French in the World

Written by Diana Yen, UVA Student and Intern at the AFC.

“French” is typically connoted with France and our stereotypical, romantic ideas that come along with anything French—baguettes, pretentious behavior, thin mustaches, female armpit hair, black and white striped shirts accompanied with berets and maybe red ascots—but French is not only limited to France (and definitely not limited to any exaggerated stereotypes).

Flags of the Francophonie Members
FMLF 2012-3" by Serein -
CC - Wikimedia Commons

 

Many Americans are familiar with our northern neighbors speaking French, typically the Québécois dialect. Some know that French is also spoken in parts of Switzerland, Belgium, Senegal, and Cameroon. However, many Americans continue to feel that French is simply not as useful to know as a language as Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and so on. They don’t think countries outside the aforementioned are familiar enough with French to make the language a tool in today’s globalized world. However, French is more widespread than many think.In Europe, France, Belgium, Monaco, Switzerland and Luxembourg all either list French as a native language or use France regularly.

In Africa, the countries that speak French are Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Réunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, and Tunisia.

In the Americas and the Caribbean, Canada, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Haiti, and Martinique speak French. In Australia and the Pacifics, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu speak French.

So take a French class today!

"Map-Francophonie organisation fr" by Bourrichon - Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons