Why I’m Glad I Studied French

Studying French taught me to see the world through a new cultural lens. It showed me how much our perception of the world around us is constructed from the language we use to interpret it.   

Studying French introduced me to people I never would have met otherwise. It connected me with friends and mentors that I will cherish for the rest of my life. 

Studying French opened doors for me that I never could have imagined. It took me across the Atlantic to study at one of Europe’s most prestigious public universities  

Above all else, studying French give me the confidence and adaptability that kickstarted my career.   

My relationship with the language evolved dramatically over the years 

If you had asked me in middle school how I felt about learning a second language, I would not have held back about my disdain for it. 

At the time, learning a language felt like an endless cycle of memorization. I would spend hours flipping through flashcards, committing dozens of vocabulary words to memory only to forget them a few weeks later. 

French quickly became my most frustrating subject. I was putting in all the effort I could but struggled to make progress. My grades reflected that frustration, and my motivation continued to slip through high school. 

Instead of engaging deeply with the language, I was just trying to get by. I relied heavily on English translations of readings just to keep up, focusing more on completing each assignment than actually mastering French. I survived class by class, counting down the days until I could give up completely.   

When I got to college, I was required to take two semesters of a foreign language, and I decided to get them out of the way as quickly as possible. 

A Fresh Start: When Learning Finally Clicked 

On the first day of my college French class, there were eight desks arranged in a circle. No textbooks. No flashcards. No worksheets. The professor sat with us, not in front of us. And for the first week did nothing but converse (in French). 

We talked about our lives, our transition to college, and our past experiences learning the language. It wasn’t about perfection; it was about communication. That simple shift changed everything. For the first time, French felt like a living language instead of a memorization exercise. 

As the semester progressed, we returned to grammar and vocabulary. Now, those elements had context. They supported conversations rather than replacing them. I became more comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and actually engaging with the language. 

I signed up for another French class the next semester. Then another. 

By the end of my sophomore year, I realized that if I studied abroad in France, I could take Communication courses in French and have them count toward both of my majors. 

That decision changed the trajectory of my life. 

Gaining Confidence Through Immersion 

Studying abroad immersed me in the language and culture in a way that no classroom ever could. I traveled across Europe, built friendships that still shape my life today, and developed a level of confidence I didn’t know I had.  

I was learning without fear. Each day tested my confidence: from ordering a sandwich to asking a question in a 300-person lecture hall. I was constantly throwing sentences together without regard for conjugations or agreement. My sole goal was bare bones communication. 

“Ehhh une sandwiche, fromage?” eventually became “Bonjour! Un sandwich au fromage si vous plait,” which eventually turned into daily banter with the local boulanger. 

By spending afternoons in neighborhood cafés and navigating local markets, I was absorbing the rhythm of the language. I stopped translating every word and started thinking in French. 

My mind was once filled with anxiety around French; now, it was filled with the language itself. Waking up after having my first dream in French was one of the most memorable mornings of my months abroad. The dream itself is lost from memory, but the sense of accomplishment I woke up with leaves me full of pride to this day.  

French was no longer just a language I was studying. It had become a part of me.  

This experience gave me a profound sense of self-reliance. Navigating a foreign culture forced me outside my comfort zone, turning once “scary” interactions into milestones of growth and confidence. A subject that felt like a constant headwind in high school was now the wind in my sails.   

The impact of learning French didn’t stop there. 

From One Language to Another 

In an interview for a management training program during my senior year, a recruiter mentioned they were actively seeking language majors for their company’s software development track. They believed that learning code was just like learning a new language.

I took a leap of faith and accepted the offer with no prior software experience.  

At first, I didn’t recognize the connection between French and JavaScript. Every day felt like drinking a fountain of knowledge from a firehouse. That sensation was familiar to me… 

I was immediately brough back to my first few days studying abroad. I realized I couldn’t learn to code by memorizing bits and pieces of the language on “how-to” guides and wikis. I had to move away from memorization towards immersion, just as I had done with French. 

Instead of writing out all my logic then translating it to code, I pushed myself to start thinking “in code.” With this new challenge, I was able to leap right over the fear of failure that held me back so much in my high school French classes.   

I dove into projects headfirst, writing out rough code the same way that I started my time in France by throwing together sentences. I wasn’t focused on perfection—just communication. I had confidence in myself that mastery would come with time. If I could get a program up and running, I could focus on refining it afterwards.   

Within months, I was designing and building internal websites from scratch. 

From Struggle to Strength  

French never felt as “hard” as Math or Science for me in high school, but it was an exhausting force in my life that I couldn’t understand the value of pushing through. In time, what started as my most frustrating subject became one of the most valuable parts of my education. 

For students plagued by perfection, persevering through weaker subjects becomes an invaluable lesson in patience and confidence. I wanted to avoid French in college because I didn’t think I would succeed with it—I didn’t think my grade-motivated mental reward system would be gratified by my investment in the subject.  

It’s important to remember that how you learn matters just as much as what you’re learning. Seeing a new way of learning French was the catalyst for growth. Had I not given it one last chance, I can’t imagine how different my life would be.

For your student, the right support can make all the difference. When students engage with material in a meaningful, applied way, their confidence can change dramatically. 

Often, the subjects that challenge us the most end up teaching us the most.