Is French Language Tuition Worth It?

It has been estimated that French is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world, with roughly 75 million native speakers and being proclaimed as one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is no wonder then that a lot of people choose French language tuition over any other language or dialect in the world.

Not only is French widely publicized as a romantic language in countless novels, movies and poems, French is also considered an ideal business language due to its large amount of formalities and specifics, and its emphasis on gender, which gives the language a surprising degree of accuracy that would be beneficial in a professional environment.

English speakers take kindly to French language tuition due to the comfort brought by the ability to recognize a few words in their vocabulary. Although it should be warned that while English and French share a lot of words and expressions, there would be times when their meanings differ. For example, the French word “comment” does not have the same meaning as its English counterpart.

Another aspect of French that is appealing to English speakers is the concept of formal and informal addressing. The French language has different kinds of forms and tones that will be used depending on whether you know the person you’re talking to very well or if you are talking to an authority figure. For example, when speaking French to an older person, to someone you don’t know very well, or to an authority figure, the “vous” word should be used, as opposed to talking to a friend or family member, where you use the informal “tu” instead of “vous.

English speakers who are only starting to learn French may encounter trouble when it comes to the conjugation of their verbs. French verbs are divided into two subcategories, irregular and regular types; Regular verbs are generally conjugated in a consistent way, with the stem unchanged and the endings remaining regular. Irregular French verbs, on the other hand, are very inconsistent and tense when it comes to formation, making them change both in stem and ending. The most difficult part is that the conjugation of each irregular French verb will have to be memorized by a person individually.

Numbers will also posit an amusing set of difference for non-native French speakers. For instance, commas are written as decimals while decimals are written as commas. This means people who are accustomed to seeing 5,000 may be surprised to see that French people will write it as 5.000. French people also write the number seven with the line through it, in order to prevent confusion with the number 1.

The French language usually follows a set of consistent rules, but the fact that English speakers have been accustomed to a different language and due to the richer ruleset, immediate mastery may not be possible, which makes French language tuition that much more important, allowing a person to learn at a specific, predefine phase. As with all languages, regular and consistent practice will also be key in mastering French.

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