Last 'Adieu' to French as World Language?

[Nottingham]

Last 'Adieu' to French as World Language?
Sun July 6, 2003 09:07 PM ET
By Mark John
PARIS (Reuters) - It was meant as a jibe, but when a U.S. senator recently branded French a "near forgotten" language he hit Gallic sensitivities right where they hurt most.

Yet instead of outraged denials, the remark has triggered soul-searching among French intellectuals who not only concede English's pre-eminence as world "lingua franca" but fear French is being shoved off the international scene altogether.

For a country which in the past has proclaimed its tongue the language of love, global diplomacy and the universal rights of man, that would be bad news.

"What is at stake is the survival of our culture. It is a life or death matter," Jacques Viot, head of the Alliance Francaise agency which promotes French abroad, told a public debate in Paris.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=761f1a4b45d80288


more.....

I love this language but have to agree it is not a World Language anymore :bounce:

You can see how you gain power by using language.

[Maple]

1. It is an official language at the UN

and spoken in 40 countries around the world.

Including mine.

[Nottingham]

3. Oops Sorry! Ya gotta point! OUCH! Ok its a World Language

Sorry Sorry Sorry! Very Sorry!

:bounce:

backing out of room!:silly:

[Maple]

5. LOL

Sorry, I wasn't trying to sound nasty. It was just a statement.

By all means come back in the room! :D

[roughsatori]

2. You might like this

it is from Andrew Dalby's Guardian "top 10 list" of books on threatened and disappearing langauges.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/top10s/top10/0,6109,736896,00.html

[Nottingham]

4. Oh Thank you that was an Awesome article!

I have just been in Awe at the power of language and its sad to see all these Languages dying

But elvan language may be on the rise because of Tolkien

I love how Liv Tyler spoke it

:bounce:

[Maple]

7. Here's another one you will enjoy if you love French.

It's a university website.

"While any language will be useful for some jobs or for some regions, French is the only foreign language that can be useful throughout the world as well as in the United States. French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English. The International Organization of Francophonie has 51 member states and governments. Of these, 28 countries have French as an official language. French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. French and English are the only two global languages.
When deciding on a foreign language for work or school, consider that French is the language that will give you the most choices later on in your studies or your career.

French, along with English, is the official working language of

the United Nations

UNESCO

NATO

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

the International Labor Bureau

the International Olympic Committee

the 31-member Council of Europe

the European Community

the Universal Postal Union

the International Red Cross

Union of International Associations (UIA)

French is the dominant working language at

the European Court of Justice

the European Tribunal of First Instance

the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg.

the Press Room at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium

One example of the importance of French can be seen in a recent listing of international jobs (5/13/03) distributed by the US State Department: 185 required or preferred French, 124 a UN language (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), 39 Spanish, 19 Arabic, 10 Russian, 6 Portuguese, 5 German, 5 Chinese.

Of the various types of professional positions for which international organizations recruit, five required French, two Spanish, one Portuguese, and one Arabic, according to the fact sheet released by the UN Employment Information and Assistance Unit Bureau of International Organization Affairs U.S. Department of State, December 1, 2000.

http://www.majbill.vt.edu/fll/french/whyfrench.html

[Nottingham]

10. Ok Maple I surrender! LOL!! But don't ya see the AGENDA

Make all countries speak English

ReWrite History (Ann Coulter)

Take over the Media

Take hold of the Internet

You can see the Agenda and its an ongoing fight

[Maple]

13. Oh I agree

There is definitely an agenda to diss all things French and rearrange planetary belief systems, but I doubt Bush in his short sojourn is gonna eliminate world history, and take over all communications.

Delusions of grandeur that boy.;-)

[coralrf]

6. Nottingham????....reduction of the French image....

is Bush bullshit. France is not going anywhere and will continue to be one of the world’s great countries. The language, beautiful and efficient, will probably surge in popularity...the Bush effect.

[Nottingham]

9. Oh Ya know you have a great point! Reuters ran this!!!

Guess we know where Reuters is getting this Bull from!

Great points guys

I love the french language I was in Toronto and stayed extra long for breakfast because I loved the Business men speaking in French!

I love that language :bounce:

[Frederic Bastiat]

20. Beautiful - yes, efficient - your kidding right?

Can you please elaborate how the French language is supposed to be efficient? It takes me a whole lot of words to say very little.

[madrchsod]

8. if we took

all the french words out of the english language, i suppose we would all speak about as well as bush...i doubt that french will fade away anytime soon...

[Pert_UK]

11. You do speak French, don't you? No, but I do kiss that way......

J'adore parler en Francais! Vive la France et vive les Francophones!

Apologies for my awful and rusty French - it's been a while!

P.

[whirlygigspin]

12. Adieu, langue francaise!

French is as dead as a doornail.

Put it on a shelf with Latin and all the other languages
that lost the ability to evolve and meet the needs of Man.

