Which European language is most useful?

Quokka99

Being a stereotypical 18 year old here, but I really want to travel. I'm doing Arts next year but unsure of which language to choose. French was the only one offered at our school, I'm pretty good at it. My cousin did her Erasmus in France & claimed they were unfriendly, so I feel wary of studying French- but I suppose you can't really judge a nation's people based on one person's experience. I also have an interest in learning German or Italian. In terms of careers, I have considered secondary teaching or a language school.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Quokka99

I've considered it, but I don't think I have any hope of rolling my r's haha

Sneak

Technically you already have the most useful European language

flexcon

Quokka99 wrote: »

I've considered it, but I don't think I have any hope of rolling my r's haha

I would have thought that German would be as great language.

Plenty of use in many industries, and seems to be a language sought after outside Germany as Germans don't tend to move away from germany thanks to their impressive society and benefits with low unemployment,]

Kamu

flexcon wrote: »

I would have thought that German would be as great language.

Plenty of use in many industries, and seems to be a language sought after outside Germany as Germans don't tend to move away from germany thanks to their impressive society and benefits with low unemployment,]

German as a bilingual language is highly sought after by tech companies the likes of Google and Facebook for translation services compared to the likes of Spanish or French.
Source: my friend who works for a translation services company that is hired by Google and who are crying out for German speakers.

Quokka99

German might be easier for me to learn because I Skype/Snapchat 3 German girls who went to my school regularly (our school gets a lot of exchange students)

CelticRambler

Quokka99 wrote: »

French was the only one offered at our school, I'm pretty good at it. My cousin did her Erasmus in France & claimed they were unfriendly, so I feel wary of studying French

Why stop at one language? If you've already got French and Irish (I presume) then it should be no bother to you to add German and (for example) Italian.

Seeing as I live in France, I'm somewhat biased, but I know a huge number of friendly French people, and obviously it was really useful for me to have brushed up my Leaving Cert French so that I could work here.

I've a smattering of German and Italian that I use when travelling, because they're the most useful in the countries just over the border.

If you're thinking of your future employability, you might be better off picking the least useful language that's on offer, because that way you won't be competing with every other anglophone who's studied French, German, Spanish and Mandarin.

In the end, unless you really want to work in a particular country, or study the language for its own sake and the specific jobs that come with it, there's no "most useful" - you can learn any language you need at any time in the future.

flexcon

Quokka99 wrote: »

German might be easier for me to learn because I Skype/Snapchat 3 German girls who went to my school regularly (our school gets a lot of exchange students)

it is easier to learn than any latin based language. many words cross over too, so its easier to understand if you cannot speak all.

Also, I have found it is easier since the rules of grammar seem to ride along the same with Irish.

I have tried both Spanish and German, and German I have found challenging but at the same time, it seems more logical in my Irish Head

spurious

In terms of travelling, Spanish covers many places, though English probably puts you ahead of the game in most countries.

doolox

Since 65 million speakers will leave the EU and leave only 5 million Irish people speaking it.