My third language was French. It's
not very difficult either, at least I don't think so. Sure there
are some irregular verbs, but I never worried much about that. That
might be because I was quite young at the time. I've read that if
you learn your first foreign language before the age of six, any
other language you learn after that will be easier too. And speaking
of learning languages, though this may be irrelevant, I recently
read that if you play a musical instrument, it makes it easier to
learn (any subject, apparently).
French is quite a beautiful language.
Though I don't find Swedish, Finnish and English particularly ugly.
I won't tell you which languages I find ugly. One of the difficulties
with French is that it's quite difficult to get enough practice.
The best you can do is travel to France and stay there for at least
a year. But how many people can do that? I've realized that I'll
never be completely fluent in French, and I've accepted that.
I'm doing my best with what I've got. I watch
tv, read fiction, and listen to French music. As it happens, there
are several sci fi books by French author Jules Verne. My
favorite book is Voyage au centre du terre (Journey to the
Centre of the Earth). I've also read Paris au XXìeme siècle
(Paris in the Twentieth Century), but that wasn't such a good book.
It's easy to understand why Verne's publisher wouldn't accept that
book. When I was a child I used to read some French books (translated
into Swedish).One of those is Tistou les pouces verts (Sorry,
don't know what that's called in English) by Maurice Druon.
I've read it recently and I have to say that it's probably the sort
of story a child will appreciate more.
I've also found a series of historic mysteries
by a guy called Jean-Francois Parot. The series is about Nicolas
Le Floch, who works as a police officer in Paris in the 18 century,
during l'Ancien Régime (before the Revolution).
Of course, you can cheat. Read books translated
into French. I've done that, but it isn't all that great, if you
want to learn the language properly. The book was first written
in one language, then the translator has to create a version of
the book in his or her language. How much of the original language
flavor is lost that way?
The French and the Belgians make lots of great
comics. That's one good way of practicing a language. TinTin and
Laureline et Valerian (not sure what they're called in English,
sorry) are a few good examples, and there are many others. Read
them if you're into comics.
French is of course, spoken in France, but also
in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco, parts of Africa, parts
of Asia and in parts of Canada, primarily Quebec, but also in other
parts (the French speaking Canada is sometimes called Acadie). Also
in the Caribbean (several islands, where people also speak creole,
which is supposed to be based on French), and Sout America (French
Guyana) and in some smaller islands in the Pacific and the Indian
Ocean.
There are different opinions about how many people
really speak French in the world today. To some extent that depends
how you define 'francophone'. Does that include everyone who speaks
French as their first language, or everyone who is able to communicate
relatively flutently in French, or everyone who has ever studied
French for a few years? In any case, the number of French speaking
people is somewhere between 100 miljoner and more than 200 miljoner.
It's said that French is the most useful language to learn, unless
you count English, though that is being said about Spanish and a
few other languages as well.
|