OK, I've studied French, and I've studied Italian - fluent in neither....

[Flaxbee]

I've been trying to decide for years if I should focus on one or the other.

The World Cup finals might be a perfect way for me to decide, no? If France wins, I pursue French (I've studied more French, and from an earlier age, but had college-level Italian).

If Italy wins, I focus on perfecting Italian.

Good idea? Or totally ridiculous?


I love both languages.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Learning one helps with the other. Focus on one, get fluent, then

go back to the other and you'll probably find you can pick it up that much faster.

[Flaxbee]

5. yes - I learned French from 7th grade on...

skipped it until 10th, then studied it through 12th, with a semester of Spanish thrown in. Languages were easy for me as a kid (though I never was immersed in French so it never got to be as easy as English). Having learned French and some Spanish, Italian was my 'no brainer' course in college - didn't even have to study, it was all extremely easy.

That being said, I find Italian much, much easier to pronounce than French.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. You could split the diff and learn Provencal. ;^D

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. I speak some French and very little Italian

However in purely practical terms Italian is the most useful. Learning Italian will mean you can read Spanish and Portugese without much difficulty and it is a great springboard to learning those two other spoken languages if you chose to do so.

[Flaxbee]

6. ..and I honestly think the two 'languages of the future'

are Chinese and Spanish - English will wane. So knowing Italian/Spanish might be very useful.

[JVS]

3. Go with French.

Most Graduate programs I've seen want people to know two of the following: French, German, Russian, Latin. This is because all of those have served as languages in which a great deal of scholarship has been done. Italian never really had such a big time in the sun. When Italy was culturally dominant, Latin was still the academic language. By the time Latin wore off, France was more influential than Italy.

[Flaxbee]

7. Interesting. Didn't know that.

I know much scientific/medical literature is/was in German, French was/is the language of diplomacy...

I've gotten my JD (though don't practice law anymore) and if I ever went back to school, it'd be for art/archival studies.

I've also studied a little German - maybe I'll go with Italian and then German.

[LynzM]

8. For art and archival,

I think it's the same, they want you to know French/German. Have a peek at the schools you'd consider and see if they specify!

Have fun either way... I haven't done any French in a while, but am fairly decent in German, and still read some French! :)

[RagingInMiami]

4. If you start off with Italian, it might be easier to learn French later

Because Italian is closer to Latin, which is the base of both languages.