You may wonder, are there still people who speak French around the world?
Here is a list of countries where French is either the only official language, or one of them.
Countries where French is the official language
These countries use French as the primary language for government, education, and administration:
France
Benin
Burkina Faso
Côte d’Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Guinea
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Togo
Monaco
Vanuatu
Countries where French is a co-official language
Belgium (with Dutch and German)
Switzerland (with German, Italian, Romansh)
Canada (with English)
Luxembourg (with Luxembourgish and German)
Burundi (with English and Kirundi)
Rwanda (with Kinyarwanda and English)
Djibouti (with Arabic)
Seychelles (with English and Seychellois Creole)
Comoros (with Arabic and Comorian)
Madagascar (with Malagasy)
Vanuatu (with Bislama and English)
Cameroon (with English)
Central African Republic (with Sango)
Chad (with Arabic)
Equatorial Guinea (with Spanish and Portuguese)
Mauritius (with English)
Globally, French serves as a lingua franca in many countries where it is not the native language, making it the fifth most spoken language worldwide with more than 321 million speakers.
Sl: Why do we teach Spanish in northern Maine schools when we have 300,000 French speakers next door in New Brunswick and more than 6 million French speakers next door in Quebec?
Bonne question, uh?
Don Levesque is a Grand Isle native who worked in community journalism for almost 35 years. He was the publisher and editor of the St. John Valley Times for 15 years prior to retiring in 2010. He wrote a weekly newspaper column, called Mon 5¢, in the Valley Times for more than 20 years. He has been inducted into the Maine Journalism Hall of Fame and the Maine Franco-American Hall of Fame.
