The Story of French

Imagine a language with rules so complex that few people ever master it and whose speakers spend millions of dollars every year to make sure it gets used in literature, music, and film. Consider the fact that this language is second only to English for the number of countries where it is officially spoken and that its speakers have tripled in the last fifty years. While it frightens users with its nuances, millions still seek the romance and refinement associated with it. The language is French, and this is its story.

Partners in life and in writing, Canadian journalist-authors JEAN-BENOÎT NADEAU and JULIE BARLOW are award-winning contributors to L’actualité. Their writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, Saturday Night, The Christian Science Monitor and the International Herald Tribune, among others. In 2003, Nadeau and Barlow published their critical and popular success, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong. They live in Montreal.