> when it takes over the Council of the European Union presidency in 2022
So it’s only for 6 months, then back to English.
French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
21–30 of 392 posts
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#22What does Ireland think of this?
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#23I can see the logic, since UK isn't part of the EU anymore, but considering over all amount of people who can speak and understand English vs France EU wide this is pretty silly show of power.
After all even if EU matters were done purely in french it wouldn't be "the killer feature" to make french be taught much more in schools since english is the universal business language. And even if EU states decided that they needed to start teaching another language besides english to their kids to prepare them for future employment I would actually go for chinese instead of french. Because that will be the next actual global language by the end of this century unless humanity nukes it self out of existence.
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#24This is a non-story. There are three working languages of the EU: English, French and German. Everyone in Brussels will roll their eyes, use French for six months and then revert to English because it’s the one most people speak.
Would they have done this if Brexit hadn’t happened? Yes, they would. France has a chip on its shoulder about French being replaced as the world’s lingua franca, but stunts like this aren’t going to bring it back. Not even in Brussels.
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#25The sane thing to do after the Brexit, was to embrace English as main language, since it has not become neutral ground! According to Wikipedia we have: * Germany: 56% English speakers, 14.5% French speakers * Italy: 34% English vs. 19.43% French * Spain: 22% English vs. 11.73% French * Sweden: 89% English vs. 8% French I can't get over how bad this decision is. How can you ignore these kinds of discrepancies? [1] htt…
Having it as a work language just means that they’ll pout if whatever document they’re sent isn’t in French for the 6 months they are in charge - nothing more.
No big deal.
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#26I'm currently reading a book about the Congress of Vienna and it's amazing that the Russian Tsar argued with the English ambassador in French. Here were all the rich and powerful men of Europe dividing up the continent and there wasn't a single translator needed.
The aristocrats in Russia back then probably spoke French as well as or better than Russian if Tolstoy books are to be believed.
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#27Sometimes countries insist of fighting wars that have been over for a long time. This is one example. American attitude towards China rise is another example. Now more seriously, I think what the French are trying to do is just to avoid a complete switch to English in the EU institutions. Since the start of the pandemic, most meetings which used to be multilingual (with interpretation) are now English only and nobody…
Why are they worried? English isn't English anymore. In fact it makes sense to chose a language that isn't the native language of any EU nation. (I'm squinting regarding Ireland).
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#28Only Ireland has English as their primary language of the EU so it makes sense.
English is the dominant language of Ireland, Malta (and Scotland and Wales) but as each has a "national" language and English had already been selected by the UK, Ireland nominated Irish and Malta Maltese as an official EU language.
So at the moment there is no country that has claimed English as its official language for EU purposes, thus it's legally OK to ignore anything official from or within the EU that is in English.
Malta has the population of Oakland, but most of the people there apparently speak Maltese. Ireland has about half the population of the Bay Area but only about 40% of them claim to have some facility in Irish. In both countries it appears English is universally understood and spoken. (all this info from Wikipedia FWIW).
I think it would be smart for the EU to nominate an English (of some sort) as the supranational language as it would elevate no member state over another. This same approach has worked pretty well for India, where the use of that language has a far more fraught history. But Malta or Ireland could simply take one for the team and switch their nominated language.
Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there other countries than Denmark speaking danish in the EU , or elsewhere ?
There's no other country in the EU that speaks French, either. And by numbers, German should prevail.
Your first point is incorrect: Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco [1]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/...