Neither French nor German is universally "more useful"; the better choice depends on your goals, as French offers global reach in diplomacy, tourism, and Africa, while German excels in European business, engineering, and tech. French has more speakers worldwide and is crucial in Africa and international organizations, making it great for global mobility, but German is dominant in the EU's strong economies (like manufacturing and finance) and is often easier for English speakers to get by in due to English proficiency in Germany.
French is often considered one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. This is likely because French uses the same grammatical structure as English, and has fewer gendered articles. Although German isn't considered one of the easiest languages to learn, it isn't one of the hardest, either.
Location. Both France and Germany are great study destinations with plenty to offer to international students. But, depending on your preferences, one country may be a better fit for you than the other. For example, if you're into historical monuments and fantastic wine and food culture, France is the place to be.
Here's the spoiler: Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Hindi are the top 10 most useful languages to learn in today's globalized world. But why these specific languages?
The German language is ideal for a career in engineering, technology, and finance, while French in diplomacy, fashion, and the luxury sectors.
There's no single "hardest" language, but Mandarin Chinese is consistently ranked #1 for English speakers due to its tonal nature (four tones change word meanings) and complex logographic writing system requiring thousands of characters. Other top contenders often cited include Arabic (right-to-left script, complex sounds, grammar) and Japanese (multiple writing systems like Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, plus honorifics). The difficulty depends heavily on your native language, with languages like Tibetan, Estonian, and Polish also challenging learners with unique grammar or cases.
The 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) applied to learning German means focusing your efforts on the 20% of high-frequency vocabulary, grammar, and phrases that will give you 80% of your understanding and conversational ability, making learning more efficient. Instead of learning everything, prioritize common words, basic sentence structures, and practical phrases for travel or specific goals, allowing for rapid, functional communication and confidence building.
There's no single "number one" easiest language, as it depends on your native tongue, but for English speakers, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans, Spanish, and Italian are consistently ranked as very easy due to similar Germanic roots (Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans) or shared Latin vocabulary (Spanish, Italian) with English, plus simple grammar and pronunciation. The truly easiest language is the one you're most motivated to learn and find engaging content in, as personal interest drives acquisition.
The CIA needs pretty much every major language that you can think of. Their biggest concerns recently have been Middle Eastern languages, but they had a director (Leon Panetta) that basically said everyone who works at the CIA had to learn another language.
Powell Alexander Janulus (born 1939) is a Canadian polyglot who lives in White Rock, British Columbia, and entered the Guinness World Records in 1985 for fluency in 42 languages.
Language Influence and Prestige
French is one of the many languages of the UN and the EU, in which most people consider it one of the languages spoken with prestige in diplomacy. German, meanwhile, although not very formal in terms of diplomacy, brings significant value to research, science, and global market ventures.
The "5 to 7 rule" in France, or le cinq à sept, traditionally refers to a secret, after-work rendezvous (5 PM to 7 PM) with a lover for an illicit sexual encounter before returning home to family, but it's also used more broadly for discreet romantic meetings or even just a casual happy hour, though its meaning varies by region, with Québec using it more for social gatherings than affairs.
8 languages to develop your career
Three months might sound ambitious for learning French, but it's achievable with the right strategy. You won't become fluent immediately, but you can reach solid A2 conversational level: enough to handle everyday situations, express your thoughts clearly, and connect with French speakers.
If you're ready, let's dive into some of the hardest German words to pronounce.
Whilst there is no requirement for you to have language qualifications before you join, foreign languages are critical to MI6's success. Those with developed skills in some languages, for example Mandarin, Russian, Arabic or Persian, are particularly encouraged to apply.
Al-Farabi (870–950), Islamic philosopher. He was reputed to know seventy languages.
1. English: the universal baseline. English is the lingua franca of business and academia—spoken in 94 countries by 339 million native speakers and the official language of the 20 most influential international organizations.
Let's explore the 10 hardest languages for English speakers to learn, and the challenges they deliver:
According to Ethnologue, English is the most spoken language in the world, including native and non-native speakers. Like Latin or Greek at the time, English has become the world's common language. It is the default language in international business, tourism, technology, and much more.
Toki Pona is an isolating language with only 14 phonemes and an underlying feature of minimalism. It focuses on simple, near-universal concepts to maximize expression from very few words.
In German, 777,777 is written as one long compound word: Siebenhundertsiebenundsiebzigtausendsiebenhundertsiebenundsiebzig, meaning "seven hundred seventy-seven thousand, seven hundred seventy-seven," showcasing German's ability to create huge words by joining smaller ones.
"Backpfeifengesicht" isn't a bad word per se, but it's a colloquial and somewhat humorous insult. It translates to “a face that needs a slap” and is used to describe someone with an annoying or smug face. It's offensive but more cheeky than outright vulgar.
In German, we can also ask the who, what, where, when and how questions. These would be:Wer?, Was?, Wo?,Wann?, Wie?