Should I spend a year learning French?

[willyf]

I am considering spending about a year or so trying to learn as much french as I can. I usually try to spend a couple hours a day reading and this would of course take up a lot of that time. It will be a pain not being able to read as much english literature, but I think in the long run it is probably worth it? What do you guys think?

[Pompey Bum]

Greetings Willy and welcome to the site. :) Yes, you should learn French, preferably in the company of Francophones or, even better, in a French speaking country. A year is not long enough to prepare you for real French literature (if that is what you want), but it will start you on a road you can pursue further if you choose. Learning another language teaches you to think in new terms. Contrary to what some Anglophones think, other languages aren't just translations of English: they require looking at things differently, which can be quite fatal to narrow-minded or prescribed thinking. Another language isa marketable job skill. And then there are all those French speaking ladies who could help you with your, um, pronunciation. So yes, learn French.

[MANICHAEAN]

Yes, go for it Willy.

I was forced to learn French in school. Hated it. Could not get the pronunciation, and then there were all those bloody un-British accent things on the top of letters, and something I vaguely remember being termed an "umlaut" or something similar.

Married a French girl and learnt a bit more.

Worked in Northern Nigeria and found it came in useful speaking to people from Chad or the Cameroons.

Lived in Brittany for a few years and was immersed in the language.

Started reading French literature somewhere along the way and as Pompey pointed out you do learn to think in a different dimension.

Now I give English lessons to young Vietnamese ladies that are willing to iron my shirts. Quite what that has to do with the subject I'm not sure, but its the end of the week here and I'm looking forward to my first gin and tonic after work in the company of Pharisees and construction personnel.