<p>Next year I am going to a new school, and I am required to take a foreign language. German and Latin are the two that are the most interesting to me, but I don't know which one to choose. I like Latin because I hear some of it at church, being Catholic and all. But Im really interested in German as well, and I dont know which to choose.
Thank you for your help. :)</p>
<p>Latin seems to generally be more helpful</p>
<p>Latin because of its formerly widespread use as an intellectual and academic language. German in its own right is interesting, though.</p>
<p>Do you want to go into law or medicine? If so, take Latin. If not, take German. Latin is generally a worthless language unless you want to do something like law or medicine. German is a living language that has relevance in the modern world.</p>
<p>Plus, Latin is super easy to learn on your own if you want to.</p>
<p>^ It’s probably easier to learn German on your own than Latin…</p>
<p>^ Not true in the least. Latin is a very basic language that has only around 25,000 words and is a very easy language to learn. </p>
<p>German is a pretty awkward language for English speakers because of the unfamiliarity of a lot of pronunciations, letters, word forms, etc.</p>
<p>^ It’s not about the number of words (most of which you can BS the meanings of anyway) it’s about the “case system” and the lack of word order.</p>
<p>Personally, I would take German because I like Germany a lot (=</p>
<p>Latin’s good for medicine and English vocab though (latin roots and stuff).</p>
<p>German. Latin is a dead language.</p>
<p>I’m German and for us it’s mandatory at some point to select either Latin or French as 2nd and even 3rd foreign languages. So I’ve been through a lot of dead and living languages (5 to be exact).</p>
<p>Choose German unless you’re totally into reading more complex latin prose. German is harder to learn by yourself and has far more relevance in everyday life. It will be more helpful for your career and might help you make some friends (exchange etc.).</p>
<p>Latin on the other hand is dead. Seriously. Some people always say: But it’s helpful for french, Italian and spanish. Yeh. A BIT. For Spanish only. German and english will be more helpful in Italian than Latin.
The law and medicine thing: You need some basic latin for that. So yes you’re going to have to spend one or two semesters sitting through latin 101. But that’s stuff you can do with a dictionary and also it’s not completely wasted time if you only get half the stuff.</p>
<p>Latin is pure busy-work. And that can be crammed and learnt by yourself. In a classroom setting: Lern German. It’s more useful and it will introduce some systems of other European languages that will be helpful if you ever decide on learning something else.</p>
<p>So yall are saying Latin would be something I could probably teach myself and I should take German as the class?</p>
<p>^ Yes .</p>
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<p>German, being arguably the second most important academic language, certainly could be interesting.</p>
<p>I took Latin for a year about 5 years ago. I’ve been taking German for less than a year. I picked up German way faster than I picked up Latin, and I know that I’ll actually use my German sometime in the future- so I say German.</p>
<p>Latin if you’re going in to Law or Medicine. Lots of terms are derived from Latin.</p>
<p>German, for Science. Some nice scientists write papers in German(translations are horrible) Plus, they have such a super cool accent :]</p>
<p>I was in AP-LV last year and it’s truly the most pointless crap ever. Take German!</p>
<p>Alright…thank you everybody!
Does anyone else have an input they would like to share?
It will be greatly appreciated!! :)</p>
<p>Latin all the way. It trains your mind in a way that no other subject can!!!</p>
<p>Take German. It is on the rise. I have taken Latin for many years and have just now realized how worthless it is. Sure, you can learn vocabulary easier… but that is pointless. It’s just not worth it.</p>
<p>And whoever said Latin is easier to learn than German… BS!! Latin is much more complicated and also more and more Latin words are being created (therefore actually almost declaring Latin as no longer a dead language).</p>
<p>I’ve taken both German and Latin before. Honestly, Latin is very mechanical and straight-forward language - just make sure you know your declinations, genders, cases, and you’re pretty much set. (At least that’s how I find it …)</p>
<p>German, on the other hand is harder to grasp outside of the classroom.You can’t really translate word for word and expect it to make sense as a phrase, so it would be better to learn this in class.</p>