German or Russian?

[Mtank]

I have been thinking about learning another language, and I had three choices to choose from: French, German, and Russian. I decided to do either German or Russian, but am unable to decide which, having no particular preference. Perhaps some Forum members may have some information in favour of either which I'm not aware of?

And I know this is a long shot, but I would request spam posts like "omg kekeekeke do German cuz Germany roxx0rs" be left out from this thread.

[Markpyro]

I'm also looking into learning another language, and I also considered German and Russian. If you're looking for an easier time learning, it would have to be German, as it uses Latin characters and has many words that are similar to English. Though, with the size of Russia, no doubt there are many people who speak Russian and it would be very useful to know. Then again, so would German. I dunno, I'm interested in what people have to say about this topic as well.

[Protosschick99]

Dude learn French!

Because if you do it would help you to understand Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. Because they all have similarities :)

Also--The ladies love French, lolz.

I am gonna start learning Indonesian--I just need to decide what dialect is most popular in Jakarta :P

So far I'm learning Thai and Spanish--Indonesian will be my fourth language! I wanna be fluent ya know? :D

[hammocksleeper]

Um...my friend is a Russian Studies major and we always make fun of him. Russian is a difficult language to learn, and it's usefulness is not all that great. Germany on the other hand is a major economic power (third largest in the world!), and is a leader in all fields including trade, manufacturing, R&D, scientific research, and education. Try saying any of those things about Russia! ;)

In conclusion, German is wunderbar. :)

[GrassDragon]

Yeah, I think you'll find much more use for German than Russian. Why do you want to learn another language? What languages do you already speak?

[Mtank]

I speak Hindi and English, and I'm supposed to speak Gujrati after 3 years of it in school. Thought it'd be a good idea to learn a third language, and this is the best time to start.

[GenocideAlive]

I'm a German speaker, and most of my older generations hail from Germany. So you know my choice. Russian.

Just kidding. German r0xx0rs.

[Aqo]

Learn German. As a Russian speaker I can tell you you won't benefit much from Russian - why? All Russians speak more than one language, so communication is not a reason, and Russian music sounds good even when you don't understand the lyrics.

Vot smatri, shas ya gavaru paruski - aeta pamagayet mne kakta? Ne. nekak nipamagayet.

Deutsch ist jedoch sehr usefull für alle Arten von Dingen. Ich wünsche, dass ich zähle sprechen deutscher :\

[Veeger]

Personally, I would rather learn Russian. German shows much wider usage, and is the language I studied while in school, but Russian has always had an appeal for me. It's hard to explain. There is just an attraction for me to that language and culture.

Basically, it boils down to what you intend to do with your life. Are you going to get into international business? If so, German is without a doubt the way to go. Not only is it 3rd in the world, economically, most of the best engineers and techinicians hail from Germany, and thus if you are with an International company dealing with a German engineer, you will score viel, viel brownie points with him/her by speaking his/her language.

Guten Tag, Herr Fron! Wie gehts? Ich habe hunger, essen Wir?

If you're not looking at getting into business, and want the easier challenge, again go with German. But if you're looking for something to challenge your little brain cells, I would take Russian a go.

I loved German, don't get me wrong. I need to break out my old dictionary and get my vocabulary built back up, but I remember the sentence structure like the back of my hand. lol, I remember one class where we were going through a German-written book, chapter-by-chapter, and on days when no one had translated/read their chapter and we couldn't answer Herr Brown's questions, I would randomly answer "ja" or "nein". It became a joke by the end of the semester, and when no one answered, Herr Brown would break out a coin and say, "Herr Foster! Ja or nein?" and flip it.

"'Heads' ist 'ja', Herr Brown!" Good times, good times.

[Kingscrab]

Depends on where you live. Around here, Russian would be definate benefit to know if you were interested in hitting on some of the insanely hot Russian immigrant chicks working up at the mall.

[Spartan-II]

I'm learning German right now!

I would say go with German. There are alot of cognates, and since English is a Germanic language, it'll be easier to learn than Russian or French. Definitely German. <3

[Black.Ice]

Learn Telugu. :P

I've took a few years in German, and it was easy to learn. I don't remember a thing, but it was still easy to learn. I would imagine that it'd be more useful to you in the long run then Russian would be. I've heard the dialects vary dramatically in Russian, and it's hard to understand people if you know classical. I'm not sure if this is even remotely correct though.

[L2_1989]

I know a bit of German and speak French very well. I can tell you this, German is a lot easier to learn than Russian. There are some differences in German. Ja (yes) is pronounced with a 'y' sound and anything with a W has a 'v' sound. It will take some time to go through this, but it's easier to learn.

Russian... oh God. You have to learn a whole different alphabet! No way I can write these letters, even though they're Greek based.

[kongurous]

Russian... oh God. You have to learn a whole different alphabet! No way I can write these letters, even though they're Greek based.

Ha ha noob. I speak Russian, and can read Cyrillic to an extent, and both forms of communication sound cool.

Russian doesn't have much use unless you want to move to Russia, and even then you may have to learn the dialect. German is more widely-known, and as said earlier, helps for those going into business.

Whatever you prefer, I guess. I recommend German, you can usually figure out what it means just by listening to the word, or seeing it written down.

