Where is left poor Jack to walk-out when members of his own government admit to the English apostasy?

MAIS OUI! FRENCH BUSINESS DOES TOO SPEAK ENGLISH

SYDNEY, March 23, 2006 (AFP) - France may be committed to protecting its culture from English and American intrusions but a senior trade official Thursday conceded the Gallic tongue had been overtaken in global business.

"Of course English is the international business language," the head of France's international investment body [The French Agency for International Investment, "FAII"], Clara Gaymard,* told reporters in Sydney.

Gaymard, who is seeking to attract greater foreign investment from China, India, Australia and ASEAN nations, said that [Anglophone] investors coming to France did not need to learn another language to do business. Many French companies such as car manufacturer Renault and gas company Total already held their board meetings in English, she said.

"It's a new reality; we have to make it known," she said.

Ah, Mdm. Gaymard, Pave joins you in making this "new reality" known. Of course, the dominance of English is not unknown to the Anglophone business community. English only remains a stubborn unknown reality to the French.

Gaymard, who heads the Invest in France Agency, said that France should no longer be seen simply as an Old World nation of wine and cheese lovers but as a highly productive modern economy with a well educated workforce.

A significant segment of French labor is more precisely described as a "well educated between-crusades-for-social-justice non-workforce", or more simply "educated and unemployed".

She said that while "France is always shown as a country of strikes and demonstrations", in reality the loss of working days to labour action was much lower than in several other European nations.

And riots, Mdm. Gaymard. Strikes, demonstrations, and riots. Time lost to recurring riots, ah, well, mes amis, who knows?

* We like Mdm. Gaymard and her spunk. Mother of eight, tireless advocate for French business, and a spirited straight-talker, her success comes from promoting the promotable in France, NOT defending the indefensible in France.

All in all, it would appear [Mdm/ Gaymard's] campaign is having a net positive result. IFA reports the number of jobs created in France by foreign companies in 2004 rose more than 8% year-over-year to 29,578. U.S. businesses were particularly Francophilic in 2004, creating 8,248 jobs, up 26% from the previous year's level.

"We know France has problems," Gaymard said,"but we're not going to sweep them under the rug. Our approach is to say we recognize the situation and we're working on it."

Mdm. Gaymard is married to the short-lived Finance Minister, Hervé Gaymard. In the musical chairs of French government, the luckless Mr. Gaymard is that rarest of French phenomena, a disgraced minister who could not scramble to some other cabinet chair (see footnote).

PFFT (What is this?): New reality 5 | Rayonnement français 0