French . The most Practical Foreign Language

French
The Most Practical Foreign Language

Richard Shryock
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(Virginia Tech)
http://www.fll.vt.edu/french/whyfrench.html

NOTE: When bookmarking or putting links to this article, please use http://www.fll.vt.edu/french/whyfrench.html.
For reproduction of all or part of this article, please see the notice at the bottom of this page.

---

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language 2008 Survey indicates that more students are interested in studying French than any other foreign language in the United States.

The most recent survey by the Modern Languages Association (2006) shows that French enrollments in the United States are on the rise.

---

While any language will be useful for some jobs or for some regions, French is the only foreign language that can be useful throughout the world as well as in the United States. French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English. The International Organization of Francophonie has 51 member states and governments. Of these, 28 countries have French as an official language. French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. French and English are the only two global languages.

When deciding on a foreign language for work or school, consider that French is the language that will give you the most choices later on in your studies or your career.

French, along with English, is the official working language of

• the United Nations
  
• UNESCO
  
• NATO
  
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
  
• the International Labor Bureau
  
• the International Olympic Committee
  
• the 31-member Council of Europe
  
• the European Community
  
• the Universal Postal Union
  
• the International Red Cross
  
• Union of International Associations (UIA)
  

French is the dominant working language at

• the European Court of Justice
  
• the European Tribunal of First Instance
  
• the Press Room at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium
  

One example of the importance of French can be seen in a recent listing of international jobs (8/25/08) distributed by the US State Department: 78 required or preferred French, 27 a UN language (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), 17 Spanish, 10 Arabic, 5 Russian, and 3 German, 1 Chinese.

Of the various types of professional positions for which international organizations recruit, five required French, two Spanish, one Portuguese, and one Arabic, according to the fact sheet released by the UN Employment Information and Assistance Unit Bureau of International Organization Affairs U.S. Department of State, December 1, 2000.

The Economics of French and France

• French is the foreign language spoken by our largest trading partner (Canada).
  
• The province of Quebec alone is the sixth largest trading partner of the United States with approximately $72 billion in trade in 2006.
  
• In 2006, the United States exported and imported more to countries having French as a national language than to countries having any other foreign language. Exports to Canada alone in that year were greater than the combined exports to all countries south of the United States.
• From 2003 to 2006 trade between France and the United States increased by 75% with one billion dollars of transactions taking place every day.
  
• The U.S. and France share many trade similarities, particularly their global standing as the world's top 2 exporters in 3 very important sectors: defense products, agricultural goods, and services. Franco-American trade is also remarkable for its symmetry, as 6 of the top 10 exports are the same each way.
  
• France has the sixth largest economy in the world after the U.S., Japan, Germany, China and England. In 2006, the French GDP was $2.231 trillion and China's was $2.668 trillion.
  
• France is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world after the U.S.
  
• In recent years, the U.S. has been the largest direct investor in France. France is nearly tied with Japan, Germany and the Netherlands as the second largest foreign investor in the U.S.
  
• The world invests in France: in 2006, France was the third largest destination of foreign investment in the world.
  
• French companies employ approximately 500,000 Americans, and US companies employ nearly 600,000 people in France. Among foreign countries doing business in the US, France employs the third largest number of Americans.
  
• French is one of the languages spoken in the US: 1.9 million Americans speak French in the home. (2000 US Census)
  
• Overall, the French export more per capita than the Japanese and more than twice as much as the Americans. France is overall, the fourth largest exporting nation of the world.
  
• France is the world's leader in the production of luxury goods.
  
• More tourists visit France than any other country in the world.
  
• France gives more foreign aid per capita to developing nations than does the US.
  

Science and Technology

France will be the site of the world's first nuclear fusion reactor, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

Seven of France's top ten exports to the U.S. are industrial or high technology products.

France is the fourth largest producer of automobiles in the world (Renault, Peugeot, Citroën) and the third largest exporter.

France is fourth in research among countries of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (after Japan, Germany, and the US).

France is a major world research center in the field of high energy physics.

The French are a world leader in medical research: the AIDS virus was first isolated by French doctors.

The French are a leader in medical genetics (the Human Genome Project is located in Paris).

The French are the world's third manufacturers of electronics equipment.

European leader in aerospace (Aérospatiale, Arianespace, Airbus...).

Most commercial satellites are put into space on French Ariane rockets.

The fastest train (TGV) is French.

