Why French Matters:
French in the US & Delaware Valley
France in America
Why French Also Matters
I. People.
Nearly 1-in-5 people, or 47 million U.S. residents age 5 and older, spoke a language other than English at home in 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau said. That was an increase of 15 million people since 1990.
The report, Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000, said that 55 percent of the people who spoke a language other than English at home also reported they spoke English "very well." Combined with those who spoke only English at home, 92 percent of the population age 5 and over had no difficulty speaking English.
After English and Spanish, Chinese was the language most commonly spoken at home (2.0 million speakers), followed by French (1.6 million speakers) and German (1.4 million speakers). Of the 20 non-English languages most frequently spoken at home, the largest proportional increase was for Russian speakers, who nearly tripled from 242,000 to 706,000. The second largest increase was for French Creole speakers (the language group that includes Haitian Creoles), whose numbers more than doubled from 188,000 to 453,000.
In the state of New Jersey, there are approximately 40,000 people who speak French at home, and more than 21,000 who speak French Creole.
[Source: http://www.census.gov/]
II. Business.
The French-American Chamber of Commerce of Philadelphia reports significant French business investment in the Delaware Valley, and underscores the continuing globalization of American companies. In fact, the French-American Chamber of Commerce of Philadelphia has grown since 1989 to become the second largest chapter in the 23-city network. They also rank as the largest of 14 bi-national chambers of commerce in the region.
There is an FACC membership category to suit companies of every size. Business leaders from almost every industry are represented: banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, technology, strategic consulting, accounting, law, manufacturing, media, advertising, design, travel, real estate and education. Their membership also features many small and medium-sized businesses, including fine restaurants, art galleries, gourmet food importers and a local winery.
Members of the FACC include:
| FACC Ambassador Members: | |
| Arkema Inc. Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll Commerce Bank DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP Ernst & Young LLP HSBC Bank USA KPMG LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Piper Rudnick LLP |
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Reed Smith LLP Rohm and Haas Company Sanofi-Synthelabo Sartomer Company SEI Investments Sonepar North America Total American Services Wolf Block LLP Wyeth Pharmaceuticals |
| Senior Corporate Members: | |
| Air France Asher & Company, Ltd. Barry Callebaut USA, Inc. BNP Paribas Brokerage Services Cephalon, Inc. Citizens Bank Hoyle, Fickler, Herschel & Mathes LLP |
Industeel USA, Inc. Marsh USA Product Investigations, Inc. Saint-Gobain Corporation Sofitel Philadelphia US Airways |
| Associate Corporate Members: | |
| AFL Productions & Communications Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. All American Dairy Products, Inc. All-Clad Metalcrafters LLC Ansoft Corporation Applied Psychology and Anthropology Archer & Greiner, PC AREVA T&D, Inc. Artoria Limoges Assouline & Ting, Inc. Aventis Pasteur Beach Lloyd Publishers Beacon Container Corp. Binswanger International, Ltd. Blanchet Management P.C. Boiron USA Bower Lewis Thrower Caesar Rivise Bernstein Cohen and Pokotilow, Ltd. Calderwood Gallery Caviar Assouline C&D International Dynamix Cegedim USA, Inc. Chiral Technologies, Inc. City Tavern Delahaye Blue Ribbon Demarle USA, Inc. Domaine de Beauregard Doorways, Ltd. Duane Morris LLP Engineered Arresting Systems Fête Fox Rothschild LLP GlaxoSmithKline Global Exchange Group Golder Associates Grosfillex, Inc. Grubb & Ellis Company Hood & Co., Inc. |
IMPAX Marketing Group Invest in France Agency Just France Karr Barth Private Client Group, LLC Klasko, Rulon, Stock & Seltzer LLP Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel Lainière de Picardie, Inc. Ligne Roset LinguaCall International, Inc. Liquidnoise, Inc. Loews Philadelphia Hotel MEDAL LLP Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Metalimphy Precision Alloys, Inc. The MIGroup Milton J. Moser Associates, Inc. Moore Brothers Wine Company Newman Galleries NOVASEP, Inc. PECO Energy Perrier Signature Restaurants Phila. Convention & Visitors Bureau Prudential Fox & Roach Psyma International Inc. Radisson Plaza - Warwick Hotel Radnor Hotel RealArts Media Rhodia Right Management Consultants Sandia Imaging Systems Sheraton Society Hill Sovereign Bank Steel, Rudnick & Ruben Sylvester & Keating, Inc. Telelingua Translations TIMAC USA Town Place Travel Twenty21 Yves Rocher |
| Nonprofit Members: | |
| Alliance Française Alsace/USA, Alsace Development Agency Chestnut Hill College Drexel University Greater Phila. Chamber of Commerce Greater Phila. Tourism & Marketing Corp. |
International House Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Phila. Museum of Art/Rodin Museum Phila. Regional Port Authority Philadelphie Accueil World Affairs Council |
[Source: http://www.faccphila.org/]