Portal:French/What is French

French (le français or la langue française ) is today spoken around the world by 72 to 130 million people as a native language, and by about 190 to 600 million people as a second or third language, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and Lebanon. It is an official language in 31 countries, most of which form what is called in French "La Francophonie": the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations.

French is a descendant of the Latin language, whose development was influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Some might say that Latin is a "dead language", but unlike the endangered languages of today, Latin never even faced extinction. It was the commonly spoken language throughout the Roman Empire, and during the Empires decline, and after it's fragmentation in the fifth century, varieties, or dialects, began to diverge within each local area at an accelerated rate, evolving into similar, but different languages which we now know as the Romantic or Romance languages; not called so because speaking it makes you enthralled with love and romance, but because of it's origins with Rome (though the modern sense of the word "romance" does come from the same origin). It's difficult to determine the number of contemporary Romance languages in existence, but the largest by number of native speakers are Spanish (385 million), Portuguese (210 million), French (75 million), Italian (60 million), and Romanian (23 million) (Numbers from 2007 the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers) . Many of these languages also have large numbers of non-native speakers; this is especially the case for French, in widespread use throughout the Maghreb, Central and West Africa and Madagascar.

Why learn French?
France is considered by many to be the cosmopolitan center of the world. The French people have contributed substantially to art, literature, music, architecture, fashion, political thought, and film. Learning French allows you to access the rich culture and history of the French people.

In addition to access to France, French is an international language and the only language other than English that is spoken on five continents. It is the second most commonly taught language in the world, after English, and the official language of thirty nations. It is a working language of the United Nations, UNESCO, NATO, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Labor Bureau, the International Olympic Committee, the International Red Cross, and many others. Learning French will give you the ability to communicate with people across the world.

Jobs Using French

 * The French-speaking world accounts for approximately 19% of all global trade.
 * France has the 5th largest economy in the world.
 * There are over 900,000 French-speaking teachers worldwide.
 * French is the 3rd most widely used language on the internet.
 * TV5MONDE is the 3rd largest international television market and is broadcast in 202 nations.