The smart card was used on a large-scale basis in France.

The ocean liner Queen Mary II was built in France.

France is the world's third military power (after the US and Russia), and has the world's second largest defense industry (i.e. exocet missiles, radar technology.)

The French have nearly 15,000 troups on peace-keeping duties in 15 countries including Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Ivory Coast.

France is the world's second largest builder and exporter of civilian and military aircraft and helicopters (Airbus is the world's second largest fleet of commercial airliners, and many of the US Coast Guard helicopters are made by Aérospatiale in Toulouse.)

France has one of the most advanced systems of telecommunications in the world. Fiber optics were invented in France.

Importance of French in school and work

Historically France and the French language have had an enormous influence over American society. France was the United States' first ally. French thought played a dominant role among the founders of the United States in the 18th century, and it continues to shape America today through the influence of such intellectual currents as post-structuralism and post-modernism. In the humanities and the social sciences, many of the most important writings have come from France. Students and researchers who know French have access to these works for several years before they are translated into English. Many significant works are never translated and remain accessible only to those who know the language. In addition, most graduate schools require knowledge of at least one foreign language, and French remains the most commonly used language after English.

When employers and universities look at applicants, they do not start looking at the bottom of the list to see who has done only the minimal amount of requirements necessary or taken the easiest route available, they start at the top of the list and look for those students who have risen above the rest. High school students should consider studying at least four years of a foreign language. College students should seek to earn a minor in French or have French as a primary or secondary major. With French they have access to the most widely spoken foreign language in the world after English and they become familiar with a culture that significantly influences our own. The French economy is one of the strongest in the world and is increasingly a leader in technological innovation. In sum, French is the language of the future.

---

Are you looking to study French in a the context of a strong liberal arts program or the possibility of combining French with business, information technology, international studies or a variety of other areas? Please visit the web site of our program in French at Virginia Tech.

Richard Shryock
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(Virginia Tech)
Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0225

shryockr@vt.edu
http://www.fll.vt.edu/french

©1997-2008 Richard Shryock. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
If you wish to cite or reproduce this article in part or entirely, please refer to the following notice. When quoting from this page, please be so kind as to indicate the author and the web address.

Special thanks to Dr. Eric DuPlessis of Radford University who contributed information.

Last update September 7, 2008

Bonsoir Soeur Emmanuelle et Merci....

France - Soeur Emmanuelle is dead

by Johnny Summerton | October 20, 2008 at 03:18 am | 636 views | 9 comments

by Johnny Summerton

Tributes have been paid across France after the news that one of the country's most remarkable and much-loved women is dead.

Soeur Emmanuelle, who dedicated her life to helping the poor and was often compared to Mother Therese. died on Monday morning at the age of 99.

She died peacefully in her sleep at the home where she was being cared for in Callian in the south of France, the president of the association "Asmae-Association Sœur Emmanuelle" Trao Nguyen announced.

The comparison to Mother Therese is one Soeur Emmanuelle - born Madeleine Cinquin in Brussels, Belgium - repeatedly downplayed with the comment that she was "no saint".

But hers was a rich life that included setting up an association for unmarried mothers, working in Turkey and Tunisia and then at the age of 63 in the slums of Cairo, where she remained for 21 years.

Even when she returned to France at the age of 85 - supposedly to retire - she continued working with the homeless, and made a number of television appearances to promote humanitarian causes.

For the past decade she spent most of her time in a retirement home in Callian, receiving visitors but not leaving the village.

Apart from many memories, Soeur Emmanuelle also leaves behind a series of books including one published in August "J'ai 100 ans et je voudrais vous dire " (I'm 100 years old and I would like to tell) in which she not only outlined what she considered her many faults but also left us with the thought that, "Without helping others and without sharing, humanity cannot progress."

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner was among one of the first to respond to the news.

"My Soeur Emmanuelle is dead, she would have been 100 years old, always young, admirable and beautiful, and I have a very heavy heart" he said in a statement.

"I always remember what a joy it was to work alongside her. I will always keep the memory of the life force she gave and her ability to make mountains move," he added.

"A woman of the streets. An incredible force who would tenderly tell you off."

Even though she was sometimes at odds with the conventional thinking of the Catholic church - she spoke out in favour of the clergy being allowed to marry and even wrote to Pope John-Paul II telling him she thought contraception should be allowed - the Vatican was also quick to respond to news of her death.

A spokesman for the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, said the church had lost "one if the greatest examples of Christian charity."

