Should I learn FRENCH or JAPANESE first? ?

Question

Okay...I know how to read Spanish(but can't hold conversation), and while I am trying to become fluent, I would like to start another language soon.

I want to really learn Japanese, but it's totally unrelated to

English or Spanish and people tell me it will takes years

and lots of hard work. I also plan to study abroad there

during my major or so and maybe eventually live there for

a few years.

I would like to also learn French, but my hype about it is

not nearly as strong as learning Japanese. But it is closely to

related to Spanish and English so it should be easier to

tackle. (relatively)

So, should I try French to accomplish it, then Japanese...

or should I just go for Japanese first and put French aside for years?

I'll be learning independently and then eventually take one or maybe both of those languages in college. (next year)

So I need help deciding. Someone enlighten me. :)

Answer 1

If you plan on going to Japan, you better get a head start now.  Japanese takes years of dedication and isn't as simple as French (not saying French is easy, but it's not has hard as Japanese considering it's a Romantic language).

The best way to learn Japanese is by being in Japan. If you have prior knowledge before getting there, you'll be in a lot better shape. Nothing makes you fluent like force.

I.E. I was sent to live with my father in America after my grandmother had heart failure. I was ok in English, but I was forced to speak it when I got here. I would translate all my homework to Spanish then complete it in Spanish, when I finished, i translated it all back to English.  Hard work, but it paid off.

Try something similar when in Japan. :)

Answer 2

French. Definitly French. I don;t mean this in a rude way, but you said in your question that you cannot hold a conversation in Spanish. Spanish is seen as the easiest language to learn, so if your having problems with it, I beg you NOT to go trying to learn a language which is so extremely different from your own.

I'm am so proud of the the fact that I can speak French, and when I tell people that I can, they are impressed. So I'm not sure what you mean about there being no 'hype' about it.

It's better to have have perfected a 'hypeless' language, that to be terrible at a more diffficult one.

Answer 3

I've learned both Japanese and French.  They are both difficult in their own ways.  If you are planning to live in Japan though, I would suggest studying Japanese.  No matter which language you choose, it will take years to learn.  However, living in a country where it is spoken will help your fluency significantly.  

Goodluck

Answer 4

Definetly Japeneese! Its A Much More Usefull Language, And Tbh Its Much Easier Too! I Am Learning French Atm And Its Quite Hard But Japeneese Is Much Better.  

Answer 5

   Learn Russian or German -

   Don't learn french - If you dislike it - I think in my whole life I never met strangers speaking a really good french - so don't waste your time

   and don't loose your time on a local language, such as japanese -

   By the way why did you start with spanish ???  

Answer 6

French has more applications in the business world since it is the 2nd most spoke language in the business world. English is 1st.  

Answer 7

I think French, It's closely related to Spanish and will be easier to learn. It is a little trickier than Spanish, but not half as trickey as Japanese. Learning French may also improve your spelling of English and Spanish words -- That's if it needs improving.

Good Luck (Y)

Answer 8

try japanese, I just started two months ago.

Answer 9

think you should take french and get it over with then take japanese :)

Answer 10

Well I've been taking Japanese for about 2 years.

It IS harder than other language because of the characters used in their language, or their alphabet per say.

My first year, I learned the Katakana and Hiragana alphabets which are used in common language, and also some sentence structure and vocabulary. The 2nd year was focused on learning Kanji, which contains characters used in Chinese writing. There are thousands of these, but it isn't as hard to learn as you think it would be.

But don't worry so much about the Kanji - You can speak japanese perfectly fine without knowing any Kanji. But to read japanese well, you will have to know the Kanji.

Answer 11

french is harder than japanese...but thats my opinion I have done both.....and would say japanese is alot easier than peple say it is.

Answer 12

JAPANESE. mainly because you like it more. you said so yourself, you really want to learn it. Learning something you like is better and it is easier since you already are interested with it.  

Answer 13

take french. it's closer to espagnol. and if you can get french it can also help you with spanish. just  keep studying both at the same time.

Answer 14

Well i studied french in school for 5 years and i never really picked it up because i was more interested in learning other languages such as spanish, italian and so on and because i found it boring it made me not want to learn it. Your obviously more interested in the japanese language also itll be more fun =).  

Answer 15

you should definitely learn japanese first since you plan to study and live in japan. [i would have liked to learn japanese, but unfortunately they don't offer that at my school, but learning french is fun too!]

french is a pretty easy language to learn and if you aren't that much interested in it than japanese, you could always put aside french for later. plus, spanish and french pronounciations and spelling look similar and you could get easily confused.

Answer 16

you should finish learning spanish first before you skip around to another language