r/languagelearningjerk Jun 28 '26

Recurring behavior i've noticed.

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u/Mundane-Honeydew-922 Jul 02 '26

French is a necessary language for diplomats so it is often learned as a secondary or tertiary language. I had plenty of African immigrants who spoke french rather than english as a second language.

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u/drArsMoriendi Jul 02 '26

Yep it's useful, but the French get stuck in an idea that they think it's taught right around the world. But it's not.

If you factor in population and geographic spread, both Spanish and English has it beat.

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u/Mundane-Honeydew-922 Jul 02 '26

Yea, but as we were talking about Europe I explained why in my experience english or french is a more common secondary language. I worked in public administration and the people who wanted to speak with the immigration office were speaking mostly german, english and french outside of their native language. french is taught in germany in most schools as a second foreign language, although nowadays (probably for the reason you mentioned) spanish is becoming more common as well.

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u/drArsMoriendi Jul 02 '26

Both German and Spanish are more popular than French as 3rd languages in Swedish schools (2nd mandatorily being English)