JapanForum.com  


Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
(#1 (permalink))
Old
Sitron (Offline)
Banned
 
Posts: 124
Join Date: Feb 2008
French - my biggest regret - 04-04-2010, 02:39 PM

For the past 18 months I've been learning French. I regret it. It's such a useless language. Yes, they speak it in exotic destinations such as Quebec, and a few African countries I'll never visit. I already speak German, Norwegian and English, so I don't know why I opted for French. The time wasted on this rather useless language could've been spent learning Japanese which I find more interesting.
Reply With Quote
(#2 (permalink))
Old
ModusOperandi's Avatar
ModusOperandi (Offline)
JF Regular
 
Posts: 92
Join Date: Jun 2008
04-04-2010, 02:53 PM

Saying you're more interested in a language over another is one thing
but please understand that knowing another language, even one you're not interested in, is a highly valuable skill.
Reply With Quote
(#3 (permalink))
Old
PockyMePink's Avatar
PockyMePink (Offline)
=\
 
Posts: 472
Join Date: Dec 2008
Send a message via MSN to PockyMePink
04-04-2010, 03:08 PM

You know, I hear they speak it in this other cool place called France.

JS
Reply With Quote
(#4 (permalink))
Old
noodle's Avatar
noodle (Offline)
Wo zhi dao ni ai wo
 
Posts: 1,418
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Paris/London/Algiers
04-04-2010, 04:19 PM

You say "useless language" and that's it! You didn't say why? And why would Japanese be more useful than French?
Reply With Quote
(#5 (permalink))
Old
Sitron (Offline)
Banned
 
Posts: 124
Join Date: Feb 2008
04-04-2010, 04:46 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by PockyMePink View Post
You know, I hear they speak it in this other cool place called France.

JS
Whats cool about France? It's just like any other big European country. Just like any other place you'll find that Lady Gaga, Beyonce and any other American artist top the charts over there, that they also love to watch Lost, Heroes, House, etc. There's nothing special about France anymore. It may have been a cultural capitol a few centuries, or even decades ago, but not any longer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by noodle

You say "useless language" and that's it! You didn't say why? And why would Japanese be more useful than French?
As a person that already speaks 3 European languages, and two of them are bigger than French in Europe, I don't need French. In terms of job opportunities I don't need French. Germany is a far bigger economy and then there's Austria and Switzerland (yes, I know some speak French in Switzerland, but only 20%, compared to the 72% that speak German).

France doesn't offer anything special anymore. If you've lived in Europe your whole life you'll see France is just like any other Western European nation. There's a reason why French as a language is declining all over the world.
Reply With Quote
(#6 (permalink))
Old
xyzone (Offline)
JF Old Timer
 
Posts: 301
Join Date: Nov 2009
04-04-2010, 07:51 PM

In what country outside Japan is Japanese particularly "useful"? Peru? Nope.
Reply With Quote
(#7 (permalink))
Old
komitsuki (Offline)
Busier Than Shinjuku Station
 
Posts: 997
Join Date: Feb 2009
04-04-2010, 08:17 PM

Move to Canada and work for the government or high-end business. Problem solved.


JapanForum's semi-resident amateur linguist.
Reply With Quote
(#8 (permalink))
Old
PockyMePink's Avatar
PockyMePink (Offline)
=\
 
Posts: 472
Join Date: Dec 2008
Send a message via MSN to PockyMePink
04-04-2010, 08:22 PM

Quote:
Whats cool about France? It's just like any other big European country. Just like any other place you'll find that Lady Gaga, Beyonce and any other American artist top the charts over there, that they also love to watch Lost, Heroes, House, etc. There's nothing special about France anymore. It may have been a cultural capitol a few centuries, or even decades ago, but not any longer.
I was reffering to the fact that you didn't mention France when listing countries where French was used.
You say it's not special because the French like American pop culture? Sorry, but that's not the only thing to love about a country. Also, American pop culture is loved in many countries, even Japan.

I'd like to also mention that Japanese isn't exactly the most useful language. You'd be better off learning Chinese or Spanish.
Reply With Quote
(#9 (permalink))
Old
noodle's Avatar
noodle (Offline)
Wo zhi dao ni ai wo
 
Posts: 1,418
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Paris/London/Algiers
04-04-2010, 09:02 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sitron View Post
As a person that already speaks 3 European languages, and two of them are bigger than French in Europe, I don't need French. In terms of job opportunities I don't need French. Germany is a far bigger economy and then there's Austria and Switzerland (yes, I know some speak French in Switzerland, but only 20%, compared to the 72% that speak German).

France doesn't offer anything special anymore. If you've lived in Europe your whole life you'll see France is just like any other Western European nation. There's a reason why French as a language is declining all over the world.
You still didn't answer why Japanese would be more useful? By your logic, all three of your languages are more spoken in Europe than Japanese, so why Japanese?



As for all your knowledge of France, have you actually lived in France before? Do you have any idea why year after year, it's either first or second when it comes to Quality of Life?

I've lived in Algeria for 7 years, England for 11 Years and France for the past 4 years and I think it's absolutely ridiculous to say that if you've lived in Europe your whole like, you see France as any other Western European country. The culture is totally different, everyday life is totally different! Just because there are similarities, it doesn't make them the same, otherwise you could say every developed country in the world is pretty much the same! Plus, all that stuff about music and TV shows etc is just Blah blah blah. Even in Algeria, people watch and listen to American media! Does that mean that Algeria is the same as most European countries?

And, Germany's economy is bigger, but it definitely isn't "far bigger". But that's besides the point; a bigger economy, doesn't necessarily mean more job opportunities!

For your last sentence, I have no idea where you get your facts from, but these are the ones I've seen with a quick search on google.

In 1999, French was the 11th most common first language in the world, with 77 million first language speakers and another 51 million second language speakers,

Today; spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language.

I see an INCREASE, not a decrease!

I personally don't have much use for French in my future as I don't believe I'll be staying in France for my chosen career, but I definitely don't think I've wasted my time or that I should have learnt a different language etc. In school, I wasn't allowed to take French, I took German, but I didn't like it in the end. I don't however feel that I wasted my time, because even though I didn't like it, German is definitely a beautiful language and I don't hold it against my school for not letting me take French or another language!

Perhaps, you're not getting along with the language so you're trying to find an excuse to drop it! If so, then you're definitely going about it the wrong way! Just because you don't like a language, it doesn't mean you should make these comments on it! It's fine to just say it's not for you, you don't get along with it and that you'll never really get to use it. I speak dialects of Berber, Arabic, English and French. Berber and Arabic are TOTALLY useless for me, but I don't think to myself, omg, why was I born in Algeria, why didn't my parents take me to Japan so I could learn Japanese instead of these languages I'll never use!
Reply With Quote
(#10 (permalink))
Old
Tsuwabuki's Avatar
Tsuwabuki (Offline)
石路 美蔓
 
Posts: 721
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
04-04-2010, 09:26 PM

I took eight years of French. I only regret that I can no longer speak it.


<- AnimeMusicVideos.Org
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




Copyright 2003-2006 Virtual Japan.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.0.0 RC6