French People
Being the second most taught language internationally after English, and having a readership and following which are commiserate with the number of its students, French is definitely the language to know these days. With English, French is the only other “international” language, being spoken in 5 continents. The international body supervising the following of French as a language is known as the International Organization of Francophonie, which has 51 countries as its member states and out of these 51 states, 28 countries have French as their official language.
The widespread use of French as a language can also be inferred from the fact that French, with English is the official language of many towering organizations of the world, such as the UN, NATO, UNESCO, the International Red Cross Association and IOC (The International Olympic Committee), to name a few. From a recent survey, it has been noted that almost 70% of jobs in the US require or prefer the aspirants who know French, other than English, which is a testimony to the importance of French.
The importance of French has demographic and economic consequences for major economies in the world, even the US. For example, French is the official global language of Canada, which caries out major trade deals with the US. The knowledge of French for traders to such countries becomes all the more important when you realize that Canada, for example, has provinces like Quebec, which trades more than 70 billion Dollars annually with the US, and the major international language being followed there is French.
Apart from the economic influence of French and France, there is a high degree of intellectual importance associated with French as a language and the French thought for modernism and secularism. French doctors and scientists have been the fore-runners of technology in the modern era. France has the largest R&D center on nuclear physics in the world and also boasts as being the site of the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor. The French doctors were the first to isolate the HIV virus from the body of an infected human being- a ground breaking attempt to find a cure for AIDS. In order to decipher all their findings and discoveries, to understand their intellect and to admire it, it has become inevitable for the intelligentsia and researchers of today to adopt French as a global language.
Posted under Europe
Of course the Americans have to learn the French language as an international language. That’s because they already know the English, which is the universal language. Otherwise, it is better to know English. But the best is to know both English and French language.
You are right, Svoboda, the Americans should learn the French language. But as far as they are concerned, they are not interested in learning the French. language. We can say that they are somehow ignorant.
You are right Barry, American people are kind of ignorant. This may be a reason why they don’t learn the french language. However, it will take some time for the french to become the global language.
hey, why do you call us ignorant? just because we don’t like and learn the french language doesn’t mean that we are ignorants. at the moment, the english language is an international language and that’s why many of us don’t want to learn the french language. but this is not really ignorance.
I strongly agree that french should be adopted as a universal language
J’ai bien d’accord que le francais doit-etre adopte comme un langage universel
Hola amigos. El inglés seguirá siendo por algún tiempo más. la lengua más importante económicamente (mientras se posesiona el chino). El francés es una lengua muy bella propia de intelectuales, que nos acerca mas a la cultura del mundo. Cada una en su lugar . pas de conflicto por eso. Viva COLOMBIA
jezu, kto to pisal? czy to tlumaczenie jakiegos slownika online,bo ten “polski” jest straszny
Hai ragione ti appoggio pienamente il francese è la lingua più importante sia nel campo commerciale che in quello politico.
Per non parlare poi della grande “Chanson française”.
Io adoro il francese
Je suis italien et je fais français par quatre ans comme langue.
Je crois que le français est la prémiere langue pour travailler et pour chanter. Parce-que la chanson française,à mon avis, est la plus bélle musique du mond entier.
french language should be the 2nd universal language. lots of people know it, which is a good reason for being an international language. moreover, kids learn it in most of the schools.
French language should not be the global language. But I agree to it being a second international language. English should remain the global language.
I feel French should be adopted as a universal language because it is nice and interesting to learn, and because of the fact that it is the official language of such big organisations in the world that deal much with people’s day-to-day welfare. J’aime le francais beaucoup.
yo necxesito un conflicto que tuvo su lengua o su pais relacionado con el pais o la lengua
Is it a joke?
Who speaks French these days? Where is it important except France?
In Canada even in Montreal you can work in a bank without speaking French.
In Belgium people from Flemish speaking region prefer English or even German than French.
In “French” Africa less than 10 % of people speak French even though it is official language. In Vietnam it is easier to communicate in Russian than in French. So where is French a language of communication except France?
Le francais est une langue tres interessant. A mon avis, je voudrais qu’il soit une langue universelle.
I like French, the language itself, how it spells and sounds… Very chic.
The reason why Americans are so “ignorant” is because we are so accustomed to everyone being able to communicate with us. This being said those of us who are from America do not suspect that we will ever need to speak any other language. Since English is a UNIVERSAL language it is so much easier for us to communicate with a majority of the world. However; we are not all so ignorant so one must recognize this fact and not judge those of whom we do not know. I say this because most Americans now have started to become self aware of the rest of the world. And by becoming more aware of the world we have realized that we must learn to adapt as every other country has. While the American education system is quite flawed as compared to leading countries such as China we are trying to involve other cultures in our learning. We are required now to take a foreign language. We are even encouraged to take two. As I have done some students are taking both French and Spanish. The reason is quite simple we need to know them. So do not call America ignorant ‘John’, for you yourself know not of what you speak of but, I will admit that ‘Benjamin’ did in fact help you to prove your point. Unfortunately he is only one man, not the country as a whole. America is quite diverse and so are the people that live here. Calling America ignorant is like calling the French stuck ups, it’s just a stupid rumor.
p.s. I’m just 19, a freshman in college, imagine if I were older and fully educated.
