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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’

#301

Post by mahkeiro »

3836293648 wrote: post #217
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…

The UK left, sure. But Ireland still exists

But Ireland did not choose English as their EU language, they chose Irish.

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

#302

Post by Barrin92 »

cipher_system wrote: post #82
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…

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 German with significantly better command of the English language than French, but I don't at all mind that France is trying to popularize French. I don't want to live in a language mono-culture and it's sad that so much focus has been on English solely.

The appeal to the popularity of English is entirely circular. Obviously you're exposed to more English if nobody makes an effort to use another language. Not an argument against changing that state of affairs.

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

#305

Post by SllX »

skissane wrote: post #299
SllX wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has a 6-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. So this is the President of France postulating that when his country takes the Presidency next year, he will use that to push French to be the next working language. I don’t know what the President of the Council of Europe does besides Chair meetings, but apparently it includes setting the language for which the meetings will be held in. S…

> I don’t know what the President of the Council of Europe does besides Chair meetings, but apparently it includes setting the language for which the meetings will be held in. Please excuse my pedantry, but you've misspoken here: the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the Council of Europe are three different things; and here you've accidentally said the third when you meant to speak of the seco…

> Please excuse my pedantry, but you've misspoken here: the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the Council of Europe are three different things; and here you've accidentally said the third

Yes, yes I did and I did not catch it, and I’m outside the Edit window as well.

It seems not even I can keep up with Europe’s love of councils.

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

#306

Post by mc32 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #302
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 German with significantly better command of the English language than French, but I don't at all mind that France is trying to popularize French. I don't want to live in a language mono-culture and it's sad that so much focus has been on English solely. The appeal to the popularity of English is entirely circular. Obviously you're exposed to more English if nobody makes an effort to use another language. Not an a…

They could all just revert to a dead language everyone used to use and be done with petty grievances. Go back to Latin.

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

#307

Post by leke »

mannerheim wrote: post #296
leke wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's a growing movement, so it's still catching on. Who knows, it could become popular enough one day.

Growing for a century and a half, still spoken by fewer people than minor dialects of minor languages.

Time is not really a good measurement in this case. It was doing quite well until it was unfortunately nearly killed off by WW2. It's recent rise in popularity has been due to the tools people have been given to create and host various forms of media and learning platforms on the internet.

If you poll, you will find today that most people will not be aware of the concept of an international auxiliary language. This gives the adoption of one (not necessarily Esperanto) some kind of hope.

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

#308

Post by leke »

beebeepka wrote: post #189
leke wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. I struggled with Esperanto for 10 years, only to give up and try Ido.

What's your native tongue? I guess that would make non insignificant difference

English and a long time Finnish learner/speaker (because of migration).

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

#310

Post by musicale »

moomin wrote: post #24

This 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…

English is the new Lingua Franca. ;-)
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