French purists can genuflect all they want at the altar of
the french language.

"Ca ne ce dit pas en francais" killed it.


Evolve or Die.

[Maple]

14. LOL

Surely you jest.

You speak French everyday without realizing it.

[Isere]

24. The future for French

I have to somewhat aqree with this post. The French language is slow to evolve and slow to incorporate new words, especially when you compare it with English which is amazingly malleable.

I think, however, that English has overtaken French as a world language largely because of the economic dominance of America and not because of anything inherently superior in the English language.

French will continue as a world language because it will continue to be spoken in Canada, France, North Africa and sub-saharan Africa.

Toutefois, j'aime la France et le francais et je m'en fous si ca ne se dit pas en francais!

[Tinoire]

15. French will always be the language of LOVE!

There are things you can say in French that oh la la...! ;-)

[Pert_UK]

16. A comic poem for French speakers.....

Firstly, apologies for the spelling / grammar - I've only heard this done once and that was about 5 years ago, so I'm going on memory and my appalling knowledge of French.

2, this poem was done by a very funny stand-up comedian. A British guy, but I can't remember his name. I'll try to find it to credit him with it:

Le pomme de terre
Le pomme de terre
C'est tout pour moi
Le pomme de terre

La vie sans le pomme de terre est comme le poisson sans la mer
Elle est comme le train sans le chemin de fer.....

Oui, c'est tout pour moi le pomme de terre.......

Est pour lui aussi - l'homme derriere.

Monsieur Pert

[Maple]

18. Very good!

If there was an applause icon on here, I'd use it!

[legin]

17. You may want to check this one

If you can speak 5 languages, English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Portugese, if you pick any country at random on the planet you have a 50:50 chance of being able to speak the language of that country.

I think.

[Bushfire]

19. J'espere de trouver emploi en francais

mon amis. C'est une grande langue, pour tout les personnes de la monde.

[Iris]

21. the language will die because teenagers use English slang?

Ok. It may not have said they use slang, but teenagers are using English words.

I would not be caught dead using some of the language I used as a teenager. For one thing, it was mostly stupid and for another it would make me look like an old lady.

I'll be brushing up on my French anyway because I'm going back for my master's and plan to use French as my foreign language to be fluent in! This is just more inspiration.

[ze_dscherman]

22. Too bad

Well, I'm not the one to decry this, since my french is rather poor, but

I just read an article in our local (German) newspaper that some high schools had difficulties to put up French courses due to lack of students. More and more students choose Spanish as second foreign language. English is obligatory.

But, to be true, I found the French being not very helpful with me trying to speak their language. Maybe it was just to painful to their sense of culture.

:evilgrin:

[ThomasJefferson]

23. hello salut à tous!

I like the articles when a US senator "hightly francophobian" who bashed the french along last mounth try to say that "french or France is in full decline" french language!

view that narrow minded anglo saxon ares nationalistic and emperialists, they would be happy to bash and get to the world somes more lies, French language is almost dead because the might of USA, lol, Japan empire was the most powerfull and actually they have the 2th economic and technologic power, who speak japanese?

English is a poor language, easy to learn and short to write, a kind of "light" french, yes because english language use 40% of french words, or roots!

till the 16th centuries, there wasn't any noble or kings into UK who was using "english language", after joan ark, the british stated that the official language will be "english" as the poor US senator stated the french fries will be freedom fries, lol!

anyway, Richard lion heart never spoke a proper word of english "too primitive" it's a bit like the lions, the roses, and the "dieu est mon droit", all that from France.

as about spanish and other learning english first, they learn it 2 times more easy than French or German or Russian, but after they learn french while the rest of thier life, it's because today the english language is the most poorly spoken language, when you learn French, who is a more complex laguage and gramar, you have no choice but speak well or not at all, that bring more stuffs in your life.

i will say as US intellectual said, the french is the language of mind and dreams, and english the language of easy buisness.

i will put "" to french words or from french words that you wrote

(Well, I'm "not" the one to "decry" this, since my french is rather "poor", but

I "just" read an "article" in our "local" (German) "newspaper" that some high "schools" had "difficulties" to put up French "courses" "due" to lack of "students". More and more "students" "choose" Spanish as "second" foreign "language". English is "obligatory".

But, to be true, I "found" the French being not very helpful with me trying to speak "their" "language". Maybe it was "just" to "painful" to their "sense" of "culture".)

Yes you almost was speaking french! hey hey!

Personally i prefert that english is more easy to learn and go throut the world, many peoples haven't times to learn others more rich and stronger language,facts say it's the most wrongly spoken language in the world, a german friend said me that he speak english with english, but have more feelings throuth the french language with his french fella than with the anglophone fella, that chat go more deeper, a english friend said to me that the dutch was speaking better english than the english peoples, but comparison stop here, there ares 150 english , or from english words into our language, more than 40% of french into english one!

When US artists come in France , they almost all speak french!

different languages, for different class of peoples.