French vs Spanish - Which one is easy to learn?

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BalancingAct
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Re: French vs Spanish - Which one is easy to learn?

Postby BalancingAct » Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:32 pm

I would let the child listen to the sounds of each language for more than a few minutes (preferably normal speech from a radio station, not songs) and see which one he likes better. This aspect is as important as the cultural aspect, if you don't just learn to read.
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Re: French vs Spanish - Which one is easy to learn?

Postby lavengro » Tue Oct 03, 2017 11:59 pm

I agree with most of the comments provided in response to your query, but the issue of which language is likely to be of greater utility for job prospects may turn in part on both your child's location and your child's career interests.

My guess by your use of the term "primary schooling" is that you are not in the United States, but if you were, I think the answer to that issue is pretty straightforward. Equally, my guess is you are not stuck in the bleak hinterland that is Canada, as the answer would be too obvious to even warrant asking the question. If you are comfortable disclosing, are you in Europe or elsewhere?

In terms of career interests, if your child may be interested in becoming a matador who moonlights as a French pastry chef, probably best to study both. If your child may decide that being a French mime is of interest, then really, I would recommend not studying either language and instead focusing on walking against pretend wind and escaping from pretend boxes. Similarly if a distinguished military career in the French Foreign Legion (Légion Étrangère) is of interest, then oddly, I don't think you need bother with either French or Spanish - the necessary French will be beaten into one as part of the on-the-job training (that comment may be more literal than figurative, sadly).

If, as was the case for Praetor Shinzon, a stint in the Romulan dilithium mines on Remus is at all likely, I strongly advise taking up Rihan rather than either French or Spanish.

Good luck, and you may want to consider learning along with your child which is a fun thing to do, which then introduces (if only subconsciously) the issue of possible bias on your part if you may be dragged into also studying whatever language is chosen!
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Re: French vs Spanish - Which one is easy to learn?

Postby Cavesa » Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:33 am

lavengro wrote:I agree with most of the comments provided in response to your query, but the issue of which language is likely to be of greater utility for job prospects may turn in part on both your child's location and your child's career interests.


This is a good thought in general but I don't think it's realistic. Who knows their desired career in primary school? It is too early. Vast majority of future astronauts simply doesn't become one.

The other way around works, I am an example, one of many. If he learns one of the languages well, he will definitely find uses for it one day even if the people around don't think so now. We are not discussing possible economic gains of learning Swedish or Welsh, we are talking about two or the largest languages on the planet.

Another reason why it is easier to learn first and plan the money later: the future salary is not a strong enough motivation. Not for most kids, not for most teenagers, not for many adults. In order to stick with the language and to truly invest time and efforts in it instead of just sitting dumbly in the class, the learner needs an emotional tie to the language or to something it gives access to. It has to be interesting and enriching. It has to bring some benefit (understanding popular songs or wonderful tv series in Spanish, reading Asterix or awesome fantasy books in the French original, and so on) much earlier than twenty years from now, when the boy finishes a degree.

One more thing: future is not predictable. We have all heard those theories like "everyone will be learning Chinese/Japanese/whatever in ten years" said ten years ago :-) And look around, the reality is different. In the same manner, we can only make a more or less informed guess about the usefulness of Spanish and French in the 2030's and 2040's. So, while such guesses probably shouldn't be discarded completely, I would take them with a huge grain of salt.
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Re: French vs Spanish - Which one is easy to learn?

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Oct 04, 2017 4:36 am

lavengro wrote: ... my guess is you are not stuck in the bleak hinterland that is Canada, as the answer would be too obvious to even warrant asking the question...
Ah, yes, the bleak hinterland! It explains why the vast majority of Canadians (save those working in the Oil Patch) live within one hundred miles of the Canada-U.S.A. border. You'd never know it from looking at them, but those stunted, emaciated, scrubby little fir trees in the North are actually hundreds of years old.
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Re: French vs Spanish - Which one is easy to learn?

Postby garyb » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:05 pm

I agree with the other replies, but I'd add that since we're talking about school language education, the chances are he will only learn some basics anyway. Typically, five or six years of school instruction gives you about the same level as a few months of self-study or higher-quality teaching. Since the basics in Romance languages are quite transferable, and learning the basics is the quick part compared to the rest of the process, if he picks one language and then decides to learn the other later it won't be a huge deal. Going from school-level Spanish to conversational French isn't a whole lot more work than going from school-level Spanish to conversational Spanish.

It's a trap I fell into: I decided I wanted to learn French, Spanish, and Italian, and decided to start with French because "I had already studied it at school" so it wouldn't be new and scary like the others, even though these others were more useful and interesting to me. Now I somewhat regret that and wish I had chosen Spanish or Italian first.

As for the original question, Spanish's simpler pronunciation probably makes it more approachable; with French, most learners have to invest a lot of time into learning the phonetic system just to be understood. Moreover, school teaching usually doesn't teach it properly, leading to bad habits that are hard to get rid of later. As others have said though, French is easier to read and there are fewer verb forms to learn, and overall I don't think one is easier than the other to learn to a high level.
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