Using and studying a foreign language is a great achievement for the person pursuing it.
A person should learn a new language for many reasons. Speaking one or more foreign languages is one of the most sought after skills in today’s professional world. Your mother tongue or your ability to speak English is no longer enough. There are countless advantages to learning a new language. The Romance languages (less commonly known as the Latin languages, or Neo-Latin languages) are the modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries. They are a subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language family. The six most widely spoken Romance languages by a number of native speakers are Spanish (489 million), Portuguese (250 million), French (77 million), Italian (67 million), Romanian (24 million), and Catalan (4.1 million[2]) (4.1 million[2]). Italian is the closest national language to Latin, followed by Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, and the most divergent being French.
Why do people learn a new language, be it anything?
The nature of their job inspires most people who like to learn a foreign language.
However, this is only good for people who already work paid or who have an apparent reason to study that particular language. For example, if you have long-term contractual and commercial relations with a French company or group of investors.
You will then learn French to have a cordial relationship with your business partners. You will learn French more. But different people have different needs? Therefore not all choose the same language to learn. They learn a language for a definite or specific reason.
For all of the reasons, the main motivation for language enthusiasts is careers after language learning. You could pursue a career as a translator, an interpreter or a teacher or maybe it’s your long-time dream to have a job in embassies.
Now if you are left wondering what is the most valuable and important language you can add to your repertoire; read ahead. I am sure you are likely to make a decision soon to select the appropriate European languages; French or Spanish or German.
Let’s discuss these languages one by one starting with Spanish
Let’s start with the Spanish language
How popular is Spanish?
Well, if we take the number of people who speak the language Spanish speakers can be found all over the world! There are over 500 million Spanish-speaking people in 44 countries, with 20 countries using Spanish as their official language. After Mandarin and English, Spanish is one of the world’s three most spoken languages.
Mission US!
It is one of the world’s most important and valuable languages if you’re aim is ‘Mission USA’.It is South and Central America’s most spoken language. The USA, after Mexico, has the second-highest concentration of Spanish speakers around the world, according to a 2015 report by the Instituto Cervantes. The USA shelters 53M people with 41M Spanish first language speakers and around 11.6M second-language speakers. The USA has more Spanish speakers than Spain, which currently has 47M and Colombia, 48M speakers. By 2050, the USA is expected to have about 138 million Spanish speakers, which would make it the largest Spanish speaker in the world. Latin America and the US house a colossal size of the Spanish-speaking population.
Career prospects after learning Spanish
Spanish is extensively spoken in the USA and Spain. If you engage in business activities and seek employment in the BPO/KPO sector, Spanish skills will come in handy because a majority of BPOs and KPOs come from the US where Spanish is the second most prevalent language. In particular, Hispanic regions, as in Latin America, are seeking global bilateral cooperation.
Professions relevant to the Spanish language
Spanish is also a sought after language in the area of tourism and hospitality. Apart from these, various Indian companies have opened developing centres or acquired businesses across all of Latin America from the Aditya Birla Group conglomerates to the IT giants such as the TCS. So if you are a part of Indian businesses you stand to gain maximum with a world full of opportunities; in particular in export, healthcare, banking, law, manufacturing, etc.
Ease of learning
Even though Spanish grammar is vast and time-consuming, Spanish is probably the easiest language to learn from the three under discussion today, because it is more phonetic than other languages, tends to use fewer rules of pronunciation, and is easy to learn. Due to the phonetic nature of the language, words can be read with great precision. It can take anywhere from two years on, to complete Spanish proficiency tests such as DELE B2, or the equivalent SIELE test, depending on a learner’s grasping ability and intellect.
Spanish can help you with the following!
Due to different similarities, your Spanish knowledge and fluency can help you learn Portuguese, Catalan and Filipino languages.
Let’s now discuss the lingua franca of today, French!
How popular is French?
French is rightfully called a global language; no wonder it’s the 2nd most spoken language in the world. That also explains why French is an official language across 32 francophone countries. The French language enjoys a mighty powerful status in the economic and political worlds being one of six official languages used in the United Nations, being the second foreign language most taught in the EU and being used by all EU institutions as their working languages apart from English and German!
Mission EU, Switzerland or Canada!
French is the only working language in certain institutions (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union). French is also the 18th most spoken in the world, the 6th most spoken language in total and the second or third most studied language in the world (with about 120 million current learners). French is extensively spoken in Switzerland, France, Canada, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Central and North Africa.
Career prospects after learning French
The French language has a visibly more edge than the German or Spanish language any day. France is a language of art, cuisines and the ‘connoisseur spirit’. Paris is considered the fashion capital of the world, and France is also home to the aviation sector. The French language is beneficial if you deal with West Africa, North Africa, Central Africa for exports and imports. In comparison to German or Spanish, French will also benefit you substantially if you are planning to migrate to Canada. TCF or a TEF test can help you earn additional points when immigrating.
Professions relevant to the French language
French offers you the best chance of success; more than can be offered by German and Spanish. If you want to be a chef or if you want to work for or engage in the food or hotel industry, or are exploring your opportunities in the area of tourism and hospitality. you’d like to learn French more than you can offer. Other industries the French economy is dominant in are pharmaceutical, fashion, aeronautical, telecommunications, energy, travel, tourism and hospitality management.
Ease of learning
French is the hardest for English speakers from all the three languages within this group, due to the number of rules that can make English speakers insane when pronouncing French words that seem to be tricky to speak French because French is not phonetic at all. Some sounds on the contrary are completely alien to the English language! French is also not a natural language to master as an English speaker! A DELF B2 or DALF C1 can be completed in 2-3 years, to gauge your French proficiency.
