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How useful is French?
I am thinking of taking french next year, but I will have to sacrifice other electives of interest. But how much benefit can I really get from taking French? I know my opportunities will definitely increase, but would that only be in Quebec, NB, and/or government jobs?
BTW I plan to go into med school, does a bilingual doctor really have a significant upper hand or not? French is interesting and all, but now that I have a limited number of electives its a little difficult to decide. Any help appreciated, thanks.
BTW I plan to go into med school, does a bilingual doctor really have a significant upper hand or not? French is interesting and all, but now that I have a limited number of electives its a little difficult to decide. Any help appreciated, thanks.
Comments
~Becs~
Although I can't speak for all professions, I know that having French under your belt is very useful, especially if you have to deal with companies in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and New Bruswick. All have French-speaking residents, not just Quebec.
Plus if you are working student jobs, sometimes companies pay those who are bilingual a bit more than those who are not.
Other languages that I think would be useful would be Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, German, and Russian. They are all on my list of languages to learn. :smile:
Honestly, it really depends where you live or where you want to work.
I'm taking french next year, and I want to add a few other languages to my list before I'm graduated (Greek, Spanish, and Mandarin for starters). The world is becoming so much more integrated, and I find it amazing how North Americans are always seriously underestimating the value of multilingualism. Get out there into the world!
With that being said, French isn't easy. You'll have to take up to at least Fren 221 to probably start understanding things fluently. if you start from scratch, that could be quite a few semesters. But the french faculty is very nice and it could be quite a few nice semesters. (also, it might be worth investigating the french fluency certificate that SFU offers.)
hope that helps! (note that i'm a french intended major...this is probably very biased)
personally, helps me raise my GPA
in the company i work for.. we're trying to get another fluent french speaker.. we hav lots of customers from quebec, even tho they can speak english.. they are much more comfortable speaking with someone in french, can definately boost customer relations
French is next to useless on the westcoast, but an asset on the east. However, knowledge of any additional language will always do one good.
There are probably more speakers of Chinese dialects (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.) than there are speakers of French on the westcoast, so Chinese would make one more employable.