Which language is more useful for me? German or French.

[DutchGUY88]

I think French is the more dominant one in Luxemburg, so that one first, but you could really use either there. Doesn't matter. Pick one and go.

You didn't study either of these at school? You will probably know at least a bit of German, I can't imagine otherwise.

I studies both French and Germanin highschool, but in realtity “can’t speak” beyond ordering food.

[DutchGUY88]

From my experience, I'm using 99% French and 1% English in Luxembourg.
French with:
-people from France and Belgium (thousands of francophone "transfrontaliers" living in France/Belgium and working in Luxembourg)
-Luxembourgers (1/3 of the population in the city, all of them with excellent French, outside the city sometimes they are not so fluent, but everyone will understand some French)
-Portuguese (officially 15% of the population in the country, more frequent in the city, generally very comfortable with French)
English with:
-all the others that are not French/Belgian/Luxembourger/Portuguese, so mostly in bars for expats but I don't visit these places so often

I never use German with Luxembourgers because I'm too lazy to do it (but I speak German when I'm in Germany, which is just around the corner ). I don't hear German very often in every day life; however, most of the newspapers are in German (the main "written" language of Luxembourgers). Also, I don't speak Luxembourgish, so when someone says "Moien" (Hi) I just switch to French (Bonjour) and this is not considered to be impolite because normally they speak both languages. Hope it helps.

Does everybody in Lux speak French?

How different is the French from Lux to standard French.

What about Belgium French and Swiss French how different is it from Standard French?

[tarvos]

I think French is the more dominant one in Luxemburg, so that one first, but you could really use either there. Doesn't matter. Pick one and go.

You didn't study either of these at school? You will probably know at least a bit of German, I can't imagine otherwise.

I studies both French and Germanin highschool, but in realtity “can’t speak” beyond ordering food.

No, but you will have more background than people that start from scratch, making the initial phase a lot quicker.

Pretty much everyone in Luxembourg is at least trilingual in Luxembourgish, German and French. People can pretty much speak all three.

The differences between Belgian, Luxembourgish and Swiss French compared to French from France are minor. There are a few accent differences and some words are country-specific, but they are in practice 100% intercomprehensible and you can just learn standard French. The three words you don't know will be immediately obvious from context.

[Robierre]

Does everybody in Lux speak French?

How different is the French from Lux to standard French.

What about Belgium French and Swiss French how different is it from Standard French?

No, most of the people in this city are foreigners working in different international companies and institutions, so I wouldn't say that everyone speaks French. But Luxembourgers are mostly trilingual, especially those living in the city.
I guess you can survive also just with English, I never tried to use it in public places (except in some bars for expats/tourists where waiters don't speak French) so I can't really tell.

Lux French and French French are basically the same. You will easily recognize (German) accent (or no accent) and some small changes in vocabulary (septante, nonante, cents/centimes etc.) and that's all.

The same goes for Belgium and Swiss French.

[SM11]

Hi DutchGUY88

Which language is more useful for business?

Quite difficult to answer ^^ Maybe more German if you're planning to stay in Europe. Of course it also depends in which specific field you are going to work I guess. But German in general seems like a more powerful language than French for business in Europe to me. But that might be true for the upcoming years only, maybe French will become more important. French is taking more and more importance at a very fast pace with the development of Africa. But anyway, you can always start with German and try French afterwards, I think it shouldn't be too difficult for you since you already know Dutch, English and Spanish, and also with the fact that you live in Luxemburg will help a lot to learn French naturally I think.

Which language will be easier to learn?

I'm not so sure how close are Dutch and German, but I know French is pretty similar to Spanish, maybe with a bit more difficulties regarding the pronunciation? But if you cannot decide with logic, it's always better to decide with your heart anyway The language that gives you the most motivation to keep on learning (because of culture, how it sounds to you, places it's spoken in the world that you'd like to go...) will be the easiest one to learn I think.

[patrickwilken]

Given you are at native levels for both Dutch and English, German should be relatively straightforward to learn. I can already make sense of a lot of things in Holland with just English/German.

It's hard to judge how strong your B2 Spanish is, but my understanding is that French is a fair way away from the other Romance languages, so you should expect it will take a fair bit longer to master. If you Spanish is a weak B2, then you might also find some interference.

However, my guess is that French is by far the more useful language to have in Luxembourg. Perhaps you should just wait until you are there for a few weeks before making a decision.

[Lola]

Both <3