Next up is the German language, which is still the most widely spoken native language in Europe, while being a distinct third in its class.
How popular is German?
More than 100M people speak German as their mother tongue with over 185 million speakers speaking German worldwide. The German language enjoys the status of being an official language to countries such as Liechtenstein, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium. Matter of fact it is the only official language in Liechtenstein. It also enjoys the status of being lingua franca to Eastern and Central European countries.
Mission Austria, Switzerland or Germany!
While German is extensively spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, these countries are not entirely monolingual, several people also speak English in these countries.
Career prospects after learning German
You should prioritise and learn German if you are into online marketing or do business on the internet. Because Germany’s internet presence is well-defined and dominant.The highest website in the country tld— the.de features in one of the world’s top ranks. At some points, the German .de ranked second and fifth in comparison to the dotcoms and ever since then has remained an essential measure to gauge the success of the online market. The German economy is a powerhouse that you can use through investment and knowledge of German when looking at sectors from vehicles to machinery, metals and chemical products. Because German-speaking careers are as high as French, these are the two foreign languages most taught and popular in India.
Professions relevant to the German language
If you have a career or interest in any of the following fields such as the publishing industry, automobile industry, engineering, machines and machinery, shipbuilding, power, psychology or the fields of practical science or are keen to import and export these goods, Germany is the language to learn. Experienced foreign language teachers have higher demand for their services. German is more practical if you are interested in literature or music.
Ease of learning
The German language is as tricky as French. It’s very confusing and challenging because of its grammar. In Fact, some people do not easily discern the syntax and cases. An English speaker, however, may not find it very difficult at least at the beginning to learn German, as both languages belong to the same family tree. It’s also worth knowing that a lot of Germans speak good English. While Spanish and French are Romance language classes, English and German related to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Learning German completely depends on how much you study and can devote yourself. The German expertise test (i.e., Goethe Zertifikat B2, C1 or TestDaF) may take up to 2-3 years.
So what final criterion can we apply to learn French, Spanish or German when posed with a choice?
Know that the criteria really depends on several practical factors. A few I am discussing here.
German-speaking careers are as high as French, these are the two foreign languages most taught and popular in India. However, If you intend to travel, study or even work in companies related to their origin, it is better to learn the respective language to steer your career ahead in the right direction.
What’s of paramount consideration besides all other factors, however, is:
Consider your current skills, university qualifications, industries or jobs – potential immigration or higher education or work visas, etc. Find out your precise learning motivation. It is the key criterion.
Another criteria considered by beginners is the language difficulty level;
Now, remember that something cannot be clearly defined as it depends on countless factors, including techniques of language learning. It is a completely subjective subject, with each person’s difficulty varying considerably.
Keep in mind that every tongue has both difficult and easy components.
Spanish grammar, for example, is easy, but listening is sometimes quite difficult because of many dialects. On the other hand, the rules of German grammar are very complicated, but the basic part is a bit ok. On the other hand, in terms of accents and pronunciation, French is rather challenging. In addition, it is even confusing because of the different dialects.
Simply put, Spanish is easier than French and German. While some could consider French, somewhat more complicated than German, others may find French easier than learning German. On an average scale of difficulty, I would rate the languages as: 6/10 Spanish, 7/10 German, and 7.5/10 French.
Now, why just these three language trio French, Spanish and German?
It’s interesting to note that there are many more languages that meet the store mentioned criteria apart from English, such as Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, French and German.
So, it’s a natural question as to why we did not pick up the rest of these languages.
Well, It is important to note that the worth of a language in the world is measured by the people associated with the language. It could be celebrities in today’s world, famous personalities or even famous people from history who made a difference and will not only be remembered for their contribution to the language, but their contribution also made the language go ‘bold and big’ on a broader platform. This automatically gives a language more value than a randomly large number of people speaking in that language.
What do two famous figures have to do with the language?
Well, public figures with strong personalities are able to drive home a point and uphold the language and the cause they are promoting at the international stage. It is for this reason that the language that they speak will also get an equivalent recognition to be recognised and respected as a medium of communication between masses.
So as you can see, it’s very obvious that a language gathers success and recognition only when its country makes a mark on the international stage.
Let’s understand this with the help of a few examples
Let’s take an example of the language Russian. At a point in time when the Soviet Union existed Russian was at its peak; however, with the fall of the Soviet Union and its superpower status the Russian language became a completely ignored language even in its own land. Thus it is no longer a language of choice for students unless they have a specific goal in mind which requires the Russian language.
In a similar Comparison, Japanese popularity remains small not just because it is a tough language to learn but also because people haven’t heard Japanese as much despite great efforts from the Japanese people. So it can be logically said that the Japanese do not market themselves effectively as a result of which the language also remains in Shadows. Luckily the only reason the Japanese language is picking up is due to the Anime and Manga which are read and awaited in multiple countries around the world.
On the contrary, Germany has been called the powerhouse of Europe. France on the other hand has a great influence in various factors due to its strong economy and global presence already. Spanish on the other hand is growing exponentially due to growth in Spanish and South Central American economies and due to the number of speakers which are growing as a result of the jobs that need to cater to the Spanish speaking population in the US. Unfortunately, since it’s not really mandatory to learn in the US, it is not growing as fast as French and German.
In short, it is important to know the power status of the economy of the country where languages are associated with and the benefit it offers to a learner before you jump into learning a language.