Spanish vs German

[Virginia Stephen]

Top of the morning to you all:-)
Before having an intense morning of study, I'd like to ask you something.
I have been told that the German language will provide, well would have provided me more opportunities for my future as a Translator/interpreter than the Spanish one.
What do you think of that?
I have studied German for five years in high school but decided to focus my attention and energy as well to English and Spanish, leaving out the poor German, which by the way I can speak correctly.

[Perikles]

This really is an impossible question to answer. A translator is always looking for work, and the most versatile ones are those who are most likely to be employed. So many people can speak one or two foreign languages, but if you could keep your German alive whilst studying English and Spanish, I'm certain it would give you an advantage. This would mean more studying.

[Virginia Stephen]

Originally Posted by Perikles

This really is an impossible question to answer. A translator is always looking for work, and the most versatile ones are those who are most likely to be employed. So many people can speak one or two foreign languages, but if you could keep your German alive whilst studying English and Spanish, I'm certain it would give you an advantage. This would mean more studying.

Hi,thank you for asnwering me!
So you are saying that there is no difference between Spanish and German?
They are both useful, let's call it, in the sense that one doesn't offer you more than the other, so they are both important?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Virginia Stephen

So you are saying that there is no difference between Spanish and German?

I am saying that it is impossible to claim that one is more 'important' than the other if you intend staying in Europe. Certainly German is more widely spoken and is economically more significant than Spanish, so personally I would say that German was a better choice. But this is a narrow European perspective.

What I really think is that knowing both Spanish and German is four times the value of knowing just one of them. A translator/interpretor needs to be flexible.

[JPablo]

I basically agree with Perikles. If you can keep your German “alive”, by all means do so.

When I started formally learning Catalonian at age 14 or so, after having studied French for 3 years or so, I did it on the premise that “El saber no ocupa lugar” (which after doing some clean up at my dad’s library, it’s a patently false statement...) My French nowadays is rather rusty... (understatement for “dead”)

Antony Badia i Margarit had quite some command over many of the Romance languages... Murray, the Senior Editor for the first Oxford English Dictionary knew an ungodly number of languages, Classic, modern, etc., and he was able to tell you from which London quarter were you coming, just based on your accent...

However, as the Spanish saying goes “quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta”, so I’d concentrate on getting really good at something. (For an Italian native, “Spanish” should be a piece of cake... Don Miguel de Cervantes, who went to serve at Cardinal Aquaviva’s household, became fluent in Italian, if my memory is not betraying me...)

It is always good to remember Tomás de Iriarte fable, (translated by R. Rockliff) (you can google it, but include the whole fable in Spanish below...)

So authors often estimate
Their talents at too high a rate
For barely qualified to shine
Perhaps in some inferior line
They aim at all instead of one
And like the Goose excel in none

El pato y la serpiente
de Tomás de Iriarte

A orillas de un estanque,
diciendo estaba un pato:
«¿A qué animal dio el cielo
los dones que me ha dado?
Soy de agua, tierra y aire:
cuando de andar me canso,
si se me antoja, vuelo;
si se me antoja, nado».
Una serpiente astuta,
que le estaba escuchando,
le llamó con un silbo
y le dijo «¡Seó [Señor] guapo!
no hay que echar tantas plantas;
pues ni anda como el gamo,
ni vuela como el sacre [ave rapaz],
ni nada como el barbo;
y así, tenga sabido
que lo importante y raro
no es entender de todo,
sino ser diestro en algo».

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Virginia Stephen

Top of the morning to you all:-)
Before having an intense morning of study, I'd like to ask you something.
I have been told that the German language will provide, well would have provided me more opportunities for my future as a Translator/interpreter than the Spanish one.
What do you think of that?
I have studied German for five years in high school but decided to focus my attention and energy as well to English and Spanish, leaving out the poor German, which by the way I can speak correctly.

Ciao Virginia. Come stai? Sono Villa.
Forse dove vivi la lingua tedesca è più utile. Tu vivi vicino a Austria? Ho vissuto vicino a Trento e ho sciato questa zona molto.
Come tu sai vicino a Austria c'è una zona bilingue tedesco/italiano. Ero lì pochi anni fa e ho soggiornato a Fondo, Italia. Sono andato a Madonna di Campiglio e Cortina molte volte. Molto bella per certo.

Negli Stati Uniti la lingua spagnola vale più di tutte le altre lingue straniere insieme. Francese è naturalmente la seconda lingua straniere più importante dopo lo spagnolo.
Lo spagnolo è parlato in 21 paesi diversi. Ci sono 500.000 persone qui parlano la lingua spagnola nel mondo. Io sono uno di quei 500 mille che parlano lo spagnolo.