J’aime beaucoup la langue francaise parce que j’aime la pronociation et apres englais, c’est la langue tres parle entier dans le monde. J’accept que l’englais est la langue universelle mais si on apprend francais que les autres. On aura beaucoup de chance dans la domaine differente pour avoir bon travailler ou bien gagner le concour de bon travaille. A mon avis, si on n’apprend pas le francais, on a tord.
Donc, allez, parlez francais et trouvez-vous toujours avant que les autres.
french is like other language,although it is tough,just learn it
Apparently the French language is not important enough to be a universal language. Stop dreaming.
I’m a french canadian not living in québec.
French is the second most important language after english and is the only langauge with en glish spoken on all 5 continents. It is true that not all african people speak french enven though it is their official language but africa is in expansions and will soon be in few years a big economy. And they chose french as their international language!
The french speaking african countries only speak a bit of english so sorry english! You’ll soon have to let the iternational language to french!
And anyway USA is sinking, no health plan, very conservative, very pretencious of not speaking another language because they think they are invincable but a power country has an end one day and compared to USA (1 country) their are many french african countrys that has a financial potencial.
I’m not telling that all usa pp are all conservative but they are really not helping
I agree, that French is indeed an interesting language. I think that the next universal language ought to be Mandarin. Let’s put things in perspective. Francias might be an important language of the UN & other Org’s. However, roughly 250 million people speak it compared to 1.3 BILLION who use a form of Chinese as their native tongue. Now it might not be spoken on 5 continents, but it’s spoken as a first language by 1/5 of humanity. I think that makes it more “important” (whatever that means) than French.
French is being imposed on everyone why. English is and will forever be the WORLD LANGUAGE.
With out french,can someone work in us.
French people continue to think of themself as a great nation and want this to be forever. Hey, wake up! french language is a loser.If some third-world african country speaks french thats means nothing.french people should sink on earth,put themself down as losers, and to start learn english.
By 2050, 800M people will speak french.
English is the first language that everybody learns because of the usa, a powerful country and all that shit. But when usa will sink, nobody will want to learn english anymore, only the language of the most powerful country. It won’t be long before China passes usa or usa get behind china… Bye bye usa, you unilingual ignorant pp.
Why not just learn Esperanto…it’s easy, efficient, and takes no sides!
French was, is and will be an international language, wide spread in the five continents, spoken by hundred and fifty million people. Unfortunately many English speakers are convinced that they once will be the master of our voices, that we will give up speaking our mother tongues by using exclusively British or Globish. English may be an important tool for international communication. But I dare say that it will never be the only language of international understanding. We badly need a language that it not too powerful susceptible to ignore the many little languages and cultures in the world, but so respected that it could build a bridge between the international idioms and the latter ones. We need a respected language which could establish a real understanding and tolerance between different peoples. And French is that language which can help us to transcend the possibilites of communication to build up a real understanding between peoples and cultures. Accepting the difference between cultures needs accents, I really miss in English. Vive la différence!
No one really mentioned the fact that the US exclusively puts most of it’s funding and energy toward learning Spanish as our second language. In fact, the state of New Mexico acknowledges it as a second official language and other major cities like Miami do too. 10.7% of US residents are native Spanish speakers. About 3/4 of those people are immigrants though.
You must take into account that 8.7% of US citizens who are native born here speak a second language fluently (I received that stat from a 2005 Boston Globe article).
Take into account much of this are the following groups: Military personnel that lived internationally, priests, the Amish (who speak Pennsylvania German natively), Hasidic/Orthodox Jews (who speak Yiddish natively), Hawaiians (some of whom speak Polynesian languages natively and is officially recognized), Alaskans (who speak their languages native, although it isn’t officially recognized) and various Native American reservations that speak their own (and Navajo proved to be very valuable against the Japanese in WWII), Cajuns (who 5-25% speak Cajun French as their native language in the Acadiana region of Louisiana), 70,000 Louisiana Creole speakers in eastern Cajun country and Acadians in Maine (75-80% speak French dual natively or as a second language on the New Brunswick, Canada border) and of course recent immigrant descendants (the majority of whom are native Hispanophones). And of course the first generation born in the US who were raised with those parents.
How many typical Americans (most white and black Americans) who’ve had ancestors in this country longer than they can trace can say they speak a second language though? And those who do are probably most likely to live on the Mexican, New Brunswick or Quebec borders.
The reason the US focuses most on Spanish rather than French are 3 reasons: One, we don’t have enough French teachers around. The only Francophones we have here are Cajuns in Louisiana, Acadians in northern Maine and even the parts of Quebec on the Upstate New York border are sparsely populated. You want native speakers to teach your language. Why do you think the French, Italians and Spanish have a hard time with English? Because they don’t have enough native speakers. The only other Francophones we have available are Haitian immigrants (but many of them are not fluent and are Haitian Creole speakers which isn’t 100% the same). There are native Spanish speaking teachers in all schools throughout the country. Even in towns that don’t have that high of Latino populations.
