French-Speaking Communities: what is it exactly?

French-speaking communities gather all the people who speak French. We call them French speakers. French is not the most spoken language in the world. At the top of the list is the Mandarin (China) followed by the Hindi (India), English, Spanish and then French.

But French speakers are, yet, 123 millions in the world. Where are they headed exactly? Surely in France; but also in Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec (Canada). There are also French speakers in many other countries: in Africa (Ivory Coast, Congo, Cameroon, etc.), in Asia (Vietnam), etc. 44 countries henceforth make of French their official language.

Do you know any French speaker? Maybe you do but without knowing it! Celine Dion, for example, is a French speaker. Hergé, the drawer of Tintin, is also a French speaker.

Be careful not to mix up the French word “francophone” (which means: French speakers) and “Francophile” (which means Francophile, and refers to people who love the French culture and language). And perhaps the latter do not speak French as well as you do? ;-p