8 Reasons to Learn French: Why French is the Language to Learn Now
Last updated: November 20, 2024
Thinking about learning a language, or perhaps adding another to your repertoire? Let me make a case for French.
Whether you’re (understandably) captivated by la vie en rose or are just looking to boost your career, the French language offers a world of benefits, from expanding your horizons to giving you an edge in the global economy of the future. In this article, I’ll walk through 8 reasons why I think you should learn French.
Let’s dive in!
- 1. French opens up doors around the world
- 2. It just might give your career a boost
- 3. You'll learn how to really learn
- 4. French is a gateway to the other Romance languages
- 5. You'll improve your memory
- 6. The French world has had an impact on virtually all of the arts
- 7. Learning French will help you understand (and appreciate) English
- 8. French literature is incredible
- How Can Migaku Help You Learn French?
1. French opens up doors around the world
When it comes to picking a second language, French has a lot going for it.
Not only is it one of the most widely spoken languages worldwide, with over 300 million speakers, but it’s also recognized as an official language in dozens of countries and is used in key international organizations like the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee.
With French, you’re learning more than a language—you’re opening up connections with people in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and even parts of Asia. In a sense, the language gives you a passport to communicate with people all around the world.
2. It just might give your career a boost
French is one of the main languages used in the European Union, the African Union, and even in Canada’s professional landscape, particularly in Quebec. Additionally, the language’s association with high culture, diplomacy, and multinational companies makes it incredibly useful for careers in business, international relations, and more.
With France being one of the world’s largest economies, knowing French opens up numerous career paths—whether in tech, luxury fashion, or international development.
(You know this, but it's boring and every single blog post says the same thing, so I'm not going to say anything more about that. Yes, French is a marketable skill.)
3. You'll learn how to really learn
Learning Japanese (French is new to me, too!) taught me a lot about learning in general. For example:
- I'm more likely to stick to a habit if I attach it to a concrete event, like lunch or laying down in bed
- Mistakes are part of learning, and nothing to be ashamed about
- My memory is actually pretty good if I review regularly in small pockets (a few minutes) throughout the day, rather than one evening per week
- Sometimes the problem is with a textbook's explanation, not with me
- I'm motivated by seeing things come together
- I actually really enjoy learning, when it's self-directed and bringing me closer to something I want to do
And then, ten years after graduating from high school, a weird thought struck me: What if I don't hate math... I just hated how Mr. So-and-so taught math?
It turns out that math is actually pretty cool, and that I can learn it.
Personally, learning languages has taught me many valuable lessons about learning itself, which I've been able to apply to the pursuits that matter to me, such as music, math, piano, chess, and cooking.
Learning French will help you do the things you love better.
4. French is a gateway to the other Romance languages
French is a Romance language, meaning that it came from Latin. The Romance language family also includes Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. These languages have a lot in common, just as siblings from real families do.
For example, 89% of French vocabulary overlaps with Italian vocabulary, and the "they" form of Italian verbs features an /n/ sound just like the "they" form of French verbs does.
- EN: They speak.
- FR: Ils parlent
- IT: Loro parlano
Similar connections exist between French and the other Romance languages.
With this in mind, when you learn French, you're also building a foundation that will enable you to learn several other languages much more easily, if you choose to do so.
5. You'll improve your memory
Seems farfetched, I know.
But consider this:
Learning French will require you to remember tens of thousands of vocabulary words and hundreds of grammar points. That's a lot.
This will be a struggle at first, but then you'll learn about things like:
- The forgetting curve, or the fact that forgetting things is inevitable, unless we take action
- Space repetition, or an efficient way of reviewing information to combat the forgetting curve
- Mnemonics, or strategic ways to encode information into your brain to avoid forgetting
And, suddenly, you'll start retaining French words.
You'll realize that you don't have a bad memory, but rather that you'd been using your memory wrong... and that you can apply these same insights to other areas of your life, too.
6. The French world has had an impact on virtually all of the arts
French culture has had an indelible impact on art, literature, and film worldwide. This means that learning French isn’t just about gaining language skills: it’s an invitation into the world of café culture, boulangeries, cinéma français, and literary giants like Sartre and Descartes. France also hosts internationally renowned events like the Cannes Film Festival and the Paris Fashion Week.