Two, Spanish is the second most common spoken language (English being third) and Spanish is third when counting second language speakers (English being second). Many people are suprised to know that Portuguese is actually ahead of French (Portuguese-speaking Latin America: ~190 million, Spanish-speaking Latin America: 340 million, not as far off as people think). And since Brazil has a rapidly growing economy and is wealthier than most of Spanish speaking Latin American countries, it means it is a valuable language. Unfortunately though, only 6.8% of immigrants in the US are from South America and most of them are from poorer South American countries like Peru or Colombia, so there are not many Portuguese teachers available.
Three, if you’ve even been to much of the US and been in any major store like Home Depot or Lowes, there are signs in both English and Spanish everywhere and there are big picture boards showing who can speak what language (mostly Spanish, but others too). 10.7% of US residents (not citizens), or probably higher when counting illegal immigrants or an updated 2010 Census, are Spanish speaking meaning they are a big consumer market. Most Latin Americans who come to the US are from Mexico and poor central American countries and it is their poorest who tend to come most. They don’t know much English before arriving (although many learn).
So it is not a matter of not liking the French language. It is a matter of our state governments choosing Spanish for us and relating to our economic needs. French is our second most taught language, although a distant second (only 1.1 million students take French in high school as opposed to 16 million in Spanish).
Also, as opposed to Europe, most of our Muslim immigrants are not from North Africa, but rather the Mid East and Asia. So there is even less of a French speaking population available there.
The problem even with Spanish is the requirements to learn Spanish don’t really begin until High School. A lot of Americans don’t like sounding stupid practicing Spanish with native speakers (similar to French with English).
Also, someone mentioned the Flemish above. Virtually all Flemish speak French. Maybe 50-60% speak English. About 40-50% of Quebecois speak English. Maybe more speak bits and pieces broken. There is also French-speaking Switzerland with an important international city of Geneva. I do not know how soon African economies will grow. I suspect South Africa has the most potential because of their abundance of natural resources. Other countries like Ghana or Mali have much better health with lower rates of AIDS though.
It is clear China is the emerging economic power of the world. Although it is a difficult task, we all will eventually have to learn Mandarin Chinese. 92% of China is apart of the same ethnicity, which speak the same language (although so many dialects), which constitutes for a little less than 20% of the world. China could virtually cripple the US economy if they really wanted to at this point too with them holding onto so much of our net worth and investments. In 2025, it’ll be much different. Ironically though, as English becomes more popular around the world, including China, it becomes less popular in the US and we are constantly told in the US that Spanish will eventually become our official language within decades (due to immigration and their high birth rates). Unfortunately for Hispanophones though, the Chinese will probably have eclipsed us at that point and the Spanish language won’t be spread the way how English was in our prime.
well, nice discussions up above.
it ain’t about what’s the best lang.in the world, then, i think. i personally believe, i must know all of language that exist ion Earth. ^_^ well, i prefer English, French, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, German, uh, 8 are too difficult to be learnt…
I’m Southeast Asian I can speak english a little bit .I know that english is a world langauge but there are other. Do you know in my country most of childhood and teen people study english but they can not use it in daily life . Because of English is very hard to read to spell to pronounce to hear and have lot of exception. I’am one that don’t like english and support it. Because of USA. I must learn it.
English is not the language that i choose .
I like Latin langauge And i like so French Italy Spanish and Portuguese.
someone tell “wake from this french dream” because French is not important but for me French is very important because it is my language that i choose and i love it. im forced to learn English and i don’t like it.
You can tell that french is not important because you can speak englisg or it is your mother tongue but for me it’s very very hard hard langauge.
I support French Spanish Portuguese and italy.
French is a very important language. Anyone who says ”Wake up from a dream” is probably an arrogant monolingual Anglophone (and probably American). I’m American and monolingual (although studying French and Spanish) telling you that.
The easiest way to measure the importance of a language is how many people speak it, how widespread it is, how much science and scholarly information is written in it. French checks out for all of the following. What holds French back from topping English though is the limited number of speakers (especially native speakers). There are more Portuguese speakers (a language that is less but moderately widespread).
In Europe, German holds close weight to English and French is third. The only thing that misleads people is that German speakers have better knowledge of English then visa versa. That doesn’t mean people are not going to operate in their own preferred language though. There are still a decent amount of non-German European speaking countries that have better proficiency in German (partly due to historical ethnic German populations, but widespread empires too). A lot of people in a country like the Czech Republic will have good knowledge of both. Maybe even better writing and reading in English. But because they hear German more being a close neighbor of Germany and Austria, they tend to speak it better.
Anglophones who think that English is the only important language in the world or that is supersedes others by such a great measure are really living in their own world. There are still mayn places in this world where you can’t get by on only English. Definitely not for work. And traveling only if you’re willing to spend good money. There are always ways of surviving. But a native English speaker would know what this means: There is a difference between surviving and surviving.