French remains the 5th most spoken language – after English, Chinese, Hindi and Spanish – and the second most taught foreign language in the world. This is what results from the new report on the French language published by the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF).
This Sunday, March 20, is the International Day of La Francophonie, the opportunity to take stock of the situation of the French French language in the world, after the publication of the new report of the OIF, published by Galllimard editions. A report which, every four years, draws up a state of play of Frencha language in progress in the number of speakers, according to its authors.
Alexandre Wolff, head of the Observatory of the French language, noted some strong points of this report. ” The surprises, there are not so many, in any case they are good, the number of French speakers is progressing in the world, we are today at 321 million French speakers, the fifth most spoken language, the fourth language of Internet, it remains a very important language in the field of cultural and creative industries. »
No conflict between French and national languages
Alexandre Wolff talks about the Senegalese writer Mbougar Sarr [révélé en 1994 par le prix RFI Stéphane Hessel de la Jeune écriture francophone, NDLR], Goncourt Prize 2021, “ Senegalese who writes in French who also speaks Wolof perfectly and who is inspired by his roots and his culture; this is how the French language manifests its power.
60% of daily French speakers are today on the African continent and they speak several languages, so there is no conflict or competition between French and the national languages, but each contributes to the citizen can develop, do business, travel, go on the internet, get information, be educated and that is what makes the strength of the Francophonie.
The majority of French speakers in Africa use the language daily, points out the OIF report. And it is the sub-Saharan Africa-Indian Ocean zone that has shown the greatest increase in French since 2018 with +15%. The future of the French language on this continent nevertheless continues to depend on certain conditions linked in particular to education in the countries of the South where it is the language of instruction for nearly 75 million pupils and students.