There are many reasons why you should study a foreign language and its literature and culture.
As a student or academic you may want to add another skill to your academic repertoire. You may want to read key texts in your discipline in the original.Learning a foreign language is one of the most enriching experiences in anybody's education. Studying a foreign language, after all, is not only about how to order a beer or food in a restaurant or how to read a map. It entails exploring a way of life, a different culture and the traditions of another country.
You may want to become a teacher, a professional translator, or a journalist with access to a language and a culture besides English. You are interested in literature and want to expand your knowledge beyond the limits of your mother tongue. Or you may just simply want to encounter another culture to widen your horizon.
Together with sizeable French-speaking minorities in Africa, Canada and the US, there are more than 72 million native French speakers. And then there are the millions all over the world who have learned French as a second or third language. That makes more than 124,000,000 people the world over with whom you can communicate in French!
French shares 89% lexical similarity with Italian, 75% with Portuguese, Rumanian, and Spanish, 29% with German, and 27% with English. That makes French a very useful language to help you comprehend many of the most important languages of the world!
"For overseas consumption, it's good enough to communicate
in English". Nothing could be further from the truth. Any real interaction,
may it be commercial, political or academic is only possible on the basis
of a sound understanding of your partner, his or her language and culture.
Learning another language is never a waste of time. A foreign language
may be your most important tool! 
See
On
the importance of knowing French
French
may be the most practical foreign language
What
occupations and professions rely on French?
75
good reasons to study French
