Why do I have to take French?????????????

Mr. Steinhoff, I have never liked French, why am I taking it????

I am sure I will hear that question for the rest of my career, here is how I try to explain it to the students.

1.  We have 2 official languages of Canada, it is part of being Canadian.

2.  There is a chance it could help you with a job.

Those used to be my only reasons, as I get older and started reading more about a 2nd language, my thinking has shifted about another language.

3.  It opens your mind to different cultures and other places in the world.  I hope my students get to travel and explore this planet, maybe they will travel to a new country that speaks French.  I also hope that they could take some of their knowledge from my class and apply it to their travels.  I hope it also makes them think outside the "Lockport bubble".  There are many different and incredible places in this world outside of where we live, I hope my class shows them that there are different cultures, people, music, art, history etc... than where we are.

4.  A 2nd language will make you think differently, it will challenge your brain.  By making you think differently and using another section of you brain, it will make you smarter.  This to me, is the main answer of "Why do I have to take French".  I want you to become smarter.  It will aslo help your first language get even stronger.  There are words in French that are the "fancy" English word.

Commence  use commence instead of start.

Drole, it is rare we would say something is drole but it gives it a different meaning than just saying funny.

There are way more but I just wanted to show a couple examples.

Why take French?????  I want you to become smarter?