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Which languages are best for me? How useful is German?

I study 3 languages at the moment and love them all equally - French, German and Spanish (bit of Portuguese on the side as well).

However, I'm having doubts as to the usefulness of German.

I know it's meant to be a big business language - but don't most Germans speak English anyway? As far as I'm aware a greater proportion of Germans can speak English in comparison to French or Spanish people, is this true?

Career wise I've given myself three main options. My first choice (most preferred) would be media, specifically film making. My second choice would be journalism. My third choice would be working in some sort of business/financial environment.

I obviously can't learn all 3/4 languages to the same level of fluency. Which languages should I prioritise taking my career ambitions into account?

Thanks :smile:

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Original post by Yosso

I obviously can't learn all 3/4 languages to the same level of fluency. Which languages should I prioritise taking my career ambitions into account?

Thanks :smile:

First, the cold, hard facts:
German is spoken by around 90million people (natively) in Central Europe. Outside of that, everyone else is a second language speaker. Many Germans, like many other Europeans, know how to speak English thanks to their education. In terms of business and politics, you're more likely to find someone who is bilingual in German and English, or German and French, than someone who is a German monoglot.

In terms of the four languages you have, you can make the usual language pairs out of them:
French & Spanish (widely spoken pair, always chosen by those who want to fall back on teaching)
French & German (fairly common package; very good for the political side of things, thanks to the EU)
Spanish & Portuguese (far more widely spoken than French & Spanish, though not really a common choice)

What you have to think is: Am I doing this for my love of languages, or am I doing it to progress with a career?

If you chose career progression, then go back to those language pairs, and pick whichever one seems more suited to you. Really, German is only widely used in Europe, so if you pick French & German, don't expect as much travel as with the other two...

If you chose love of languages, then you just have to flip a coin I'm afraid. People look at me strangely when I tell them what I study, because, beyond Spanish, I don't do anything that is 'useful' outside of its own area -- Italian isn't widely used beyond Italy, and Catalan is only used in the Països Catalans. I don't do it for any career progression, I do it for my love of languages -- I am that much of a language nerd. :redface: