• French is an international language, spoken in over thirty-five countries spanning every region of the world from Europe, America and the Caribbean to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
  
  
• French remains, with English, the lingua franca of commerce, trade, diplomacy, and scientific and intellectual exchange.
  
  
• 1,774,200 French citizens live abroad, with 450,831in America (25.4%).
  
  
• France is America's fourth-largest scientific collaborator after Canada, Japan and Germany. More than 5,000 joint publications come out each year in our two countries. French physics enjoys a particularly stellar reputation, along with mathematics, chemistry, fundamental and clinical biology, and economics.
  
  
• In the U.S. State Department listing of international jobs in April 2002, 111 required or preferred French (45 Spanish, 10 Arabic, 9 Russian, 3 German, 2 Chinese.
  
  
• French is a working language of every international organization, including the United Nations, UNESCO, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, OECD, the World Trade Organization, UNHCR, and the Olympic Games.
  
  
• The 2000 U.S. Census reported that 1.9 million Americans speak French in the home.
  
  
• French is an official language of our neighbor to the north, Canada.
  
  
• Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau greatly influenced the founding fathers of the United States and their writings still hold great relevance for evolving issues in the American political system.
  
  
• Literary and cultural movements in France and French speaking countries are a reference for currents in other languages.
  
  
• Want to know more?  The site below provides a wealth of information about France and the francophone world.  Ça vaut la visite! http://www.utm.edu/departments/french/french.html

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