I know it’s a little bit silly to write something in English meant for people who don’t speak English.

Actually, my first idea was to send it to my cousin who is an English teacher. I wanted to suggest to her to print this article to give to her students.

But I would be happy to inspire more Frenchies, our English is just ridiculous compared to people from other western countries.

So please, share my message if you understand.

When I was young, I would have loved to know what I’m going to tell you.

My name is Etienne, I’m 24, I’m French, and I’m traveling around the world for one year.

Two years ago, I did not plan to travel as I do today. I was living in Lyon, I started working and there was just no reason for me to learn English.

I started travelling 7 months ago and one of the first things I realised is that my English was very bad. I can sincerly tell you that I regret the time I spent making trouble during English lessons.

In France, English is not really important at school.

« Why should we learn another language? We are French! »

I would like to explain to you how English has changed my life, and how it can change yours.

1) You can meet a lot more people.

As I sit here looking at my Facebook messages, 50% are in English. I have friends from India, Sweden, Germany, Holand, Norway, England, South Africa, Poland, Kenya, Korea, Taiwan and many other countries.

I guess you know how we communicate? Yes, in English.

Foreigners have different ways of thinking, differents cultures and sometimes different humour.

It is really interesting to exchange with them, they have definitly made my life richer.

25% of the 7 billion humans on Earth speak English. There are almost 2 billion potiential new friends for you!

And if you meet more people from everywhere, you will automatically discover more religions, more beliefs, which will bring you new values.

You will maybe realise that you can’t judge somebody because of their race or religion and understand that money is not the most important thing in life.

2) The « brain of the world » is in English.

I really believe in this metaphor as most of our knowledge is translated into English, the universal language. When you go on the Internet in order to find information, you will see that if you ask what you want to know in English, you will have many more answers.

There is also an amazing community around TED.com. On this website, you can find conferences about anything from the best specialists from all over the world. Obviously, they all speak in English. If you are a doctor, teacher, sportsman, plumber, chef, veterinarian or unemployed, you will find speeches that will enhance your way of thinking and make your life more creative. They inspire me everyday.

After all, most movies or series you are watching are translated. The quality is so much better in its original version and I swear that Barney Stinson’s jokes are a lot funnier in English.

3) Boost your own brain

It has now been proven by many of scientific studies, that learning a new language is good for your brain.

You can improve your memory, become more creative and psychologists say that you can also improve your decision making skills.

They also think that it can protect you from neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s Disease

I sincerly believe in all of these theories.

The conclusion is pretty easy: I have more friends, I feel more creative and I have this amazing ability to communicate with anybody. So today, I would like to apologise to all of my ex-English teachers for my trouble-making in class! We should be proud that we have a lovely language, which lots of people would like to learn…unfortunately for us, the world is not speaking French.