Gather ‘round boys and girls, today we’ll be talking about the F-word. No, not that F-word! I guess you could say I meant the F-language: French.

First, let’s start with some background information. French—along with Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian to name a few—is one of the Romance languages. No, not that kind of romance. I know what you’re thinking, “But isn’t French the language of amour?” Of course it is, but when talking about Romance languages, “romance” refers to Romanic not romantic. Anyway, Romance languages are derived from Vulgar Latin—again not what you might be thinking of. The word vulgar in this context comes from the Latin word for common. Simply put, it was the spoken version of the language at that time. Got all that? Good, now we can move on.

Ever wonder where you would use French if you decided to learn it? Wonder no more! French is estimated as having 110 million native speakers and 190 million more second language speakers. That’s a whole lot of people communicating it the language of love. And in case you were concerned about being a lonely student, you should know it’s the most taught second language after English, so there will be no lack of study buddies.

Have a need to travel outside your particular homeland; French is an official language in 29 countries. Can you say “extended vacation?” Or, for those business minded of you out there, French speaking areas account for almost 20% of the world’s import and export trade.

Learning French is not only practical, but advantageous on both business and personal levels. So what are you waiting for? Don’t equate learning a new language with a not-so-nice four letter F-word. Instead, smile with the knowledge that you are joining a large community of people who all speak the same six letter F-language.

Do you want to impress your new boss, or whisper sweet nothings into your girlfriend’s ear? Tell me, what are your reasons for learning French?