French

Would you like to be able to chat with a winemaker in the Loire Valley? Discuss the menu with a waiter in a Parisian café? Frequent the Latin Quarter and talk about existentialism in the Café de la Sorbonne? A degree in French at Waikato is the place to start.

French is one of the world's most important languages, being widely used in commerce and diplomacy. The role of France in European history and civilization means that French culture has an influence which extends all around the world. Including French in your university studies gives you many advantages:

• If you want to work overseas, knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is a bonus. English is not as universally recognised as you might think, and the ability to communicate in another language makes a big difference.
• If your career plans involve international marketing or hotel management, French is an asset. New Caledonia and French Polynesia are both near neighbours and trading partners, while further afield there are nearly fifty territories where French is an official language.
• If your future lies in the sciences, French will give you access to a huge number of professional journals and contacts in everything from agriculture to physics.
• People. You get to communicate with people, make friends and share ideas through language. Imagine being in a café in Paris with ten other people, each from a different land, each speaking French; only your language skills let you participate.
• Personal enrichment. A foreign language opens up new worlds, through culture, literature, films and so on.
• Experience. We are all to some extent afraid of what we do not know. That fear leads us to make biased judgements about strangers and foreigners. Learning another person's language opens our minds to understanding and to other cultures.

Complementary subjects of French include Anthropology, English, History, International Languages & Cultures, Linguistics, Tourism Studies

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