France: The Monolingual Island in a Multilingual Sea

It's understandable to want to go to the most genuine source of French... at least the one we perceive to be most genuine.

This being said, there are 4 main countries in Europe where French is spoken as a native language. Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland And France. Who's the odd man out?

There's only one where no second language is recognized and effectively makes it a pure monolingual country. The key word here is “normality” - in 3 of these countries, growing up in a plurality of languages and cultures is normal. From a very young age, seeing street signs in several languages, living with people who spoke different languages than your own.

We're not saying that people from Luxo, Belgium and Swiss are all linguistic prodigies. But we are saying that it shapes their outlook on life, as people and as teachers.

Special thanks to AI for generating this beautiful map!