I am sure you all know at least these two things about French– that it is spoken in France, and that is a European language.

What more do you know about French?

Some feel that if French is spoken only in France, and there too, English can be used instead of French for communication, what’s the need to learn French?

They are of the opinion that learning French is a total waste of time.

• French is one of the six official languages used in the United Nations.
• French is a primary or second language of many international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
• French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a community of 84 countries that share the official use or teaching of French.
• It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions), Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy—all or part of the cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Vaud, Valais), Monaco, parts of Luxembourg, parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), north-western Italy (autonomous region of Aosta Valley), and various communities elsewhere.
• French is the 6th most spoken language in the world by the total number of speakers.
• It is the second or third most studied language worldwide.
• French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU.
• All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German.
• In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.

I am sure you have no more doubts regarding the use of learning the French language!

If you are thinking about the scope of your career after mastering French, here is a long list of career options that you can choose from, after learning French!

Direct opportunities:

• French language trainer / professor / tutor / instructor / teacher
• Translator
• Interpreter
• Proofreader
• Blogger

Indirect opportunities:

• Advertiser/marketing expert
• International business strategist
• Joint defense operations in-charge
• Cultural exchange programmes manager / in-charge / volunteer / administrator
• Writer / editor
• News reporter
• Broadcast journalist
• Nation’s representative to an international body / organisation
• Executive / administrator at an international NGO
• Foreign delegate to a company

Well, there are many resources, offline as well online, available for one to learn French from. Some of these resources are useful for self-study of French, while a few others are provided or facilitated by French training institutes or edtech platforms or private tutors.

Some of the resources are:

• Dictionary (another known language to French) for beginners
• French to French dictionary for intermediate and advanced level learners
• Books for learning French, belonging to various categories such as French books for beginners, French for intermediate and advanced learning, A-to-Z French learning, French for travellers, French for business, etc.
• French story books, novels, poetries
• French news channels
• Newspapers in French, magazines, economy or science journals
• Blogs and articles
• Podcasts and videos
• Oline French learning apps
• French learning online courses

Of the resources for learning French mentioned above, the last one which is online courses for learning French is the most reliable one. It also helps one master the language in a stipulated time period.

By use of any of the other resources mentioned above, a learner tries to learn or understand a concept in French grammar, or a word, a phrase or meaning of an expression, from his or her own point of view. The perspective of the learner might not, necessarily, be correct. Then, wrong guesses lead to incorrectly learning French. Pronunciations too might be incorrect.

On the contrary, during online French learning sessions, a student can ask questions to a French language expert in real-time and get the queries answered or doubts cleared right during the classes.

Moreover, one can take an online French class from the safety and comfort of one’s home, with resources as little as a laptop or a smartphone, internet connectivity, and a love for the French language!  

So, don’t waste your time, thinking if learning French is useful; get onboard an excellent online French learning course!