<p>If you stay in the U.S. Spanish will be more useful. But you'll at some point be able to use whichever language you choose if you want to--whether through work or travel.</p>
<p>Spanish may be more useful in the USA but French is a more commonly spoken European language. And yes, French is beautiful. I've taken it for five years and love it. I think it's a fantastic language to learn.</p>
<p>With that said, I think it looks a little shady to drop Spanish and start over with French. Perhaps you have an extra spot in your schedule where you can take two languages?</p>
<p>You should take Spanish. In the US and a large number of countries in the Americas, it will definitely benefit you more.</p>
<p>Outside of the US French is infinitely more useful. If you would do any work inside the EU it would most likely be done in French or English. The French are very sensitive about keeping up the use of their language. Spanish would do you no real good outside of the Americas.</p>
<p>Spanish IS easy...compared to other languages. I have taken latin (even easier) as well as spanish and french, and I found french the hardest. Most of my classmates agree with my order, although some found latin harder than spanish. And I said it was disgusting how many people take the "easy route" of spanish. Spanish is also a beautiful language.</p>
<p>French is much easier than Spanish. Having taken both, Spanish is also much prettier. I was once enamoured with French, but when I actually took it, the language disgusted me. It's really not all that pretty, IMO. I can only stand Swiss French.. Parisienne French is muddled sounding to me and Quebecois is rough. </p>
<p>I'm going to have to force myself to learn it though eventually. <em>shudder</em></p>
<p>Spanish is definitely easier for me than French.</p>
<p>Grammatically, Spanish and French are equally simple (as well as any other Latin based language). The problem is, it's obvious that I'm trying really hard to pronounce my French nicely. I sound like a native speaker when I speak Spanish, and that comes naturally (my mom's Filipino. I grew up hearing Tagalog all the time, and the two languages are quite similar). My friend, on the other hand, SUCKS at Spanish, but pronounces her French effortlessly. It all depends in terms of speech...</p>
<p>I think a French accent is really easy. I apparently sound like a Spaniard when I speak French because my Spanish accent takes over the English. Its a lot harder to get a good Spanish accent of any kind, IMO. Most students pronounce it too clearly. Its really kind of frustrating to me. </p>
<p>French has a smaller vocabulary and less advanced verb forms than Spanish. For instance, it doesn't have a very developed subjunctive while Spanish does, and that's very hard for an English speaker to grasp. Plus French past tense is a joke after a Spanish past tense.</p>
<p>Ya, I took like, 3 1/2 years of Spanish and have learned nothing, and my HS only has two years of French....so looking forward to Arabic or something else really cool like that in college</p>
<p>Yea, what you said about French pronunciation being harder after learning Spanish is very true. I'm very similar to you in that sense, except I faced this later and well I'm a guy. I'm taking Spanish in High School. I've done very well, and was best in my class for Spanish III. However, I got this urge to learn French like you. I'm learning French on my own now, and yes it is WAY harder to learn French pronunciation now. I don't know if it is hard just because I'm an English speaker, or because I learned Spanish first or both. It definitely takes some getting used to, but I'm getting it now. In Spanish you pronounce everything, and the pronunciation is similar to English. French is different. In French oi=wha, etc. There are other really strange pronunciation rules. I like French a lot though. </p>
<p>Also, I grew up listening to a lot of Spanish so that might be another reason why it was easier for me to pronounce, I first heard French (a lot) in high school, listening online. I would learn whatever you want. You can always pick up the other one on your own. I'm learning French so that I could study abroad there and perhaps go to college there. Don't do Spanish because it is more useful. You don't learn enough Spanish in high school to become fluent anyway.</p>
<p>My only difficulty is understanding native speakers of a language, especially French. Any advice?</p>
<p>keep listening... until you get used to it?? that's how i learned californian accented english... I learned brittish english first and i couldn't understand californian english at all when i first got here...</p>
<p>On a global scale, how useful/important is French?</p>
<p>I pronounce French very well, since I am a native Spanish speaker, and the two languages are very similar. The pronunciation part of French is very easy to me.</p>
<p>KissMeKate:
Refer yourself to Alexandre for that question, or just find it on Google. I argue that it is not that important, but on an earlier thread he met my concerns.</p>
<p>Internationally French is infinitely more important. </p>
<p>Here's an old thread, I think the one you are talking about: </p>
<p>I regret taking 6 years of French instead of Spanish. While it isn't that I didn't like the language, I personally have found Spanish to be more useful to me on a personal basis. My family travels a lot to places where Spanish is generally more useful. I.E. places like Ecuador, the Dominican Republic., Netherland Antilles (although, they spoke an interesting mix of Spanish/French where I was), but in general places like that. </p>
<p>I mean really, it depends on what you want to take it for. If you have no real reason other than to learn a language, then by all means give French a try. You can always go back to Spanish, despite what people may tell you. (My French teacher tried to convince me that taking Latin instead of French was the worst idea ever. My French is actually way better now.)</p>
<p>I find that they are both pretty simple to pick up. Spanish has been coming quicker to me though after taking French. In the United States, Spanish is definitely going to be more essential than French. Beyond that, again, you really have to think about what you want to do.</p>
<p>i would go for spanish... i love it...i mean it's my first languahe...i'm still learning english</p>