Why is French important?

In the world:

Worldwide, French is still often considered to be the most practical language. An informative website created by Richard Shryock (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) explains the importance of French and provides a variety of statistics that might interest students, faculty, and administrators: http://www.fll.vt.edu/french/whyfrench.html

Extracts from the article (Why study French).

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.

One example of the importance of French can be seen in a recent listing of international jobs (8/30/05) distributed by the US State Department: 204 required or preferred French, 71 a UN language (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), 53 Spanish, 19 Arabic, 9 Portuguese, 12 Russian, 4 German, 3 Italian, Chinese 6.

In the Cincinnati area:

French has played a significant role in the Cincinnati area for over a century now.

• There has been an Alliance française in Cincinnati since 1901.
• The Greater Cincinnati area currently exports approximately $1.5 billion to France and is one of its major countries for exports.
• There are 30 French companies in the Greater Cincinnati Area.
• There are 50 French companies within a 100-mile radius of the Greater Cincinnati area.
• The French Companies in the Greater Cincinnati Area offer 70% products and 30% services.
• Greater Cincinnati has two French sister-cities: Nancy and Neuilly-Plaisance.
• The Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati area does so much business with France that the French-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cincinnati was created in 2001 to facilitate international economic development.