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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’

#201

Post by surfsvammel »

holyknight wrote: post #188
surfsvammel wrote: post #73

I used to be against the French protectionism of its language, or the fact that research papers in China was written in Chinese. 'Why not just all speak English?', I thought back then. But then I learned French. More importantly I learned that when you speak another language, at a certain level (close to fluent), you realise that language is not only about communication. Language is also about thinking. You realise t…

Almost no-one has english as first language in EU. Also most younger people speak at least 2 languages. Only older folks and people that lives in rural areas speak only one language.

I know. I am European. I've been bilingual my entire life. Today I speak four languages. The point was not that speaking two languages is enough, what I meant is that I believe having more languages around in general increases the diversity also of our ideas and thoughts. That is why I, today, feel like protecting languages have a very valid point.

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

#202

Post by fulmicoton »

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?

Not really. Lingua Franca is not really related to French.

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

#203

Post by Koshkin »

KaiserPro wrote: post #96
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…

Its the most French thing I've seen in a long time, and it make me inordinately happy. The french political class: "It eez time to stick eet to ze germans and ze eengleesh"

This has just reminded me about this:

http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/european-commission.html

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

#204

Post by svieira »

tagrun wrote: post #197
WalterBright wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, because "lingua franca" derives from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Lingua_Franca which has nothing to do with French, apart from people who didn't understand it mistook it for "French".

Part of the empire the Franks founded was named "France" and France still traces its origins to Frankish kings. So connecting a trade language spoken by the empire-before-the-empire with the empire of France doesn't seem that far off-base to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks

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

#205

Post by fangorn »

KaiserPro wrote: post #96
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…

Its the most French thing I've seen in a long time, and it make me inordinately happy. The french political class: "It eez time to stick eet to ze germans and ze eengleesh"

I suppose the next logical thing is for them to say: "I fart in your general direction".

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

#206

Post by tsimionescu »

beebeepka wrote: post #159

But French is even worse. To hell with these non-phonetical languages. I am serious. I'd take Latin over these unpredictable monstrosities any day of the week

Literary French is quite phonetic, at least outside proper names. What are some examples where you feel that French writing is not in a one to one relation with pronunciation?

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

#207

Post by smcl »

ardit33 wrote: post #187
smcl wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it's quite that simple - they've held the Presidency multiple times in this period but as far as I know they've not performed an action like this. There's certainly something going on, but it's not just a hissy fit. As others have mentioned it's only for the duration of the French presidency, it'll probably get switched to English when the Czech presidency begins.

The next Presidential elections are early next year, that's why. Macron wants to look more important/relevant, and a keeper of french values and cultural importance.

Put that way it doesn't sound much like a typical French thing or a hissy fit, but the sort of thing politicians everywhere do. It's dumb and petty and will probably backfire somehow, but there we go.

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

#208

Post by ciarcode »

throwaway-571 wrote: post #178
cipher_system wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Sweden and Germany all (guess >99%) of the french speakers speak english way better then french. The amount of english we're exposed to is so massive and the french is basically non-existent. This is such a useless egoistic move from the french, just accept that english is the lingua franca.

I’m french and most of the content i watch is also in english, made mostly by americans with an american point of views and ways of resolving problems. Sometime in british english with british point of view. I think it’s sad that that you don’t seem to realize that it’s a problem that most of the content we are exposed comes from a single culture. As for the move, it’s totally useless, and if they wanted to be strong…

I don’t understand, you think that switching to French will expose us to each single European country culture?

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

#209

Post by w0de0 »

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.

A language with no literature or culture has no business in the halls of state. Such a language is arguably not even a language in the real sense, but a code. A vernacular is needed - language must live and evolve.

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

#210

Post by Koshkin »

fangorn wrote: post #205
KaiserPro wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the most French thing I've seen in a long time, and it make me inordinately happy. The french political class: "It eez time to stick eet to ze germans and ze eengleesh"

I suppose the next logical thing is for them to say: "I fart in your general direction".

But French sounds like poetry: Je pète dans votre direction générale!
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