French
French News: Quoi de neuf?
Bonjour tout le monde! Hello everyone. To start the year off I have been posing the question ‘Pourquoi apprendre le français?’ (Why learn French?) to the years 4, 5 and 6 students. As a French language teacher, I am often asked this question by people I meet. Many adults believe that French is an old fashioned, elite and redundant language, and they question why schools are not teaching (insert preferred language here). Naturally I dispute this assumption energetically! Here are some reasons why learning French is worthwhile:
- More than 300 million people speak French on five continents. French is the second most widely learned foreign language after English, and the fifth most widely spoken language in the world.
- Being able to speak both English and French is highly advantageous on the international job market – something to think about for the future.
- Whether you are interested in food, fashion, literature, visual arts, architecture, music or cinema, French is the international language of culture. And if you are sports mad, don’t forget that Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
- Travel! France is the world’s top tourist destination with over 80 million visitors each year. Travel is immeasurably enriched by being able to communicate with the locals.
- French is the language of international relations. It is the official language of the United Nations, UNESCO, The Red Cross, the European Union, NATO, the International Olympics Committee And international courts. So, definitely NOT a redundant language.
- French is easy! I know you might disagree, but compared to many other languages (including English), French is relatively easy to get to a good basic level. It also makes learning other romance languages much easier – Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are all languages based on Latin with similar structures to French.
- Finally, English and French have a lot in common. Linguists have asserted that more than two thirds of English words have a French origin. Thanks to William the Conquerer, England was occupied by the Normans for several hundred years!
Well, if you have managed to read all this, chapeau! (Well done!). I hope I have persuaded you that French is absolutely worth learning, as I believe it is.
French
Madame Anders