Why Learn French

Hi, I'm now at level B2 in French and will soon take my DELF B2 test :)

Learning French is incredibly fun and here are some reasons for you to start learning French too:

A language of art, culture, and everything else

A knowledge in French language offers a greater access to great works of great people. 

Music

Like classical music? Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, LeGrand (you name it) wrote their music in French. Have you ever wondered what does Polonaise mean? Or maybe Étude? Have no fear you got it all covered with a knowledge in French. Actually if you're studying musical instrument like piano, you will find many musical terms in French so why not?

Philosophy

You know almost all great modern philosophers use French. Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Beauvoir, Foucault, Derrida, etc etc. Or maybe not so modern one like Voltaire, Descartes, Montesquieu, etc. Before learning French I read their books in English; now that I'm enlightened by the beauty of French language, I read them in French and I'm shocked. The translated version is different! Trust me the original version has untranslatable phrases and they translated it into something else. The French versions are way better. Learn some French and try to read Albert Camus' The Stranger in English first and then read L'Étranger, you will notice a huge difference and maybe you will become an existentialist right after :D

Fashion

Paris is regarded as the world fashion capital. Prêt-à-porter or haute couture, anyone? Don't embarrass yourself by having a self-proclaimed fashion chick title and a wrong pronunciation of those terms. Learn how to pronounce Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Lacroix, Louboutin, etc correctly. 

Art

France has a long and deep rooted history of art. Take Van Gogh, he's Dutch but he lived in France, I wonder why! Or Dali. Or Picasso. Or every painters ever, haha. But yeah, great painters like Monet etc named their painting in French. There are also some French terms in art like avant-garde, trompe l'oeil, mise en scene, vernissage, etc. Monet peint habituellement ses peintures en plein air. What? 

Literature
You know how great French literature is. Victor Hugo. Jules Verne. Emile Zola. Marcel Proust? And you don't need to really like literature. If you like, take Dali for example, he wrote books in French, there are more books about him in French than in English. I sent a comic about Dali to a friend which is a 2nd Dali biggest fan (the 1st one is Dali himself), but it's in French so he cannot understand anything. Bummer.

Etc

A language for learning another language

French is in the same language family as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc. They are called the Romance Language. When I bought a gelato from Grom, it's said 'Il gelato come una volta' and I surprisingly know what it means because it's similar in French. I can even translate simple Latin because many French words are derived from it. In addition, 50% of English words are taken from French. And since French grammars are more complex but similar to English in some tenses, you'll learn English grammars and vocabs meanwhile you're learning French, in a more sophisticated way. 

A language to open up the world

An ability to understand French offers an alternative view of the world through communication with French speakers from all over the world. There are many French speaking countries since France conquered a lot of places during Napoleon's golden years. That's why French is both a working language and an official language of the United Nations, the European Union, UNESCO, NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the International Red Cross and international courts.. More than 220 million people speak French on the five continents. The OIF, an international organisation of French-speaking countries, comprises 77 member States and governments. French is the second most widely learned foreign language after English!

French is the language that turns dirt into romance.