The Romance Language, a language of love – people knew it for ages and Google confirmed it with its online survey that, ‘the language in which most of the love messages are translated to is French’. Yes French has been proved to be a Romance language yet again. Not only that, but French also serves as an international language for diplomacy and commerce and is used officially by the United Nations. Like most of the other languages, French too inherited a vast portion of its words from Latin. The vocabulary and style of modern French is influenced by Romanticism and realism. Standardization of French has been developed by widespread education and Mass Media. French is considered as an official language in 29 countries, the major countries are, Belgium, parts of Africa, European countries, and countries in America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
French is an Indo-European language while English is strongly influenced by the introduction of French. This shows that the two languages share many grammatical features. French contains the same 26 letters as the English alphabets but the pronunciations vary regarding the comprehension and speech. On that context, people are mostly found making common mistakes in the articulation of the vowels, Guess why! The French do not use the tip of the tongue while speaking. Incorrect choice of tense adds insult to injury, making it more confusing for the students. Albeit the usage of articles is not identical, it is similar to English; the pronouns used are based completely on the gender of the noun they are associated with. The words in the two languages have the same Latin roots and are mutually understood as they are used in our day to day vocabulary.
One of the main differences between English and French languages is the use of words regarding Genders. In English, it only applies genders to people having a gender, while in French; it is used alongside nouns and articles. A direct translation from English to French is not very accurate as the pronunciations often sound hilarious to the French natives. For instance, when the English say “I`m 30 years old” In French we say “J`ai 30 ans” which is actually “I have 30 years”. Having said that, I think, we have unknowingly been using many French words, in our day to day conversations. Chauffer, Déjà vu, à la carte, Bon appétit, Restaurant remember hearing these words?? You guessed it right, they are all French words, commonly used in English.
Learning French offers an enticing career, it opens up door to sectors like travels and tourisms, translating, Entrepreneurships, inter-culture reactions between multinational companies. It offers a formidable position in Mass Communication. The average payment of any language professional involved in translation can sum up to as high as 2 to 4k per hour. It of course depends a lot upon your area of expertise and vigor.
Ah are you already thinking of joining a French language class somewhere- don’t need to go far, write to us on counsellors@eugateway.in
