Our Community

Language

According to the estimates of the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie (High Council of the French-speaking Communities), worldwide in 1998 there were :

112,666,000 genuine French speakers, for whom French is their first language, second language or adopted language, making an increase of 7.7% on 1990.

60,612,000 occasional French speakers, for whom the use and command of French are limited by circumstances or expression capabilities, making an increase of 11.8% on 1990.

100 to 110 million people with some knowledge of French ("Francisants"), i.e. people who have learnt French over several years and have retained a variable command of it, or those who come to use it as a result of their jobs, if only some of the time.

The 10 countries where most French speakers are found remain the same as in 1990, i.e. Metropolitan France, Algeria, Canada, Morocco, Belgium, Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Switzerland. The regions where most French speakers are found are North Africa and Western Europe.

The increase in the number of French speakers in recent years shows noteworthy differences on 1990 in terms of broad geographical zones.

There has been a significant rise in the number of French speakers in Africa, including North Africa, both in French-speaking and non French-speaking countries, which is linked to a number of different factors such as demographic growth, improvement in schooling in some countries, movements of refugees and French-speaking immigrants within the continent, urbanisation and the impact of radio and television.

The number of French speakers in North America and Western Europe is stable.

In Asia and non French-speaking Europe, the number of French learners is up in a significant number of countries.

The promotion of linguistic diversity is aimed at international arenas where worldwide commercial stakes are discussed. However, it is also aimed at the type of European construction to which the Wallonia-Brussels French community aspires, as well as the place of French in international organisations.

Aside from linguistic aspects, we must give top priority to cultural co-operation within the French-speaking area, starting in particular from the premise that culture is a developmental lever that is not sufficiently recognised and valued.

French is a first class raw material and article for export, often defining the Walloon-Brussels Community in the first instance. It is therefore used as an ambassador for our cultural, social and even economic realities. The stakes are high since the multilingualism of Europe and the world is affected by the presence of French in international authorities - and therefore in the various Member States.

A whole series of programmes is therefore being implemented to defend and promote French internationally (deploying a network of teachers in southern and northern countries, improving the skills of French teachers in partner countries, training conference interpreters, organising linguistic retraining for executives, diplomats and civil servants of current or future Member States of the European Union, while allowing them to discover the French-speaking realities of Brussels and the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) States, etc.).