It is said that learning a foreign language develops new areas of your brain and that the more foreign languages we learn, the more versatile and open-minded we become. Nowadays, learning foreign languages may guarantee success at European or global level.
Europe has 23 official languages, including French, which until 15-20 years ago was holding first place among the foreign languages learned by Romanians. The education system ensured this position through the introduction of French in the 3rd grade curriculum. But things have changed and French is now studied as a second foreign language, starting from the 5th grade, its place having been taken by English.
However, Voltaire’s language is still spoken by over 200 million people on all five continents, ranking therefore ninth among the most spoken languages in the world. Everybody knows that French can play an important role in getting a job, because it is the international language of fashion, arts, architecture, theatre and especially gastronomy.
As far as the online environment is concerned, French is frequently used and still standing on the podium, after English and German, but much ahead of Spanish. At the EU level, French is still very important, all the documents and the debates of the European Council being drawn up/held both in English and in French. It is therefore a working language used to strengthen relations among European states and even between Europe and other continents.
French may also represent an advantage for those who want to travel a lot or for those whose job requires traveling for business purposes since there are many parts of the world (France, Canada, Switzerland, Africa, Monaco) where French is spoken.
All this information should get us thinking, because we need to reinstate French in its right and grant students earlier access to this language. Children learn very fast and easily starting from a very early age, while adults would protect themselves from severe mental decline (such as dementia) by learning foreign languages.