"Her life showed how Christian charity could succeed regardless of national, racial or religious differences," he said.

Soeur Emmanuelle made many appearances on French television and radio over the years, and as recently as July in a poll of this country's most popular people, she ranked sixth.

There is simply too much to say about an exceptional woman who made such a difference to the lives of so many, and televised tributes have already been announced for the coming days.

According to her wishes there will be a simple funeral ceremony in the village of Callian on Wednesday.

But perhaps the last word for the moment is best left with the woman herself.

"I've had a good and happy life," she said in her recent book

"I can only keep repeating that it's necessary to give others optimism , the will and love."

12 eme sommet de la Francophonie

Just copy and paste
Official Website:

http://www.francophoniequebec2008.qc.ca/en/index.php

LE CLEZIO....Bravo...enfin! Toutes nos felicitations.

J.M.G. Le Clézio (1940-)

One of the most translated modern French authors, whose first novel appeared when he was only 23 years old. Due to his early experimentalist approach to novel, Le Clézio has been counted among the avant-garde writers, but actually his work is difficult to pin down. Le Clézio's themes are cross-cultural. He moves freely, without restriction, from one continent to another, fusing ideas and images from different kinds of literature and culture. Le Clézio was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008.

"La guerre a commencé. Personne ne sait plus où, ni comment, mais c'est ainsi. Elle est derrière la tête et elle souffle. La guerre des crimes et des insultes, la furie des regards, l'explosion de la pensée des cerveaux. Elle est là, ouverte sur le monde, elle le couvre de son réseau de fils électriques, Chaque seconde, elle progresse, elle arrache quelque chose et le réduit en cendres." (from La Guerre, 1970)

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was born in Nice in 1940. Le Clézio's father, born in Mauritius, was a doctor, who moved from England to British Guyana, and then to Nigeria. Before the family was reunited, he lived years in Africa.

Le Clézio was raised in France. His early childhood Le Clézio spent in Roquebillière, a small village near Nice. At the age of eight Le Clézio started to write poetry and read comics. In 1947 he traveled to Nigeria with his mother and brother, spending there a happy year without school. Later the author depicted his childhood in the semi-autobiographical novel Onitsha (1991), in which a young boy sails with his mother to Africa, where his English father is chasing his own dreams.

Le Clézio was educated at schools in Nice, where his mother settled during the war. In 1957 Le Clézio passed his baccalauréat in literature and philosophy. He then studied at the Bristol University, at the University of London, and Institut d'Études Littéraires in Nice. In 1964 he received his M.A. from the University of Aix-en-Provence. Le Clézio obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Perpignan.

Le Clézio married in 1960 Rosalie Piquemal, half-French, half-Polish; they had one daughter. After divorce Le Clézio remarried. From this marriage he has also one daughter.

As a writer Le Clézio made his breakthrough with his first novel, Le procès-verbal (1963), which was awarded the Théophraste Renaudot Prize. The work introduced one of his central themes, the flight from commonly accepted ways of thought into extreme states of mind. Adam Pollo, the protagonist, is a sensitive youg man, who wanders around the town, much like a stray dog, and after making an agitated speech to an apathetic crowd eventually ends up in a mental hospital for a period. The mood of the novel has been compared to that of Camus's Stranger and Sartre's Naisea.

Le Clézio's writing is simultaneously clear and intensive, impressionistic and controlled, nostalgic and contemporary. In an interview Le Clézio once said, that his favorite novelist are Stevenson and Joyce – noteworthy both exiled writers. Often his protagonists are loners, who try to find ways to cope with the modern life and technology, or come into conflict with urban surroundings.

Le procès-verbal was soon translated into several languages, among others into Finnish. In spite of his international fame, Le Clézio chose to stay away from fashionable literary circles, saying in an article in 1965: "Not yet sure if writing is a good way of expression." He taught at a Buddhist University in Thailand in 1966-67, at the University of Mexico, and at the Boston University, University of Texas, Austin, and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. From 1973 Le Clézio and his Moroccan wife Jemia divided their time between France, the U.S. and the island of Mauritius; Le Clézio has called Mauritius his "little fatherland". Le Clézio has also traveled in Nigeria and Japan and published translations of Mayan sacred texts. The last years Le Clézio has lived mainly in New Mexico.

