the capital being in a predominetly French speaking city, many of the issues are addressed in French, and many of the departments of the EU have their signs in French, German, and English. </p>
<p>However, as an American citizen, the chances of you working in the European Union are reletevely zero, so that wouldn't be a practical reason to study the language anyways. </p>
<p>French is still very much so an international language, second to English of course. </p>
<p>Also, I take both French Honors year 3 and Spanish Honors year 2 and it's easy. In my opinion French is easier than Spanish, but that could just be because I've used it a lot more in speaking and started learning it at an earlier age, or just because my Spanish class is pretty non-productive. :/</p>
<p>I started taking Spanish my freshman year because it was the only language my school offered. I hated it, but continued with Spanish 3 my soph. year. When I moved to Germany last year, I wanted to take German as well. So I took Spanish 3 and German 1 my junior year and though I dropped Spanish, I've continued with German 2 my senior year. </p>
<p>I can say it is much easier to learn a language once you have already learned one. German and Spanish aren't even in the same language family, but I still found German incredibly easy to pick up because I already understood how all the grammar (direct objects, impersonal pronounces, nominative, dative, and subjunctive cases, etc) worked in languages. I'd imagine it'd be even easier to pick up French after taking Spanish, since they share the same language root.</p>
<p>However, as someone already said, you'll almost definitely end up in a class with a bunch of immature freshmen. I about died last year in my class. And it hasn't gotten much better this year because there are still a lot of freshmen that take 2nd year language classes. So if you have the option to take a class somewhere other than a high school, I would def. recommend it.</p>
<p>J'adore la classe de francais!</p>
<p>j'ai faim.
j'ai swaf.
je suis un poisson.</p>
<p>basically all i can say ;)
wait, i think the last one's grammar's wrong....!</p>
<p>You are a fish???!!!! lol. And also its spelt "soif" not "swaf" hehe</p>
<p>J'ai commence le programme d'immersion francaise dans la maternelle, et je le continue toujours. Maintenant, je prends le Baccalaureat International (IB) bilingue avec le Francais au niveau A2, ainsi que l'histoire (niveau superieure) et les maths (niveau standard "methods") en francais. Et bien, j'adore absoluement le francais! C'est une langue fantastique et on peut l'utiliser partout dans le monde. Je dois aussi dire que la ville de Montreal (et le Quebec en entier) est tres chic. Je l'aime beaucoup, et j'espere etudier a McGill l'annee prochaine (meme si c'est un universite anglais). Bonne chance avec ton francais! </p>
<p>Me gusta tambien el espanol. Hablo poco espanol, pero es muy facil. </p>
<p>Basically, it is easier to pick up a language after you already know oen other than english. I have found, however, that spanish is a lot easier than French, but that is probably because of my experience. I'm taking a freshman spanish elective this year because I want to go into international politics, where knowing more languages is always an asset. I've been in french immersion since kindergarden, and it has always challenged me - not so much the language part (I got the FLA 20IB award at my school last year), but just constantly adding things and forgetting them at the same time. You try writing your IB History HL exam in French and then tell me what you think of it... people have trouble with paper 3 even in their first language (try 3 essays in 2.5 hours = not fun!!!). </p>
<p>I would definetly start taking French! Languages are awesome.</p>
<p>One of my friends in Spanish is self-studying French. He says that it was a lot easier to pick it up and that unlike spanish in our school that gets harder in levels 3, 4 honors, and 5 ap, the french curriculum is pretty consistent and the bon voyage! textbook goes more culturally indepth in terms of songs, festivals, etc in the latter books :).</p>