French as a language is the sixth most widely spoken language after English. According to the La Francophonie 2014 report, over 274 million people speak French, either as a first or second language. It is also an official language in 29 countries which are members of the La francophonie- a group of French speaking nations.
French belongs to the Indo-European family. It descended from Vulgar Latin hence its being called a romance language. Other romance languages include Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.
French stretches across the world and is spoken in all continents. Among the counties that speak French worldwide include; Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte, d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, Guinea, Haiti, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger andRwanda
In estimation,Europe accounts for 39.87% of the French-speaking population, 36.03% sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15.28% North Africa and the Middle East, America and the Caribbean for 7.66% and Asia/Oceania for 1.16% (OIF, La langue française dans le monde, 2010).
French is one of the second most learned languages in the world after English. French education is not limited to francophone countries but to majority countries find the need to include it in their system. For instance French is compulsory in some institutions in Uganda. According to France diplomatie, there are about 120 million French students and 500,000 French teachers.An estimated 2 million school pupils in some 50 foreign countries are enrolled in bilingual sections with French as one of the languages of instruction.
French is an international language. Some world organizations like United Nations, European Union, International Red Cross and NATO among others have adopted it as their official working language making it a language of diplomacy. It’s also been considered a language of trade, literature, love and romance.
Knowing and understanding French is regarded important for business considering the economic power of countries that use French. According to Forbes 2014 article,French “could be the language of the future” regarding its role in technology and business.
While some people might not consider it important to learn French, it still remains the most sought after foreign language. It is projected that there will be approximately 500 million French speakers by 2025 and 650 million by 2050(Université Lava and Réseau Démographie de l’Agence universitaire de la francophonie).
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