Should I learn French or Japanese?

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Reply 60

spartakist

vander Beth

This very relevant to my interest! :eek:

Can anyone corroborate this?

I took French for about three years. Grammar and speaking were fine, but listening comprehension almost killed me!
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I also planned to study it for 3 years, that's how long they have the study plan, er, planned out for (unless I hated it for some reason)

This is a very important thing to remember. While speakers of French to the level of 'Deux bieres s'il vous plais Mon-sewer' are 2 a penny in England, to speak and understand it acceptably fluently is much rarer and takes a lot of practise and living in a Francophone country. To be honest I assume the same applies to Japanese, if you have the energy and ability to learn French properly it will make a lot of difference. French is also much more useful in the UK, so I suppose it depends on where you see yourself in the future.

I see you are a scientist; again I can't speak for Japan but the French scientific community is notorious for its linguistic insularity so French would be a lot more useful for working in science in France than, say, Swedish for working in Sweden. Good luck wiith whatever you choose anyway, languages are the preserve of the scholar :cool: