Introduction To French - Why Study French?

Tutorial Transcript

hi welcome to introduction to French my name is Alicia and I'm joined by hi everyone I'm Candace in this series you'll learn everything you need to know to get studied learning French that's right and we're here to help guide you through your journey in this lesson you'll learn the reasons why you should start learning a new language why you should learn French in particular and how to get started there are countless reasons but perhaps the biggest one of all is that it could actually change your life learning a new language unlocks new pathways that are off-limits to you now there are certain things that you simply cannot do without having the technical or cultural skills that come from learning a new language like working or living in another country knowing another language provides you with greater job opportunities you have the freedom to move to another country halfway around the world and be able to earn a living or even better yet build a career from it instead of just being stuck in one place language allows you to visit or live in places that you may never have even considered going simply because that wasn't a possibility for you knowing another language simply gives you more options to choose from and learning a new language also helps you to be more open minded and see the word from a new perspective language and culture go hand-in-hand the world is a big place and by broadening your understanding of other cultures it allows you to be more empathetic and understanding of the many different ways that people live their lives with language you're able to see and experience more which helps you to grow as a person learning a new language also improves your memory several studies have consistently shown that those who study another language have improved memory as opposed to those who didn't learn another language learning another language also keeps your brain healthy by significantly delaying the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia this difference can be as much as four to five more years of quality life and those are just some of the reasons that you should learn another language the list just goes on and on now you know the benefits of studying another language but why should you learn French in particular a good portion of the world speaks French in fact over 200 million people speak French across five continents French is spoken in many countries around the world and it's an official language in many countries like Belgium the Seychelles Canada Cameroon and many more moreover French is the second most widely learned foreign language after English so the number of speakers is growing rapidly it's currently the ninth most spoken language in the world and what about the fact that France is the sixth largest economy in the world the aerospace industry in France is huge there's a special cluster of aerospace engineering companies and research centers in France called the aerospace Valley and of course French wines are a lucrative industry as well not to mention perfumes and cosmetics knowing French then opens up many career and business opportunities for you if you want to visit friends you must be wand the majority of French citizens do not like or aren't able to speak English even in tourist places like Paris if you make an effort to speak French and to learn the culture however you will be much more warmly welcomed learning French will help you during your trip even if you're a beginner French people will treat you much more nicely ok then we've talked about why you should start learning a language and why you should start learning French but how can you get started Candace well it's as simple as learning your first word in French and building up from there the good news though is that you already know some French Niraj facade uncle souvenir these are all French words that you will easily recognize because these words exist in English too this is because both English and French are derived from Latin in fact roughly 30% of all English words used today share their origins with French words not only this but they are also English loanwords used in French words such as baby Sita beacon weekend super are all English words that are used in French on a daily basis this means that you already know a very large portion of French vocabulary yes that's right so learning French is much easier than you think ok let's teach you something you might not know but it's very useful message it means thank you in French it's one of the most basic phrases and perhaps one of the most useful phrases for you to learn messes now you try messes one more time Mesa's you can also add beaucoup to add greater emphasis merci beaucoup try it merci beaucoup one last time merci beaucoup well done now you know how to say thank you in French we've covered a lot of things already so why don't we wrap up the first lesson and recap what we've learned in this lesson you learned that studying another language has many benefits such as providing new job and business opportunities learning French will allow you to experience more of the culture and to say thank you in French it's messes or messy beaucoup in the next lesson we're going to take a look at the basics of French pronunciation so be sure to watch the next video see you in the next lesson bye bye you