Oui, Je Parle English
Early this month, at the start of a new school year, French education minister Xavier Darcos promulgated that he was increasing English-language teaching in the national curriculum. He said – in French – that he was fed up with hearing that "the French do not learn English. It's a big disadvantage for international competition". By the end of compulsory schooling, he promised, all pupils should be bilingual.
French pop musicians have been way ahead of Monsieur Darcos for years. A fresh French band 'Cocoon' , has an album in stores on the Avenue des Champs Elysées, titled: "My Friends All Died in a Plane Crash". Perhaps the subtitle should be, "My Musical Career Died
When I Continued to Sing in French". (Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf must be turning in their graves).
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is quite pro-American, although he does not speak much English himself. His wife, Carla Bruni, has a track in English on her latest album.
The spread of English throughout the European Union has been cause for concern for some governments, not just the French. With the spread of the EU into the former Soviet Bloc, there are now 22 official EU languages. As we reported yesterday, the new EuroparlTV web channel unveiled to bring the delights of the European Parliament to the people will broadcast translations in all of these, a factor which its accounts must be acutely aware of.
While no-one in the EU wants to downplay the cultural value of the national languages of smaller nations, many worry that it is difficult to discuss policy or business across linguistic divides. Translations are a pain, too. In time, cross-EU immigration will deal with the lack of linguists able to translate between, say, Portuguese and Latvian, of course.
English is swiftly taking the role of lingua franca in Europe. And how this must irritate the French, who made much less of a fuss about cultural diversity in Europe when the lingua franca was, er, French.
Yesterday, a Dutch academic complained that multilingualism is a "pain in the neck" and argued that fetishising minor languages had led to the dominance of English. Perhaps narrowing down the list of official languages would make more sense (though most EU papers circulate in French, English or German anyway).
The UK officially joined the EEC now known as the European Union in 1973. At the time there were nine member states. When George Thomson, one of the first of two commissioners sat down with his counterparts in Brussels at an initial meeting, one of his fellow commissioners said: "Now you will have to learn nine languages".
Thomson replied: "No. You will have to speak English". |
