Which language should I learn first?

As a speaker of both, I'd recommend French first. It's more widely-spoken and the grammar is good as a warm-up (in terms of difficulty) to German grammar.

 

I'm currently learning German and Japanese, so I chose German. German is in the same language family as English, and a lot of the words are similar, so it may be a little easier to learn (although I have no experience with French, so I could be wrong). I think French also has a lot of words that sound different than they look, and that sounds harder to me.

That being said, German is no walk in the park. It still has its fair share of challenges. It's worth it, though.

 

I've never took much German but I did take 3 years of French and let me just say, French is easier to learn and I feel that it's easier to pronounce. Even though I only took a couple years of French, I felt like I could speak it a bit fluently and some words are identical to English so it wouldn't be a problem. Not to mention that I heard French is the easiest language to learn but I don't know if it's true or not.

 

I totally believe you about French being easier to pronounce since I'm still having difficulty with German pronounciation.

I don't think French is the "easiest" language in the world. Each language has its own challenges, and while some may be more hard than others, I doubt there is one single "easiest" language to learn.

---------- Post added 27th Jun 2015 at 07:59 PM ----------

Swedish is also in the Germanic language family. Go with whatever language you're more interested in.

 

(I am completely biased because I studied for French for several years and absolutely love the language, so with that being said...)

I say take French!

But really, take whichever you think you'll enjoy learning more. That will be the key to your success, along with a healthy portion of hard work no matter which language you choose to study.

Actually, just under 30% of English words are of French origin, which is actually higher than the percentage of those of Germanic origin. Not by a whole lot, but still higher.

 

German if you know more German speakers than French speakers.

 

Why not Spanish and French....closely related...

 

It definitely depends on why you'd want to learn a language, Lazuri. Is it for fun, for work, ...?

The answer also depends on your qualities and preferences, for instance:

* German pronunciation has its quirks for English language speakers. However, French has them too. Germans has words like schön which might provide some difficulty to the English language speaker. On the other hand, French has words like jardin and they might provide difficulty as well. In this case, the difference I illustrated is the usage of nasals, which is highly featured in French, but not in German.
* German has a case system. Meaning that e.g. the word the in the boy, I see the boy and I give the boy a book are not alike. This might provide quite some difficulties, as adjectives are affected too, so it might confuse one completely.. Or not. In my case, since I speak Dutch, it was quite easy.
* French verbs are, in my opinion, very dreadful to learn. Not only do you have a lot of conjugations, the amount of irregularities might make your head spin. German has quite some quirks in their verbs too, however.
* The sentence structure for both languages is different. This matters, as you might have a preference in this regard. German sentence structures can have their oddities, but the same applies for French sentence structures.

I hope I could help a little.

 

Which should you learn first? Learning just one of them to a decent level would already be an amazing achievement!

Practically, I honestly think German speakers are more in demand in the EU, despite native German speakers generally knowing better English than native French speakers do. I reckon German, more so than other Germanic languages, pose unique challenges for any learner but if you speak Swedish and English you're in a prime position to learn it.

 

All depends on where you're from. She's from Sweden so I'm assuming her first language is Swedish... which would make German the easier language to learn/pronounce for her, I think.

And if I had to pick, I'd pick German... but I'm really not a fan of either language >_<

 

If you learn French you could then have access to all of latin languages, so you could pretty much understand Spanish, Italian, etc..
Plus, French is so charming!

 

Yup, go for german...

I'd take french if I was into arts and stuff, german is just more useful.

Depends if you need business or pleasure, as usual...

 

Its a tricky one, as you mention you are a bilingual Swedish-English speaker.

On one hand both your current languages will assist in learning German (Both English and Swedish have ties to Middle/Low German). But with learning French I'd imagine only really your English would assist (about 29% of English is French derived). Of course some Swedish originates from French but not a substancial amount.

So yes, whilst it is often said that French is easier to learn than German for (monolingual) English speakers , I think your speaking of Swedish would mean both would be about the same.

Besides, as you are already bilingual your brain should be well adapted to learning a third language, so you shouldn't have the barriers most learners face.

So really it just boils down to preference. Which do you prefer the sound of? And which would you get the most practice and/or mileage from (do you watch French films?, do you want to holiday/work in Germany? etc)?

 

Mandarin. China is taking over the world.

 

French.

I've got my reasons: I like it!

 

In that case, learn whichever you're most interested in! While it's true that French isn't as phonetically consistent as say, Spanish, and that German grammar is quite complex, I think as a Swede who also knows English, neither should be radically difficult for you. German being slightly more difficult, and with more English speakers, has always been more interesting for me, personally, but the lack of opportunities available makes it less beneficial in the immediate future.

 

German because I'm German.