[Basan]

Being one Latin based language I say... choose German. I hate French (as in: the language, Kong'). :P It's too damn hard to understand when compared to other relative languages, like Spanish or Italian.

And German as far more use than Russian or French will, it's definitely my pick. That and my ol' man knowing to speak German full well (and having distant relatives up there). Just not to mention that if you learn German, you'll be able to understand some Dutch too (read, Netherlander's tongue). ;)

[Sirion]

Learn German. For all the reasons above, and also because it sounds so cool! Has anyone ever noticed that no matter what you say in German it always sounds like your angry? If that's not an awesome language I don't know what is!

[Zeltaris]

Learn German. It's far more useful and it has the added benefit that get to understand Rammstein lyrics which is pwn.

P.S: In the event that you don't like rammstein, please drop by my place for political *cough*torture*cough* reeducation pretty please :D

[ScottieIWU]

GA, du sprichst Deutsch? Ich wußte das nicht. Ich glaube, dass ich höher von dich jetzt denke.

^forgive my German, I haven't spoken it for a while and only took a few years in school.

Anyway, I vote German. I'm a bit partial as I love the language. It's got enough similarities to English that I'd say you can feel comfortable fairly quickly with it; at the same time, it provides enough of a challenge to make learning it feel like an accomplishment.

Edit: I'd say that Zelt's point about Rammstein is only half true. Some of the lyrics to the songs are only mildly disturbing when you finally understand them (Zwitter and Tier come to mind). But, Rammstein still rocks.

[Protoss_Honor]

I am studying German.
Pick German. It is probably going to be far more useful than Russian or French.

[wa123]

For most of people I know they choose French, so I guess that is somewhat better.
It was told that speaking French give you higher chance to pick up chicks (don’t ask me to prove it, just stuff I head around).

[GenocideAlive]

Fuck French. The only French dude that would ever be welcome at my house is Zinadine Zidane, and that's just because he doesn't take any shit from sissy Italians. That headbutt was screwed up, but you gotta love the guy for it. "What was that, bitch?" KABLAM! It was pro, that wasn't any girly headbutt. That guy was acting, but not at first! :D

[Aqo]

Russian... oh God. You have to learn a whole different alphabet! No way I can write these letters, even though they're Greek based.
Whole different alphabet? Big deal. Just some letters. Try learning Arabic -> 28 letters, out of which 22 letter can be written in 4 different ways according to their location in the word and/or sentence. And there are no letters like AEOUI, instead there's kassra, hamza, fatha, and sukun, which are like little lines around the letters - and once you know them - you stop writing them! So if you don't already know the word, you can't read it.

antum hinna nas majnunan wa'anna pwn j00 ^_>

It was told that speaking French give you higher chance to pick up chicks.
It depends on where you live. Here, for example, speaking Russian would be the best to pick up chicks, since all good looking chicks are Russian.

[Kingscrab]

It depends on where you live. Here, for example, speaking Russian would be the best to pick up chicks, since all good looking chicks are Russian. See... That's what I'm talkin' about! It's a global trend! :tup:

[Veeger]

Around the world today, millions of people still speak French as a first or second language . . . but with your continued help and support, we can eradicate French in our lifetimes!

Remember: if anyone ever attempts to speak French to you, Just. Say. No.

Aqo Trooper has a very valid point. Go peruse a few Russian-bride websites, and see what we're talking about. You're America, you can speak Russian, they want citizenship and to be 'cared for' *cough* You can't lose!

[Mtank]

I'm not American.

Hm. I think I'll go for German then. The German teacher is also supposed to be really good.

[kongurous]

Around the world today, millions of people still speak French as a first or second language . . . but with your continued help and support, we can eradicate French in our lifetimes!

Remember: if anyone ever attempts to speak French to you, Just. Say. No.

I would really like to call you right now... I speak french :P

[Veeger]

The first thing my baby sister did the first time she heard it was swear me out in French for 15 seconds straight. I couldn't believe it, she's one of the cookie-cutters who gets mad at me when I use the word "pissed"! lol

[wa123]

None of the three languages you mention interest me.
I just want to advance my french kiss skill.

[DragonPaladin]

I would just like to say...if you yell in German, you sound like Hitler.

[U-238]

Heil Hitler! :P

I'd say german as it shows the most promise of eventually being europes official laguage. And you'll more likely go to europe that russia. Unless you like the hot russian chicks and the blistering cold weather in the north. (of which I'd take both :D)

[Basan]

I'd say german as it shows the most promise of eventually being europes official laguage. ...

What? No Portuguese? :P *Goofing around*
I'd say more quickly English than German on the account of world wide spreading. It would be an asset for diplomatic or any other relations. :)

[Jedi_Templar]

Dude learn French!

Because if you do it would help you to understand Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. Because they all have similarities :)

No, learn Latin before you learn any Romance language. Also helps with your English.

/pissed that neither high school or university offers Latin courses


Also--The ladies love French, lolz.


I've never understood that. English is a hell of a lot more fluid and flexible compared to French. When I first started learning French, I was surprised at how mechanical it was.

[Leosam096]

I've never understood that. English is a hell of a lot more fluid and flexible compared to French. When I first started learning French, I was surprised at how mechanical it was.
Then I guess it's true that we men don't fully understand women that well yet.

Yeah, i guess French may sound beautiful to most people. even alot of Filipino graduates here are good in French, like my brother.