Learn French

Why Learn French?

If you are a native English speaker, one of the best reasons to learn French is to help you understand your own language. Although English is a Germanic language, French has had an enormous impact on it. In fact, French is the largest donor of foreign words in English. Unless your English vocabulary is much higher than average, learning French will greatly increase the number of English words you know.

Historically, France and the French language have had an enormous influence over American society. France was the United States' first ally. French thought played a dominant role among the founders of the United States in the 18th century, and it continues to shape America today through the influence of such intellectual currents as post-structuralism and post-modernism.

In the humanities and the social sciences, many of the most important writings have come from France. Students and researchers who know French have access to these works for several years before they are translated into English.

Many significant works are never translated and remain accessible only to those who know the language. In addition, most graduate schools require knowledge of at least one foreign language, and French remains the most commonly used language after English.

French is an official working language in dozens of international organizations, including the United Nations, International Olympic Committee, and International Red Cross.

French is the lingua franca of culture, including art, cuisine, dance, and fashion.

France has won more Nobel Prizes for literature than any other country in the world and is one of the top producers of international films.

French is the second most frequently used language on the internet.

French is ranked the 2nd most influential language in the world.

When deciding on a foreign language for work or school, consider that French is the language that will give you the most choices later on in your studies or your career.

French is the foreign language spoken by our largest trading partner (Canada).

In 2006, the United States exported and imported more to countries having French as a national language than to countries having any other foreign language.

France has the fifth largest economy in the world after the U.S., Japan, China, Germany (2008). In 2006, the French GDP was $2.231 trillion and China's was $2.668 trillion.

France is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world after the U.S.

In recent years, the U.S. has been the largest direct investor in France. France is nearly tied with Japan, Germany and the Netherlands as the second largest foreign investor in the U.S.

2,300 French companies in the US employ approximately 520,000 Americans. US companies employ nearly 650,000 people in France. Among foreign countries doing business in the US, France employs the third largest number of Americans.

Overall, the French export more per capita than the Japanese and more than twice as much as the Americans.

France is the world's leader in the production of luxury goods.

More tourists visit France than any other country in the world.

France will be the site of the world's first nuclear fusion reactor, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

Seven of France's top ten exports to the U.S. are industrial or high technology products.

France is the fourth largest producer of automobiles in the world (Renault, Peugeot, Citroën) and the third largest exporter.

France is a major world research center in the field of high energy physics.

The French are a world leader in medical research: the AIDS virus was first isolated by French doctors.

The French are the world's third manufacturers of electronics equipment.

European leader in aerospace (Aérospatiale, Arianespace, Airbus...).

Most commercial satellites are put into space on French Ariane rockets.

The fastest train (TGV) is French.

The smart card was used on a large-scale basis in France.

The ocean liner Queen Mary II was built in France.

France is the world's third military power (after the US and Russia), and has the world's second largest defense industry (i.e. exocet missiles, radar technology.)

France is the world's second largest builder and exporter of civilian and military aircraft and helicopters (Airbus is the world's second largest fleet of commercial airliners, and many of the US Coast Guard helicopters are made by Aérospatiale in Toulouse.)

France has one of the most advanced systems of telecommunications in the world.

Where is French spoken?

New-Map-Francophone_World — Image credit: "New-Map-Francophone World" by aaker - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons

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What does French look like?

On aimerait dire que ces ingrédients, joints au savoir-faire de Mike Newell, qui réalisa Quatre mariages et un enterrement et un épisode d'Harry Potter, suffisent à confectionner un divertissement sans conséquence. Mais il manque quelque chose : une poignée de points de QI supplémentaires. Ou des lunettes 3D.

What does French sound like?

Did you know these words come from French?

à la carte - literally: on the card or on the menu; (in restaurants refers to ordering individual dishes rather than a fixed-price meal)

Ballet - a classical type of dance

Belle - a beautiful woman or girl. Common uses of this word are in the phrases the belle of the ball (the most beautiful woman or girl present at a function) and southern belle (a beautiful woman from the southern states of the US)

Brunette - a brown-haired girl. For brown-haired man, French uses brun and for a woman brune. "Brunette" is rarely used in French, unless in old literature, and its masculine form, "brunet" (for a boy), is almost unheard of.

Café - a coffee shop (also used in French for "coffee").

Chaise longue - a long chair for reclining; (also rendered chaise lounge or chase lounge via folk etymology).

Décor - the layout and furnishing of a room

Entrée - literally "entrance"; the first course of a meal (UK English); used to denote the main dish or course of a meal (US English).

Entrepreneur - a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks

Façade - the front view of an edifice (from the Italian facciata, or face); a fake persona, as in "putting on a façade" (the ç is pronounced like an s)

Film noir - a genre of dark-themed movies from the 1940s and 1950s that focus on stories of crime and immorality

Genre - a type or class, such as "the thriller genre"

Impasse - a deadlock

Malaise - a general sense of depression or unease

Omelette - omelette

Prix fixe - "fixed price"; a menu where multi-course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed price

Rapport - to be in someone's "good graces"; to be in synch with someone; "I've developed a rapport with my co-workers"; French for: relationship

Sommelier - a wine steward

Soupe du jour - "soup of the day", meaning the particular kind of soup offered that day

Touché - acknowledgment of an effective counterpoint; literally "touched" or "hit!" Comes from the fencing vocabulary

Vinaigrette - salad dressing of oil and vinegar; diminutive of vinaigre (vinegar)

Voilà! - literally "see there"; in French it can mean simply "there it is"; in English it is generally restricted to a triumphant revelation

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