Through Le Clézio's novels the sun and the sea, light and water, are recurrent images. From 1969 to 1973 Le Clézio lived among the Embera Indians in Panama. Haï (1971), written during this period, is a lyrical account of the author's experience which, as he has confessed, changed his whole life. On the whole, the natural environment, animate and inanimate, forms a kind of philosophical, unifying ground for Le Clézio's themes.

Le Clézio's constant travels are reflected in the settings of his books. Through his own experience he has described the clash of cultures, and the unequal side of globalization, the domination of Western rationalism. In Désert (1980), which received the Grand Prix Paul Morand, a young nomad woman, Lalla, from the Sahara becomes a famous photo model, but she returns to the desert to give birth to her child. A parallel story tells of the crushing of the Tuaregs in the beginning of the 20th century by the French colonizers.

For further reading: Conversations avec J.-M. G. Le Clézio by P. Lhoste (1971); World Authors 1950-1970, ed. by John Wakeman (1975); J.-M. G. Le Clézio by Jennifer Waelti-Walters (1977); Contemporary World Writers, ed. by Tracy Chevalier (1993); Le Clézio ou la quête du désert by Simone Domange (1993); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 3, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999) - For further information: Intersected Pasts and Problematic Futures by Karen D. Levy

Selecter works:

• Le Procès-Verbal, 1963 - The Interrogation (tr. Daphne Woodward, 1964) - Raportti Aatamista (suom. Olli-Matti Ronimus)
• Le Jour où Beaumont fit connaissance avec sa douleur, 1964
• La Fièvre, 1965 - Fever (tr. Daphne Woodward, 1966) - Kuume (suom. Leila Adler)
• Le Déluge, 1966 - The Flood (tr. Peter Green, 1968)
• L'Extase matérielle, 1966
• Terra amata, 1968 - Terra Amata (tr. Barbara Bray, 1969)
• Le Livre des fuites, 1969 - The Book of Flights (tr. Simon Watson Taylor, 1972)
• La Guerre, 1970 - War (tr. 1973)
• Haï, 1971
• Les Géants, 1973 - The Giants (tr. Simon Watson Taylor, 1975)
• Mydriase, 1973
• Voyages de l'autre côté, 1975
• translator: Les Prophéties du chilam Balam, 1976
• Voyage aux pays des arbres, 1978
• L'Inconnu sur la terre, 1978
• Vers les Icebergs, 1978
• Mondo et autres histoires, 1978 - film: Mondo (1996), dir. by Tony Gatlif, starring Ovidiu Balan, Philippe Petit, Pierrette Fesch, Jerry Smith
• Désert, 1980 - Autiomaa (suom. Marjatta Ecaré)
• Trois Villes saintes, 1980
• Lullaby, 1980
• La Ronde et autres faits divers, 1982 - The Round & Other Cold Hard Facts = La ronde et autres faits divers (translated by C. Dickson)
• Celui qui'n avait jamais vu la mer; La Montagne du dieu vivant, 1984
• translator: Relation de Michocan, 1984
• Le Chercheur d'or, 1985 - The Prospector (tr. by Carol Marks)
• Villa aurore; Orlamonde, 1985
• Balaabilou, 1985
• Voyage à Rodrigues, 1986
• Les Années Cannes, 1987
• Le Rêve mexicain, ou, La Pensée interrompue, 1988 - Mexican Dream (tr. by Teresa Lavender Fagan)
• Printemps et autres saisons: nouvelles, 1989
• Sirandanes; Un Petit Lexique de la langue créole et des oiseaux, 1990
• Onitsha, 1991 - Onitsha (tr. by Alison Anderson) - Kaupunki nimeltä Onitsha (suom. Annikki Suni)
• Pawana, 1992
• Étoile errante, 1992 - Wandering Star (tr. by C. Dickson) - Harhaileva tähti (suom. Annikki Suni)
• Diego et Frida, 1993
• La Quarantaine, 1995
• In the Eye of the Sun: Mexican Fiestas, 1996 (with Geoff Winningham)
• Poisson d'or, 1997
• La fête chantée, 1997
• Enfances, 1997 (with Christophe Kuhn)
• Hasard suivi de Angoli Mala, 1999
• Fantômes dans la rue, 2000
• Coeur brûlé et autres romances, 2000
• Révolutions, 2003
• Mondo et autres histoires, 2005
• Ourania, 2006
• Raga: approche du continent invisible, 2006
• Ballaciner, 2007
• Ritournelle de la faim, 2008