[Virginia Stephen]

Originally Posted by Villa

Ciao Virginia. Come stai? Sono Villa.
Forse dove vivi la lingua tedesca è più utile. Tu vivi vicino a Austria? Ho vissuto vicino a Trento e ho sciato questa zona molto.
Come tu sai vicino a Austria c'è una zona bilingue tedesco/italiano. Ero lì pochi anni fa e ho soggiornato a Fondo, Italia. Sono andato a Madonna di Campiglio e Cortina molte volte. Molto bella per certo.

Negli Stati Uniti la lingua spagnola vale più di tutte le altre lingue straniere insieme. Francese è naturalmente la seconda lingua straniere più importante dopo lo spagnolo.
Lo spagnolo è parlato in 21 paesi diversi. Ci sono 500.000 persone qui parlano la lingua spagnola nel mondo. Io sono uno di quei 500 mille che parlano lo spagnolo.

Hi Villa!
Cant' really seem to understand where you comes from, were you born in Spain?
Because the construction of your sentence - Molto bella per certo- makes me think of the spanish one, very similar actually to ' muy preciosa, por supuesto', am I wrong?
We can speak Spanish if you like, so don't hesitate to ask fot it.

Originally Posted by JPablo

I basically agree with Perikles. If you can keep your German “alive”, by all means do so.

When I started formally learning Catalonian at age 14 or so, after having studied French for 3 years or so, I did it on the premise that “El saber no ocupa lugar” (which after doing some clean up at my dad’s library, it’s a patently false statement...) My French nowadays is rather rusty... (understatement for “dead”)

Antony Badia i Margarit had quite some command over many of the Romance languages... Murray, the Senior Editor for the first Oxford English Dictionary knew an ungodly number of languages, Classic, modern, etc., and he was able to tell you from which London quarter were you coming, just based on your accent...

However, as the Spanish saying goes “quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta”, so I’d concentrate on getting really good at something. (For an Italian native, “Spanish” should be a piece of cake... Don Miguel de Cervantes, who went to serve at Cardinal Aquaviva’s household, became fluent in Italian, if my memory is not betraying me...)

It is always good to remember Tomás de Iriarte fable, (translated by R. Rockliff) (you can google it, but include the whole fable in Spanish below...)

So authors often estimate
Their talents at too high a rate
For barely qualified to shine
Perhaps in some inferior line
They aim at all instead of one
And like the Goose excel in none

El pato y la serpiente
de Tomás de Iriarte

A orillas de un estanque,
diciendo estaba un pato:
«¿A qué animal dio el cielo
los dones que me ha dado?
Soy de agua, tierra y aire:
cuando de andar me canso,
si se me antoja, vuelo;
si se me antoja, nado».
Una serpiente astuta,
que le estaba escuchando,
le llamó con un silbo
y le dijo «¡Seó [Señor] guapo!
no hay que echar tantas plantas;
pues ni anda como el gamo,
ni vuela como el sacre [ave rapaz],
ni nada como el barbo;
y así, tenga sabido
que lo importante y raro
no es entender de todo,
sino ser diestro en algo».

Pablo, so I can practice my Spanish with you too How wonderful!!
I am trying anyway to do so, I chose German as third language and so I'll have an exam in June.
The more difficult thing to do is write a text because I don't read much so I've got the grammar in my mind but writing as a German would do, well that is rather difficult..

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Virginia Stephen

Hi Villa!
Cant' really seem to understand where you comes from, were you born in Spain?
Because the construction of your sentence - Molto bella per certo- makes me think of the spanish one, very similar actually to ' muy preciosa, por supuesto', am I wrong?
We can speak Spanish if you like, so don't hesitate to ask fot it.

Ciao Virginia. Tu sei italiana, vero? Es curioso que tu me preguntas si fui nacido en España porque donde vivo era de España hace muchos años y mucha gente aqui habla el español. Primero California era de España y luego de Mexico. Aqui muchas de las ciudades, candados y calles tienen nombres españoles. San Diego, San Francisco, La Puente, El Monte, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Laguna, La Jolla, Durarte, San Juan Capistrano, Montebello, Pico Rivera, Corona, Murietta, Temecula, Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz, Pasadena, Martinez, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Jose, San Pedro, Santa Maria, Santa Cruz, Los Gatos, San Mateo, Chico, Alturas, Fortuna, Trinidad, Vista, Merced, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, El Cajon, Encinitas, Chula Vista, El Centro, Santa Clarita, Valgame Dios! Just to name a few.
Sacramento es la capital de California. jajajajajajajajajajaja...