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Self-teaching - French or German?

Hi :smile:

I've just started my holidays and I've been planning to learn another language, at least to conversational level, and either French or German appeal to me. I was wondering which one would be the most feasible to teach myself. I've done Spanish to A2, if that might help with learning either language.

Any help in choosing would be really useful :smile: Thanks!
Reply 1
Avatar for Siân
Siân
Hey :smile:

I would personally say that you might be better teaching yourself French because it is much more similar to Spanish than German is. However once you have one language under your belt it is generally easier to pick up another one - in terms of understanding the grammar rules etc. I study German and I'm looking to teach myself Spanish - so maybe we could help each other out if you decide on German! :smile:


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Reply 2
Avatar for greekguy
greekguy
1
FRENCH
Reply 3
Avatar for Tier
Tier
1
French would be easier for you since it and Spanish are both romance languages. The vocabularies will be somewhat similar for latinate words.

However, I am completely bias towards German as it is an awesome language, and you get access to the incredibly rich German culture as well.

But try both out for a week and see what you think after that.
Well, it's true that both French and Spanish are romance languages, but at the same time both English and German are germanic ones. :smile: Personally I found English to be a great help when starting German (many word resemblances, etc).
One advantage of self-teaching German might be the pronunciation I think. You 'simply' learn the rules and after that are able to pronounce virtually anything. Of course you wouldn't sound completely like a native speaker, but it's hard to get it really wrong if you've learnt those few rules, whereas I believe French is like English in that the pronunciation and the written form differ much more.
I would say French seeing as it has more links to Spanish, and the grammar in German is hard to learn on your own!

However German would be a useful language to learn as it is one of the most powerful countries in Europe, but it depends on your motives for learning a language.

A good website for learning languages I found the other day is http://duolingo.com/
It is free, have started using it for Spanish so only in the beginners stages and can't give you a fully informed review, but so far so good and it is free to use, so if you want to try out Tier's suggestion this would be a good website to go to :smile:
Reply 6
Avatar for FuzzySheep
FuzzySheep
OP
15
Thank you for all your tips/suggestions, I'm very grateful! I've decided on German - it looks such an interesting language and will be a good challenge. Only two days in and learnt the very basics, but it's very fun! :smile:


Original post by Siân
x


I'd love to help you with anything Spanish related if needed and would appreciate any (very basic at this stage) pointers about German! Send a PM whenever you like :smile:
Reply 7
Avatar for FuzzySheep
FuzzySheep
OP
15
Original post by Butterfly9595
I would say French seeing as it has more links to Spanish, and the grammar in German is hard to learn on your own!

However German would be a useful language to learn as it is one of the most powerful countries in Europe, but it depends on your motives for learning a language.

A good website for learning languages I found the other day is http://duolingo.com/
It is free, have started using it for Spanish so only in the beginners stages and can't give you a fully informed review, but so far so good and it is free to use, so if you want to try out Tier's suggestion this would be a good website to go to :smile:


That's a great site, I'll be using it! Thank you :biggrin:
Reply 8
Avatar for Juichiro
Juichiro
18
Original post by Butterfly9595
I would say French seeing as it has more links to Spanish, and the grammar in German is hard to learn on your own!

However German would be a useful language to learn as it is one of the most powerful countries in Europe, but it depends on your motives for learning a language.

A good website for learning languages I found the other day is http://duolingo.com/
It is free, have started using it for Spanish so only in the beginners stages and can't give you a fully informed review, but so far so good and it is free to use, so if you want to try out Tier's suggestion this would be a good website to go to :smile:


What is your username on Duolingo so I can follow you? :smile:
Original post by Juichiro
What is your username on Duolingo so I can follow you? :smile:


Rachel9595 :smile: I haven't used it in ages so thanks for reminding me! What language did you go for in the end?
Reply 10
Avatar for Juichiro
Juichiro
18
Original post by Butterfly9595
Rachel9595 :smile: I haven't used it in ages so thanks for reminding me! What language did you go for in the end?


German. :smile: I am Reisende, I just followed you. :smile:
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Juichiro
German. :smile: I am Reisende, I just followed you. :smile:


German is awesome! Will follow you next time I go on :smile:
Reply 12
Avatar for Juichiro
Juichiro
18
Original post by Butterfly9595
German is awesome! Will follow you next time I go on :smile:


Thanks. :smile: I am fluent in Spanish so let me know if I can be of any help. I would love to help. :smile:
French - very similar to Spanish and lots of resources out there

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