Of course, understanding French allows you to appreciate the nuances of French literature, French cinema, and the unique aspects of French history in their original language. There are a lot of good French>English translators, but there was only one Voltaire. Translations usually just don't compare.
(While we're here, here's a bilingual edition of my favorite French poem. It's beautiful.).
7. Learning French will help you understand (and appreciate) English
English has taken significant influence from French due to the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century and French's history as a prestige language. This is particularly notable in our vocabulary: words like rendezvous and apostrophe—and thousands more—come straight from French. (This is part of why English's spelling is such a mess.)
Additionally, learning French will require you to learn about concepts like verb tenses and conjugations—things you've learned naturally in English, but may never have put a name to. Why is "would of" incorrect where as "would have" is OK? Why do we talk about past experiences by saying we have done something, anyway?
At first you'll think that you're learning French, but sometime down the road, it'll occur to you that English now makes more sense, too.
8. French literature is incredible
I'm just some random guy on the internet, but just look at these quotes:
“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“My life was hurrying, racing tragically toward its end. And yet at the same time it was dripping so slowly, so very slowly now, hour by hour, minute by minute. One always has to wait until the sugar melts, the memory dies, the wound scars over, the sun sets, the unhappiness lifts and fades away.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Woman Destroyed
“What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment always comes when we have to carry it. We live on the future: “tomorrow,” “later on,” “when you have made your way,” “you will understand when you are old enough.” Such irrelevancies are wonderful, for, after all, it’s a matter of dying. Yet a day comes when a man notices or says that he is thirty. Thus he asserts his youth. But simultaneously he situates himself in relation to time. He takes his place in it. He admits that he stands at a certain point on a curve that he acknowledges having to travel to its end. He belongs to time, and by the horror that seizes him, he recognizes his worst enemy. Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas everything in him ought to reject it. That revolt of the flesh is the absurd.”
― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
“But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.
― Voltaire, Candide
This morning, I wanted to bring roses to you,
But I filled my sashes with the garden entire,
And the knots stretched too tight, since I took so many.
The strained knots burst apart, and the roses all flew;
Snatched away by the wind, into the sea they went,
Where they followed the tide, and so were lost to me.
The waves turned bright crimson, as though they were on fire.
This evening, my dress is still drenched in their scent—
Come to me and inhale their fragrant memory.
—Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, The Roses of Saadi (translated by Peter Shor)
Learning French opens you up to books full of stuff like this.
How Can Migaku Help You Learn French?
Whereas most language learning apps force you to learn French by following a curriculum that they think is important, Migaku instead equips you with the tools you need to jump right into French and learn as you go. I personally like reading, and I personally want to read things like Around the World in 80 Days by Victor Hugo and The Stranger by Albert Camus in French—so that's what I'm doing.
Here's the French version of that quote from Simone de Beauvoir:
As you can see, I know most of the words, but there's several that I'm not familiar with. With Migaku, that's not a problem. Simply clicking on coupure (break/cut/shift) brings up reference information about it. I've personally chose to see an AI breakdown of what the word means in context, but Migaku also can show you:
- Recordings of native speakers saying coupure
- Photos of coupure
- Dictionary definitions of what it means
- Example sentences
- AI breakdowns of the sentence it appears in
- Links to coupure in online dictionaries
And all of that is available at the press of a button.
So I just read stuff I'm interested in, click words I don't know, and click the orange button you see in the top-right corner of the popup dictionary to turn those words into flashcards. As I consume things I enjoy in French, I improve in French. It's fun, and it works.
On the off chance that you're not a bookworm, know that you can use Migaku with pretty much any sort of content that has copyable text, such as the subtitles of videos or comments on X (Twitter).
For example, here's a screenshot of a podcast that I'm listening to on YouTube.
To see how Migaku lets you turn these things into personalized learning materials, click the button below.
Key Takeaways
Yes, French is worth learning. The people, the movies, the books—and we didn't even talk about the music!
The real question to be asking is how you're going to learn French.