By Karen Morgan
Contributor
While some people still associate the French language with cuisine, art and fashion, students studying French at Waterford Union High School recently explored the important uses of French in today’s job market.
Marc Schroeder, a graduate of UW-Whitewater in French (and former WUHS graduate) recently spent a day with high school students, sharing his experiences of using French in his current career with Runzheimer International.
Schroeder regularly relies on his French-speaking ability in conversations with clients from Quebec. When asked by students why his job could not be done the same way by using English, his answer was simple: Clients who speak French prefer to do business in French.
In fact, companies in Quebec legally require all documentation of business transactions to be done in French.
In other words, if American companies want to work with Quebecois consumers, they need to learn the “please” and “thank you” basics of “merci” and “s’il vous plaît.”
Indeed, considering the 55 countries where French is spoken across five continents, the global economy has now spread to over 200 million French-speaking consumers worldwide.
Wisconsin businesses that encourage (or require) the use of French among their employees also include Case Corporation, QTI, Kimberly-Clark, Kuhn North America, Master Lock International and Kohler.
While businesses find a healthy supply of Spanish speakers to fill jobs, Schroeder admits that French-speaking employees are more difficult to find, leading businesses to post jobs and then discover very few qualified applicants.
However, for students studying French at Waterford, this is good news.
French students may not only cash in on free retro-active college credit (offered through the UW system), but they may also see that their passion for the “language of love” can translate to a highly valued skill in today’s unsteady job market.
WUHS students may begin French studies in ninth grade, with opportunities for traveling to France and earning retro-active college credit through four years of French studies.
For more information on using French in our global economy, visit www.TheWorldSpeaksFrench.org.
Karen Morgan is a French/English teacher at Waterford Union High School.
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