FRENCH 'USEFUL', ENGLISH 'ESSENTIAL': EU OFFICIALS

BRUSSELS March 26, 2006 (AFP) - Whether France likes it or not, the dominance of the English language has grown and continues to grow in the European Union, bolstered notably by the arrival of 10 mostly ex-communist countries to the bloc in 2004.

"French is very useful and sometimes necessary in Brussels. But English is essential. There are many groups that work only in English," said Zbigniew Gniatkowski, a spokesman for the Polish embassy to the European Union. Back home in Poland, "everyone wants to learn English" especially because of its association with music, US culture and the internet, added 33-year-old Gniatkowski, who arrived in Brussels shortly after his country entered the EU.

[S]tatistics show that in 1997, 40 percent of European Commission documents were first drawn up in French before being translated, and 45 percent were originally drafted in English. By 2004, just 26 percent of documents were in French in their first form, and 62 percent in English.

A former EU functionary writes the Guardian that Jack should be grateful French is in decline in the EU.

French clings on as an administrative language in a lot of the written material that circulates inside the commission, because the administration was first moulded in a French style that has been difficult to shake off. However, the predominant spoken language both in meetings and for everyday contact is now English, with written communication using English more and more. But, just as the French used in the European institutions was never really the language of Molière, but more a kind of jargonised and synthetic French, so the English used in EU affairs - and also very widely as the common vernacular of a significant percentage of the cosmopolitan populations of Brussels and Luxembourg - is emphatically not the language of Shakespeare. Euro-English is a simplified, impoverished, excessively prolix, bureaucratic and (thanks to television and cinema) Americanised dialect that bears only a superficial resemblance to the language in which your newspaper is written.

Ugh! Americans and their American English. We find it an odd conceit that the letterwriter thinks there is some sort of hermetic "language of Shakespeare", presumably writing his letter to its exacting standard. Alas, not in syntax, locutions, or cadence does his English much resemble the Bard's. Shakespeare as a poet is unmatched, but he is hardly an exemplary language standard. His works are replete with the defective English of his day. And a fair guess, were he writing today his English would be replete with unspeakable Americanisms.

But our topic is Jack and the decline of French.

CHIRAC VOWS TO FIGHT GROWING USE OF ENGLISH

March 25, 2006 (Guardian) - Jacques Chirac pledged yesterday to fight the spread of the English language across the world as he defended his decision to walk out of an EU summit after a French business leader abandoned his mother tongue.

"I was profoundly shocked to see a Frenchman express himself in English at the table."

With the internet fast turning English into the world's first language, Mr Chirac insisted that he would continue to promote French, which is spoken as a mother tongue by 100 million people, a relatively small number.

"You cannot base a future world on just one language, just one culture," he said. "It would be a dramatic decline."

Yes, that one big homogenized culture, what is it? Americo-Anglo-Irish-Australian-Canadian-New-Zealand-South-African-Hong-Kong culture, that one? Not to worry, Jack, the UN Culture Police are on the case even now.

For the French-language Belgian daily Le Soir, the lesson is clear. In the wake of the Chirac incident, the paper said Friday: "French no longer has a monopoly in Europe. Perhaps it's time to wake the President up?"

Wake-up e-mails can be sent here. Or write sleepyhead-of-state Jack at:

Monsieur le Président de la République
Palais de l'Elysée [sic]*
55, rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris FRANCE

Just a caution, Jack likes his correspondence in French.

* Special points for the correct orthography: Palais de l'Élysée.

PFFT (What is this?): Wakey-wakey 4 | Rayonnement français 0

In Zoomer's usage, why is Jack being so racist when it comes to English? (as once again we have to point out what the term racism means...) er... well not racist but bigoted. Yeah that's the ticket. Why is Jack so bigoted against English? Why are the French so zenophobic against "the corruption" of other cultures?

Franophiles are just as more cultural imperalists as they claim we Americans are; they just don't have the ability to bring it off. Zoomer in other threads (most notably on Damian's 2nd anniversy post) you claim others duck and run on questions. I know I have asked this of you before, but you have chosen to ignore it: If French culture was so superior, why is it losing in the marketplace of ideas? Why is Jack throwing a tantrum that someone speaks in English? I mean if your culture was so superior it should be self evident and people would make the choice to use french more.

If French culture was so superior, why is it losing in the marketplace of ideas?

"Superior" in terms of what? "Inflexible" I'll agree.

Why is Jack throwing a tantrum that someone speaks in English?

Becuase he is an idiot? Bush, who's also an idiot, threw a tantrum at a French-speaking reporter once, but for different reasons.

I mean if your culture was so superior it should be self evident and people would make the choice to use french more.

French is the other UN official language, as well as in other international organisations, maybe there's a reason for that.

French is the other UN official language...

Well, zoomer, it's not the other; rather it is one of the others.

English, Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic are all official languages of the UN.

So, why does not Jack get upset when one of the other languages besides English is spoken?

It seems his target is not the promotion of French, rather the promotion of the demotion of the use of English.

This may happen with more Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic being spoken worldwide, but I do not think it will be with French.