It has been recently published on the New York Times the news that French Government wants to strengthen the French language programs in the United States. It seems that this purpose has regenerated a debate in US about the importance of studying French at school as first foreign language.

This is an interesting topic also in Europe. If someone suggests stopping pretending that French is an important language, because it is not an international language anymore, some others pointed out that it is still useful, because used by millions of people around the world.

What is the truth? Is this language really important?

To answer, we have to consider two elements: the number of people who effectively speaks French and the economic and political power of the Countries where they live.

On the basis of a research of KryssTal, French is spoken by 200 millions of people and it is the 9th most spoken language in the World. Following the top 10 list:

Mandarin (1.1 billion)
English (1 billion)
Spanish (500 million)
Hindi (490 million)
Russian (277 million)
Arabic (452 million)
Portuguese (240 million)
Bengali (215 million)
French (200 million)
Malay-Indonesian (175 million)

Actually the Government of Paris estimates that around 300 million of people speak French. 

The second element to consider is that, as the result of the second largest colonial Empire of history, French is spoken outside France in Belgium, Canada, in many states of North and Central Africa and in some part of Indochina. It is also an official language in Switzerland and in the Italian region of Valle d’Aosta, and in many international organizations such as United Nations, NATO, FIFA, FIA, International Red Cross and WTO.

From the economic point of view, French is the third most spoken language in Europe, the richest area in the world. Many of the francophone Countries mentioned above are political and economical powerful.

Finally, in a world “economics oriented”, French is a good choice. It is spoken across all the five Continents and represents an access key for important and rich markets. Moreover, the worth of French is consolidated by the political, economical and also cultural influence of France, the fifth world economic power. But it is also true that other languages, such as Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian or Hindi, are becoming more and more important, and could represent a better alternative to French in the future.