The British and Foreign languages

[English assassin]

In a few weeks time I shall be off to Francophone Switzerland for my holidays, and have been booking mountain huts etc. Although the Swiss (in marked contrast to another french speaking nation we could mention) seem to be very tolerant of my french (which is very much of the "Je voudrais une chambre" and "ou se trouve la plage" variety) I have once again been forced to confront my lack of foreign languages.

Which is notoriously a national failing.

But, I was thinking as I looked for my old French text books (Le Francais de aujourd'hui, which should of course now be Le Francais de il y a vingt ans) maybe one trouible is which language to learn? Last year I was in Norway, the year before in Spain (digressing, I remember just enough spanish from school to confuse my french) and so on. Once I was in Poland and lets face it Polish isn't going to be top of anyones list.

What I am saying is, if you speak English, and live in Europe, there isn't a very obvious second choice. In Uk schools people tend to get taught french but i don't know if there is any very good reason for it, as opposed to, say, Italian or Spanish or German.

So, I was wondering, what do people think is the most useful second language to learn in Europe and why? Personally if we were starting from scratch I would not bother with French (which the French will always pretend you can't speak anyway) and, provided its not too difficult, put everyone onto German.

[Dutch_guy]

well German is good, but It's hard to learn from scratch.
however if you have experience with latin then german grammer would be a little easier.
But Spanish is also a good language to learn, since a lot of countries use that language, good for backpakking trips ;)
And a lot of people in the world use the language, that's not true with German.

[InsaneApache]

I agree, I'd go for Spanish....closely followed by Portuguese. After all they are also an 'international' language, much like English.

[Marcellus]

So, I was wondering, what do people think is the most useful second language to learn in Europe and why?

English

But for native English speakers (i.e. the British), I would say any of French, German, Spanish and Italian, because these are the languages of the places Britons seem most likely to visit. They are also quite 'international' languages, so are useful in that respect too.

[el_slapper]

Remember that Blair won the olympics for London.....speaking in French . Now you know what the ultimate choice is .

[edyzmedieval]

As a second language, it's hard to tell.....

I study French, but I hate it...
I studied German, I liked it but I went to another school....
I studied Japanese, the teacher got a job and I left Japanese( I liked the Japanese language )

I wanna study German and Italian. And possibly Spanish or Portuguese....

[The Stranger]

portuguese is cool but the native speakers speak it so fast i cant keep up with it. same for french and italian. prolly leftovers from rome cuz the had no spaces i think.

[King Henry V]

Latin is useful in the Western countries of Europe, as it is the root of Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian. HOwever, unless you go to the Vatican, you won't find it very useful in talking to people.
P.S Where are you going in Switzerland, EA?

[Duke Malcolm]

hmmm... you could always learn Scots, incase you wish to hazard a trip north of the border. A Briton should never need a foreign language. Foreigners should always speak English, and if they do not, then it is entirely their fault. We didn't have to Empire for nothing, you know.

[Fragony]

England doesn't need a second language, english is the most common language in the world. If you have to have a second language I would pick german or chinese.

[Al Khalifah]

Choose Arabic and you are pretty much guarenteed a job if you speak English too.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

German has the largest economy in Europe, so that is a good language to learn (yes, I'm biased, so what). Another good one would be Spanish, maybe Italian?

[The_Doctor]

Learn Welsh, just in case you end up in the middle of Wales and nobody speaks English.

[TheSilverKnight]

Spanish. Reason being it's spoken not only in Europe, but a few countries in Asia, and all of Latin America except Brazil.
It helps me!

[Marcellus]

Learn Welsh, just in case you end up in the middle of Wales and nobody speaks English.

Are there still people in Wales who still don't speak English? Because I thought they died out years ago

[Duke Malcolm]

No, no, that's Scots Gaelic you're thinking of. The Welsh Group-of-people-who-try-and-run-things-but-have-no-power are quite good at restoring the language, unlike the Scottish Executive, which seems remarkably good at lowering the numbers of Gaelic speakers, despite its desperate attempts...

[English assassin]

Welsh? yeah, right... I can't really understand why even the Welsh learn Weslh. I mean, I am all in favour of pride in your culture etc but come on, in the schiools wouldn't it serve the kids much better to teach them a nore useful language? Like, say, Swedish?

They can learn Welsh at home if they like.

P.S Where are you going in Switzerland, EA?

Les Dent du Midi, and Lausanne. Looks cracking. Plenty of mountains, and trains that run on time. Brilliant.

[Craterus]

Spanish, cos it's used outside of Europe (more than any other European language too).

[Del Arroyo]

I would say that if you were prioritizing (that's right, spelled with a 'z', just like it sounds!), German would be pretty much out, as the Germans by and large seem to speak pretty damned good English.

DA