At one time the French language was, like Latin before it and English now, an international language, used everywhere for commerce, diplomacy, literature and academics.  This international nature of the French language gave rise to the term "lingua franca", meaning a language spoken or adopted by large numbers of non-native speakers around the world.  Time was when, in order to be successful, you needed to know French.  Today it is still true that knowing French can be a smart career move.

French is the official language of 31 countries, spoken by 350 million people worldwide, and is the third most spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish.  It also has the honor of being one of the official languages of the United Nations.  Given the predominance of the language, chances are good that if you're fluent you'll be able to communicate wherever you are in the world.  Also, no matter where you are, you'll likely find someone speaking the language.

There are a great many countries and regions where French is a common but unofficial language and it has one of the greatest numbers of regional dialects or variations.  For example, most Americans are aware of the Creole and Cajun French spoken mainly in Louisiana, but there are also variations of these, such as Zydeco Cajun, Zydeco Creole and Haitian Creole.  In some parts of Maine you can find people speaking Acadian French.  Around the world you can also find African, Belgian, Canadian, Quebecois, Swiss, Indian or Cambodian French.

While the language originated with Celtic speaking population, after the Roman conquest of what is modern day France it later evolved and combined with Vulgar Latin, as well as the dialects such as those spoken by the Iberians, Greeks and Vascons.  The modern byproduct of this natural evolution has very little resemblance to Celtic and it is estimated that only about 200 Celtic words remain.

To learn the language you must learn to think it.  For an English-speaking person this means getting used to the grammatical structure.  For instance, French word order is predominantly Subject Verb Object and occasionally Subject Object Verb (e.g. "Je t'aime" translates as "I you love").  French nouns can also have a grammatical gender, sometimes called noun classes, and can be masculine or feminine depending on the context.  For example, consider "Lui, c'est un grand acteur" ("He is a great actor") and "Elle, c'est une grande actrice" ("She is a great actress").

The French language boasts some of the worlds greatest and most eloquent writers, playwrights and poets.  Part of learning French is the joy of discovering these writings.  From Chrétien de Troyes of the middle ages on through the centuries you can make the acquaintance of literary greats such as Rabelais, Voltaire, Zola, Flaubert, Hugo, Proust and Baudelaire.  French poetry gave rise to many movements, such as Parnassian, Romanticism, Symbolism and Surrealism.   French philosophy gave us thinkers such as Descartes, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, along the way creating or celebrating movements such as dualism, structuralism, post-structuralism, existentialism and literary criticism.  Nor should we forget the French Revolution, which led us to democracy as we know it today - especially in America.  French culture and history has had such influence in the world that it can hardly be ignored.

Given the wonders of the language, how can anyone not want to learn it?