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French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

independent.co.uk

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Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#151

Post by MarkLowenstein »

WalterBright wrote: post #92
heinrichhartman wrote: post #19

The 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…

Isn't it ironic that English is the Lingua Franca?

Thank you! I'm always saying "English is the Lingua Franca of the tech world"...and no one ever gets the joke.

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#152

Post by mywittyname »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #91
heinrichhartman wrote: post #19

The 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…

If you give Dutch politicians the choice of speaking French or Dutch with translators in an international meeting they will use English. But I don't think the French really care about how other cultures work. It's all nationalist nonsense and living in the glorious past for them. See Strasbourg.

This behavior isn't limited to France. French Canada sure would like it if more people spoke French.

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#153

Post by lamontcg »

They should just flip the ECs English Style Guide to use Americanisms whenever possible (short of flipping the date and numerical formats or using freedum units).

Teach everyone to spell it "color" in Europe if you want to be petty back at the Brits.

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#154

Post by Semiapies »

mannerheim wrote: post #56
Apocryphon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shame there's no real-world interest in the powers that be to officialize Esperanto.

What would be the point? Might as well make Klingon an official language.

Too many people actually speak Klingon, and it was invented in the US. Non-starter.

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#155

Post by Cu3PO42 »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #23

I 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…

Ireland, however, is still a part of the EU.

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#156

Post by vram22 »

WalterBright wrote: post #92
heinrichhartman wrote: post #19

The 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…

Isn't it ironic that English is the Lingua Franca?

Bon mot. Let's make French the Lingua Anglia (or should that be Langue Angleterre). #PardonMyFrench #PardonnezMoi

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#157

Post by throwawayay02 »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #91
heinrichhartman wrote: post #19

The 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…

If you give Dutch politicians the choice of speaking French or Dutch with translators in an international meeting they will use English. But I don't think the French really care about how other cultures work. It's all nationalist nonsense and living in the glorious past for them. See Strasbourg.

Honest question, what about Strasbourg?

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#158

Post by mumblemumble »

Apocryphon wrote: post #42
Tsiklon wrote: post #15

I’d have thought they would have kept English as it’s effectively a neutral language at that point - it would be convenient to avoid accusations of German or French dominance should either push for their’s in English’s place

Shame there's no real-world interest in the powers that be to officialize Esperanto.

Doing so strikes me as being impractical in the extreme. English would still be the the lingua franca in every other domain, so it would just mean that Europeans would have one additional lingua franca to have to learn. It doesn't matter how easy that language is to learn, it's still an extra, and almost certainly redundant, effort.

I'm not going to bother finding the hyperlink for the relevant xkcd comic, because we've all seen it before.

Re: French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

#160

Post by cinntaile »

mywittyname wrote: post #152
MomoXenosaga wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you give Dutch politicians the choice of speaking French or Dutch with translators in an international meeting they will use English. But I don't think the French really care about how other cultures work. It's all nationalist nonsense and living in the glorious past for them. See Strasbourg.

This behavior isn't limited to France. French Canada sure would like it if more people spoke French.

Perhaps this can be generalized? Language entitlement seems to be a thing among French speaking regions. Whether it's French Canada, French Belgium or France?
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