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France and French people
France
France (English i/ˈfræns/ franss or /ˈfrɑːns/ frahnss; French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française French pronunciation: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic located mostly in Western Europe,[note 12] with several overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. From its shape, it is often referred to in French as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon").
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France is the largest country in Western Europe and the third-largest in Europe as a whole. It possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military, and political influence in Europe and around the world.[6] France has its main ideals expressed in the 18th-century Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second-largest colonial empire of the time, ruling large portions of first North America and India and then Northwest and Central Africa; Madagascar; Indochina and southeast China; and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
France is a developed country,[7] possessing the world's fifth-largest and Europe's second-largest economy by nominal GDP. It is also the world's ninth-largest by GDP at purchasing power parity.[8] France is the wealthiest nation in Europe – and the fourth-wealthiest in the world – in aggregate household wealth.[9] French citizens enjoy a high standard of living, high public education level, and one of the world's longest life expectancies.[10] France has been listed as the world's "best overall health care" provider by the World Health Organization.[11] It is the most-visited country in the world, receiving 79.5 million foreign tourists annually.[12]
France has the world's fifth-largest nominal military budget,[13] as well as (in terms of personnel) the largest military in the EU,[citation needed] the third-largest deployable force in NATO, and the 26th-largest military in the world. France also possesses the third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world[14] – with around 300 active warheads as of 25 May 2010 – and the world's second-largest diplomatic corps (behind the United States).[15] France is a founding member of the United Nations, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, and the Latin Union. It is also a founding and leading member state of the European Union and the largest EU state by area.[16] In 2013, France was listed 20th on the Human Development Index and, in 2010, 24th on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France
French people
The French (French: Français) are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups. Within France, the French are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence.[27]
However, the word can also refer to people of French descent who are found in other countries, with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as Canada (French Canadians), United States (French Americans), Argentina (French Argentines), United Kingdom (French British), Brazil (French Brazilians) and French West Indies (French Caribbean), and some of them have a French cultural identity.[28][29]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people
French language
French (le français [lə fʁɑ̃sɛ] ( listen) or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick (Acadia region) in Canada, the U.S. state of Maine, the Acadiana region of the U.S. state of Louisiana, and by various communities elsewhere. Other speakers of French, who often speak it as a second language,[3] are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of whom reside in Francophone Africa.[4] In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon (where 80% report fluency),[4] Mauritius (78%), Algeria (75%), Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire (70%). French is estimated as having 110 million[3] native speakers and 190 million more second language speakers.[5]
French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Lombard, Catalan, Sicilian and Sardinian. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in Belgium, which French has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian.
French is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form la francophonie (in French), the community of French-speaking countries. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to France's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, 77 million in Europe speak French natively. Outside of France, the highest numbers of French speakers are found in Belgium (45% of the population), Switzerland (20% of the population) and Luxembourg. In 2013, the Ministry identified French as the second most spoken language in Europe, after German and before English.[6] Twenty percent of non-Francophone Europeans know how to speak French,[clarification needed] totaling roughly 145.6 million people in Europe alone.[7] As a result of extensive colonial ambitions of France and Belgium (at that time governed by a French-speaking elite), between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to colonies in the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, the Levant, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.
According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, French speakers will number approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million people, or approximately 7% of the world's population by 2050.[8][9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language
French Proverbs
Advice
¶ Rome was not built in a day.
Fire
¶ Fire is put out by fire.
Hero
¶ No man is a hero to his valet.
Knowledge
¶ Knowledge finds its price.
Life
¶ Man proposes and God disposes.
Love
¶ He has a very hard heart that does not love in May.
¶ Love makes time pass; time makes love pass.
Self-discipline
¶ He who can lick can bite.
References
France
[6]^ "Great Powers – Encarta. MSN. 2008". Webcitation.org. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
[7]^ Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development. Human Development Report 2009. the United Nations Development Programme. New York. ISBN 978-0-230-23904-3
[8]^ Field listing – GDP (official exchange rate), CIA World Factbook
[9]^ Credit Suisse 2010's Global Wealth Report "In euro and USD terms, the total wealth of French households is very sizeable. Although it has just 1.1% of the world's adults, France ranks fourth among nations in aggregate household wealth – behind China and just ahead of Germany. Europe as a whole accounts for 35% of the individuals in the global top 1%, but France itself contributes a quarter of the European contingent."
[10]^ "World Population Prospects – The 2006 Revision" (PDF). UN. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
[11]^ "World Health Organization Assesses the World's Health Systems". Who.int. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
[12]^ a b "UNWTO Highlights" (PDF). United Nations World Tourism Organization. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
[13]^ a b "SIPRI Yearbook 2012 - 15 countries with the highest military expenditure in 2011". Sipri.org. Retrieved 2013-04-25.
[14]^ "Federation of American Scientists : Status of World Nuclear Forces". Fas.org. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
[15]^ "France-Diplomatie". Diplomatie.gouv.fr. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
[16]^ a b France on Europa Official Site
French people
[27]^ a b c "France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion", Constitution of 4 October 1958
[28]^ Alexandra Hughes, Alex Hughes, Keith A Reader, Keith Reader -Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture - p 232. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
[29]^ Countries and Their Cultures French Canadians - everyculture.com Retrieved 12 April 2013.
French language
[3]^ a b c d "L’aménagement linguistique dans le monde". CEFAN (Chaire pour le développement de la recherché sur la culture d’expression française en Amérique du Nord, Université Laval (in French). Jacques Leclerc. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
[4]^ a b c d (French) La Francophonie dans le monde 2006–2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007.
[5]^ a b The World's 10 Most Influential Languages Top Languages. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
[6]^ "The status of French in the world". France Diplomatie. Ministère des Affaires étrangères. 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
[7]^ "Why learn French". Canadian Parents For French (Ontario). Retrieved 21 April 2010.
[8]^ "Agora: La francophonie de demain". Retrieved 13 June 2011.
[9]^ "Bulletin de liaison du réseau démographie". Retrieved 14 June 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language
