("Liberty Leading the People," by Eugène Delacroix.Louvre)
Known to the French as "La Fête Nationale," and by the Anglicized term "Bastille Day," Tuesday marks France's independence and the 226th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, a medieval fortress.
In honor of Bastille Day, here are some reasons you should étudier.
1. For English speakers, French is the easiest language to learn
You may have heard it's Spanish. That cannot possibly be true, though, because English is actually the mutant stepchild of German and French, and it got most of its genes from its Gallic side. For several centuries in fact, French was the official language of the English court.
The list of English words with French roots is basically infinite.
2. And besides, learning French makes learning Spanish way easier
(Nicolas Sarkozy, then France's president, and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at Pointe-a-Pitre airport on Guadeloupe in 2011.Reuters)
We again assume America's natural inclination is to learn Spanish.
Because French and Spanish are the mutant stepchildren of Latin, you can practically cut out a step if you ever decide to take up Spanish. And if you already know Spanish, it requires very little effort to make the jump to French.
Don't fancy Spanish? Well, then French is a solid base for learning the rest of the Romance languages, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.
3. All over Europe the world, French is still the main 2nd language
French is the only language (besides English), that is taught in every nation in the world. More than 200 million people speak French, making it the ninth most widely spoken language in the world.
And of course the EU's power cities, Brussels, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg, parlent Français.
French is also an official language of NATO, Unesco, the International Olympic Committee, the UN, the Red Cross, and international courts.
What's more, half of Africa's fastest-growing countries also speak French.
China gets this, and it continues to pump huge investments into the resource-rich region. We can thus expect Africa to be an increasing focus of global trade and international relations.
Simply put, la Francophonie, "the sphere of French language" is all of this:
(French Foreign Ministry)
4. Also, which country is the world's most popular destination?(Reuters)
You guessed it, France.
Paris, Nice, Marseille, Cannes, Bordeaux, Monaco, and Versailles are a few obvious reasons nearly 85 million travelers make France the world's most popular travel destination.
And if you're not interested in touring any part of France, well then there is Canada, Switzerland, Monaco, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Caribbean, and a significant amount of Africa.