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The French language has always held some interest for me. Before I set out to learn any language, I was told, over and over again, that knowing Spanish would be much more useful, especially in California. Yet, despite knowing the logic of this, I was determined to be "different" from everyone else.

I knew nothing about the French language before my first class. All that I knew came from what I heard from the media, and that information was neither credible nor trustworthy to me. My first French teacher instilled in me an appreciation for other languages. She was particularly excited about teaching French (and was, in fact, one of the few teachers I ever had who was ever excited about teaching anything).

The first thing that this special teacher did was to teach us the basics of the language. She wanted us to speak as much as possible in French.

But, there were a few things that happened that really made me like the French language. First of all, I loved French food, and learning the French language only confirmed my interest in French in general.

Secondly, I like the French language because it is, admittedly, a language that is systematic. It has rules, and you follow it. Compared to the English language, French is almost easy. The English language has so many exceptions, so many rules, that it is almost possible to be fully fluent in English.

One of the best reasons why I like the French language is because it made me stand out from many others. Most of my friends and most of the people I knew were taking another language, usually Spanish. In fact, the only advanced French language class in my high school consisted of four people, including myself. It was disheartening to know that not many people had the persistence to take up the French language. It seemed, yet again, that another language was doomed in the educational system.

But of course, the best reason why I like the French language really had nothing to do with the language, per se. It was more about the people that I met because we all liked learning the French language, too. One of the best teachers I ever had, my advanced French language teacher from high school, taught her students how to learn a language efficiently yet with interest and motivation. She could not have done any more for me than what she did during the last year that I was learning French. The value of learning the language was not in the actual knowledge of the language, but in the process and people involved.

Learn more about this author, Joan Inong.
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