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 Students with at least 2 years of a language score up to 12% higher on SAT
verbal exams… rising at least 5% for each additional year of study!
 Learning French helps students expand their English vocabulary:
Over 40% of English words come from French.
 Learning another language sharpens oral and written
communication skills, and enhances critical thinking skills.
 Colleges require language study – often 2 years in high school – and more
while at the university. Save money and time by doing more in high school!
 After studying one foreign language, it’s easier to learn others!
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The French language is admired for its beauty and clarity.
Art, literature, music, film, theater, and cuisine are important pieces of French culture.
After the U.S., France is the 2nd
-most visited tourist destination in the world with 70 million+
annual visitors. Everyone wants to see the Eiffel Tower and taste French food –
learn the language and you can be an educated tourist.
Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
Lumière Brothers
Pioneers of
photography
Albert Camus
The Plague
Marie Curie
Radium/Polonium
Lafayette
Ally in American
Revolution
Nzui; Spanish is the easiest
foreign language.
Sfbmjuz; Spanish can be
easier to pronounce, but its
grammar is more complex!
French is a practical language for
travel and business, and is a key to
world cultures on 5 continents!
Remember: Personal investment
and interest in the language is the
key to success. Students who are
not allowed to take their “preferred”
language often do less well in the
language chosen for them.

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French is…
…the official and/or primary language of
over 175 million people on 5 continents.
…the 1st
language of over 2 million people
in the U.S., (260,000+ in Minnesota!) and
over 10 million Americans claim French or
French-Canadian ancestry.
…the 2nd
-most frequently language used
on the internet.
…the 2nd
most frequently taught foreign
language worldwide after English.
…of course extremely useful when you travel
to French-speaking countries. Plus if
someone’s native language is not English, the
odds are good they will speak some French.
World French Speaking CountriesWorld French Speaking Countries
OFFICIAL/CO-OFFICIAL LANGUAGEOFFICIAL/CO-OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
| Canada | France | Benin | Belgium | Burkina Faso | Burundi || Canada | France | Benin | Belgium | Burkina Faso | Burundi |
| Cameroon | Central African Republic | Chad | Comoros Islands || Cameroon | Central African Republic | Chad | Comoros Islands |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | Djibouti | French Guiana || Democratic Republic of Congo | Djibouti | French Guiana |
| Guadeloupe | Haiti | Ivory Coast | Gabon | Guinea | Luxembourg || Guadeloupe | Haiti | Ivory Coast | Gabon | Guinea | Luxembourg |
| Madagascar | Mali | Martinique | Monaco | New Caledonia | Niger || Madagascar | Mali | Martinique | Monaco | New Caledonia | Niger |
| French Polynesia | Reunion | Rwanda | Saint Pierre | Senegal || French Polynesia | Reunion | Rwanda | Saint Pierre | Senegal |
| Seychelles | Switzerland | Togo | Vanuatu | Wallis and Futuna || Seychelles | Switzerland | Togo | Vanuatu | Wallis and Futuna |
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 A job without foreign language
requirements might still consider
language of value to the company. In
some cases, foreign language skills
can lead to promotions.
 Speaking a foreign language well
and being comfortable with people of
other cultures can help you get the job
over other highly-qualified candidates.
 U.S.-Canadian trade is the largest
2-way trade in the world. Canada is
officially bilingual (1 in 5 Canadians
speak French!)
 Many American companies have
operations in Europe. Ford made
Bordeaux its world headquarters for
production of automatic transmissions;
the Paris region is Motorola’s world
center for R&D in cellular
communications; Hewlett-Packard
established its worldwide
telecommunications center in
Grenoble.
 Over 1,200 French companies in the States employ nearly half a million Americans.
Familiar U.S. manufacturers that are French-owned include Mack Trucks, Zenith, RCA-
Thomson, Bic, American National Can Corporation, and Dannon.
 7/10 of France’s top exports to the U.S. are industrial or high technology. Remarkable
French inventions include: HDTV, fiber optics, the Minitel (electronic telephone
directory/online videotext network predating the internet explosion), the Smart Card (with
an embedded computer chip), and France’s TGV, the world’s fastest train at 322 mph.
 Art, Cuisine… and medicine and science? The Paris
metro area has the highest concentration of mathematicians
in the world; 3 French-trained physicists won the Nobel
Prize in the 90’s, and the Human Genome Project is in
Paris. Sources: American Association of Teachers of French, US Census Bureau 2000