[Wreckingball]

(01-31-2015 07:44 AM)TravellingSoldier Wrote:  

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_French

"There are an estimated 120 million French speakers throughout Africa"

I'd argue that French in Africa is like English in Europe.. Basically the middle ground (2nd language) that a large population knows. In combination with knowing English and learning some Arabic you'd probably be fine in the majority of the countries there. French is still important IMO.

Also, there's the fact that its a really easy language to learn if you speak English and Spanish... So why not? ;D

OP does not speak Spanish.
OP is (very probably) a white guy.
OP (very) probably has zero (or negative) interest in Africa and he would be better served with arabic anyways. Most of French africa, which starts in the "southern part of north africa" is, in the first place: A shit whole. In second place: at war. In third place: Very racist towards white people. I don' think OP will go there for pussy or business, but to each it's own.

It's just my recommendation. Everyone is free to learn whatever they want. In my case, I would only learn french (from scratch) if I were to go to France for studies, work or business.
And yes, I already know a bit of french and will learn more in the future, because being a native latin language speaker (and I speak portuguese natively and spanish fluently) it would take less effort from my part to achieve a good level of proficiency. In my opinion it will be more challenging for OP, and without any additional benefits.

(01-31-2015 07:08 PM)The_CEO Wrote:  

(01-31-2015 07:22 AM)Wreckingball Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 05:54 PM)LouEvilSlugger Wrote:  

^Why not French? Is it because it's "difficult"?

French is as difficult as spanish, which in my opinion is easy. It has just lost it's importance and relevance.

French used to be the Lingua Franca of the world.
It is still spoken widely in Africa and other countries across the world.
it may not be what it once was but it is still a common second language and therefore useful.

I'd rather know Spanish first though.

It also depends where you want to travel/work/live.

Well, i did not say it was not useful. I just put it way down in the useful list.
More useful than french, IMO are:
Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and German