The French Language
French (français) is a Romance language, and one of the most widely spoken languages in the world: 220 million people speak French, including 115 million native speakers. The French language originated in France, but in the modern day it is spoken all over the world; it is an official language of 29 different countries, an important business, cultural, or minority language in dozens of other countries and regions, and is used officially by scores of international organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Olympic Committee.
Aside from France itself, French is widely spoken in many other parts of Europe, including the southern half of Belgium (Wallonia and Brussels), western Switzerland, Monaco and Luxembourg. A significant number of speakers are also found on most of the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, and Sark but not Alderney, where the local Francophone community died out some time after the Second World War), and the Aosta Valley of northwestern Italy.
In the Americas, French is spoken primarily in the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, the northern and eastern parts of Ontario and around the Winnipeg area of Manitoba. Although Canada is an officially bilingual nation and there are Francophone enclaves in almost every province, it should be noted that outside these four provinces, it's quite rare to encounter anyone in Canada who speaks more than a few words of French without specifically hunting down those off-the-beaten-track French-speaking communities. French is also spoken in a few parts of the United States, namely parts of Louisiana and northern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In the Western Hemisphere, French is also the official language of Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the northern half of Saint Martin, and French Guiana, all of which are, or used to be, French colonial possessions.
Elsewhere, French is an official language of many former colonies in Africa. It is an important administrative and cultural language in the former French Southeast Asian possessions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In Oceania, French is the sole official language of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, which remain overseas departments of France today, as well as one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It has long been a language of international diplomacy and communication, and although largely supplanted by English since World War II, it remains de rigueur for educated people in many societies around the world to have some level of basic French ability.
The varieties of French which are spoken in Belgium and Switzerland differ slightly from the French spoken in France, though they are similar enough to be mutually intelligible. In particular, the numbering system in French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland has some slight peculiarities that are significantly different from the French spoken in France. Nevertheless, all French-speaking Belgians and Swiss would have learned standard French in school, so they would be able to understand you even if you used the standard French numbering system.
There are many differences between the French spoken in Quebec and that spoken in France. The two main differences are that Quebec has retained many 18th & 19th century French words, while in France the language has incorporated many English words. Nevertheless, all Francophone Canadians, including Quebecois, learn standard French in school. This means that while you may not understand conversation among locals, they will be able to converse with you in standard French if required.
Aside from Europe & Canada, many French-speaking regions have incorporated the words of local languages and on occasion have formed distinctive dialects or languages known as Creole.