Popularity of this language and availability of learning material: 4/5
Difficulty to learn this language for an English speaker: 3/5
Fascinating language spoken across the world and access to a great country - France. As Barry Farber says :"No matter your other language achievement, you will be judged by your French"
Usefulness
French is highly useful for any activities involving travel to France: whatever great minds the French have, they are poor polyglots. If you go to France and want to understand something of the country, speaking French is a must. Speaking a few words will help considerably, but don't expect people to applaude just because you mumbled a heavily accented Bonjour Monsieur. The French can be extremely demanding and even rude, especially in Paris, to people who do not speak French well.
Speaking French will be very useful in many countries besides France, such as North Africa, Québec, and in many "black" African countries. Unless you wish to learn the local dialects, French will often be the only language widely understood (see below for more details about each country).
Chic factor
French is one of the most chic languages you can learn. It is associated with haute cuisine, fine wines, culture, philosophy and a stunningly beautiful country.
But be aware that to be chic, you need to speak French correctly. It is a not a good idea to start showing off your French if all you know is a couple words and you make mistakes in every phrase. The French themselves do not take kindly mistakes in their language, even from foreigners. I read a lot in English and it seems almost every French word in italics I encounter in English texts, especially from the US, contain mistakes. I am not sure who these people are trying to impress, but they certainly miss the mark for anybody who speaks French.
Countries
French is an official language of : France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada, Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Belgium, Rwanda, Haiti, Switzerland, Burundi, Togo, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Comoros, Djibouti, Luxembourg, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mauritius, Vanuatu, Seychelles.
It is also widely understood in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Lebanon. You will also find small communities of speakers in a dozen other countries.
Speakers
About 75 million speak French as their mother tongue, but a further 55 million know it as a communication language.
Economic importance
French will open you one of the world's largest economies, France, and allow you to do business in various North African countries where French is the lingua franca of the business intelligentsia.
If you do business in France and are selling anything, a knowledge of the French language is almost indispensible. French businessmen often speak little or no English, and feel much more confortable dealing with a business partner they can adress in French.
Travel
France is the most visited country on Earth. I believe there is something attractive to do in France for anybody at any stage of his life. More than 20,000 castles. Some of the nicest beaches you can find. A food used as a reference for fine cooking all over the world. Wines. Truffles. Amazing landscapes, hiking trails and outdoor pursuits. Incredible museums. I have visited France several times a year for over 20 years and can see it from my bedroom (I live on the Swiss side of Lake Geneva) and still it captivates me.
The language considerably help travel in France. The French are often quite chauvinists, especially with non-white, non-French speaking tourists. It's sad but that's the way it is. If you speak French well and understand a bit of the culture people's values, you can bring back amazing memories of interacting with the French. This makes for more vivid recollections than the monuments - trust me.
Travellers who visit the Maghreb (Tunisia, Algery and Morroco) report that a knowledge of French can get you anywhere in those countries, whereas learning Modern Standard Arabic does not.
Culture
French culture is seen as the epitome of refinement in several domains, litterature, philosophy, architecture, arts and cuisine. You will have no lack of intellectual pursuits to maintain your French, be through films, television, books or newspapers.
Difficulty
I rate this language as 3/5 - of average learning difficulty, at least for people who do not speak other romance languages. Orthograph is difficult, conjugation and phonetics not very easy, but vocabulary acquisition can be quite fast. Also, the French do not forgive errors easily, so the level you must reach before you can speak French is higher than, for instance, for Russian.
French spelling is difficult and riddled with irregularities, even more so than English. Other romance languages such as Spanish have a much easier spelling system. But French uses an antiquated system preserved in formaldehyde by a body of 70 year olds known as the Académie Française, who rules on how French should be written and spoken. Set up under Louis XIV, this institution has frozen the language in an illogical orthograph where you can spell a given sound a 3, 4 or more different ways depending on the whims of history.
French orthograph is difficult for French people too. Every year, a competition is created called La Dictée where a text written with highly unusual words is dictated to hundreds of participants from all over the country who try to write it with as few errors as possible. The competition is showed on TV.
Serge Gainsbourg, one of France's best singers, made a humorous song that revolves on this difficulties of French spelling.
Do not make typos in French. If you think that you can write as you you wish as long as people understand, think again. This the country where people watch the Dictée on TV ! Typos in French are not taken kindly, and using modern spellchecking softwares, there is no reason why you should not be able to write flawless French.
Time needed
If you study an hour every day there is no reason why you should not be able to read a newspaper with a dictionary after a 12 months of study. Speaking and writing simple texts without errors should be reachable after 18 to 24 months.
