French is a Romance language, descended from Latin and closely related to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian. It is the native tongue of over 87 million people and has an additional 68 million non-native speakers. Why French?  Multilingualism is an essential 21st century skill  Better job prospects in multinational corporations (Google, Microsoft, Palmolive, Coca-Cola e.t.c)  French is one of 6 official UN languages/offers wide reach  Develops global relationships: language is a system of representing meaning in the world  Ensure you are better suited for the global environment.