In today’s world, speaking one international language is not enough.
It has been proven that graduates who speak several languages will increase their chances of finding a job, whether at home or abroad. This is because learning another language enriches the mind and opens up new horizons, both personal and professional. French, along with English, is such a language of strategic importance because it is the only language spoken on all five continents of the world.
Near home, French- speaking Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was recently granted permission to join the bigger market of the East African Community (EAC) which is largely English and Swahili speaking. This means that the need by current EAC residents to speak French has become more than necessary in order to integrate and trade with their Congolese brothers and sisters.
According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) Report (2014), an international organization of French-speaking countries, more than 220 million people speak French on all the five continents.
French is a major language of international communication; it is the second most widely learned language after English and the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. French is also the second most widely taught language after English. French is also the third most widely used language on the Internet.
France operates the biggest international network of cultural institutes (Alliance Françaises) which run French-language courses for close to a million learners, with one in Uganda called Alliance Française de Kampala (Afk). An ability to understand French offers an alternative view of the world through communication with French speakers from all over the world and news from the leading French-language international media (TV5MONDE, France 24 and Radio France International).
In the Ugandan context, the ability to speak both French and English is an advantage for finding a job with the many multinational companies considering someone who speaks French as having a leading edge. This is seen in a wide range of sectors like retailing (Carrefour), automotive (MICHELIN, Peugeot , Renault, KIA) , Construction (Sogea satom, a member of Vinci, Hima Cement, a member of LAFARGEHOLCM, luxury goods (Christian Dior), Oil and Gas (TOTAL)etc).
French is often considered as the language of culture. A French lesson is a cultural journey into the worlds of fashion, gastronomy, the arts, architecture and science. Learning French also offers access to the works of great French writers such as Victor Hugo or Marcel Proust and famous poets like Charles Baudelaire or Jacques Prévert etc. It means being able to follow celebrity actors Alain Delon or Juliette Binoche, and the pleasure of being able to enjoy the french music of artists like Édith Piaf, Charles Aznavour among others.
Speaking French opens up opportunities for higher education in universities in the francophone world. More specifically, currently, Ugandan students with a good level of French have more chances to apply through Campus France to study in French universities for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
French also comes in handy when travelling to Francophone Africa, Switzerland, Canada, Monaco and other places where French is used as an official language. It should also be noted that French is both a working language and an official language of the United Nations and its agencies, the European Union and NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the International Committee of the Red Cross and several International courts.
The Council of Ministers in the East African Community has lately agreed to consider French as a third official language to be used within the Community after English and Kiswahili.
Hon Kadaga the 1st Deputy Minister and Minister for East African Affairs recently disclosed that the government through the Ministry of Education and Sports should invest in the teaching of French by designing appropriate policy frameworks to enable it to be taught and examined in schools as a compulsory subject. During the same meeting, the Council also endorsed the application of the Democratic Republic of Congo to join the East African Community.
Currently, French is widely spoken in DRC and neighboring Rwanda and Burundi. All in all, speaking more than one international language promotes cultural diversity and interculturalism in today’s globalised world.
Following the signing of the Final Investment Decision for the Ugandan oil sector this week by stakeholders who included Total Energies, a huge French oil company, and French language is more needed at this time when the country hopes to benefit from technological and human resource transfer from France for the benefit of our oil and gas sector.
NOTE: Mr Baluku is a Teacher of French at Lohana High School and In-coming Deputy Secretary General Association of Teachers of French in Uganda