Common, having a common language is seen as a threat to the languages and therefore the cultures of other countries. How would you like it if fifty years from now Spanish became an official language of the US and you had to learn it to get a job?

And yaddablah saves the thread!

leperboy69
Ah, a healthy dash of Francophobia on a Friday. Lub it.

Being in response to Chirac's Anglophobia, it makes it doubly wonderful.

Most business meetings in Europe where people from many different countries meet tend to be spoken in English. Engineers collaborating on international projects most of the time speak and write English in the communication.

It is the only language most people know. It works well, except in some cases when you are dealing with French engineers (this is why I like French engineers of arab descent, they are a lot more ambitious with language).

When older people from the new member countries are present, they somethimes don't speak English (because they had to study russian in school), but they usually bring someone to translate from English to their language.

Somehow, this is not supposed to work in the EU, according to the French. Apparently, the politicians are too stupid to speak English like normal people do.

Good luck, sticking to this, France! The people in the new eastern countries will learn English, not many will learn French.

By insisting on a linguistic isolation for your own country and not teching reasonable English in schools, you are seriously messing up your situation - which is already pretty bad.

omlete du frommage?

English is the Borg of languages but French is no Picard.

Seriously, can someone in France explain to me how this clown keeps himself in office? He's been president since the dawn of time, it seems.

So the guy was speaking French, then spoke in English. Seeing as how both of those are "official" languages of the EU isn't that simply a demonstration of multinationality and generally good for a businessman to be able to do?

Chirac should worry more about the kids speaking revolution than the rich old men speaking English.

Gggg, I totally agree with you; Esperanto it shall be! We should get together later to have some brews and watch "Incubus".

/Denny Crane!

Frog loving cheese monkey?

At least he was able to escape.

Silly Negr...frogs, yep
frogs, that's the ticket

Everybody in Amsterdam spoke English. They used us as "Target Practice" for their conversational English. It was kinda nice to have people be so happy to talk with you about nothing! However, it is a bit embarrassing when they ask "How many languages do you speak?" and expect a REAL answer...

/uhhhhh, 1?

russkaya-arabskaya amerikanka

In all fairness, the only reason Americans don't have problems with languages is that everyone else on the earth (I'm not exaggerating, I swear) speaks at least some English. English could very well cause the extinction of some languages within the next century or two. Which is good for all those lazy Americans who think learning a foreign language is unpatriotic.

/not trolling, I'm aware that plenty of Americans learn other languages. But the general "let them learn English" attitude bothers me.

That attitude bothers me too. But what does that have to do with this story? It happened in the EU.

/American
//speaks some French
///prefers Japanese

Lord Summerisle are you trying to imply that some involved in politics might be somewhat less than honest? Glad that hasn't gotten from Europe to the states yet.

/I think I sprained my sarcasm muscle

All hail yaddablah (Though I have to admit I was expecting more of a C cup. Oh well)

Chirac is a big baby.

Thanks, yaddablah! I clicked it at work anyhow because our IT guy got shiatcanned yesterday, and I'm leaving for a better job offer in two weeks. Yay me!

Andric, I guess it doesn't have much to do with the story...I think I was trying to say that Americans can be pretty unreasonable about language, too. Though that doesn't excuse Chirac's being so petty.

Weep more, novice.

Remember this next time some dousche insists on english being used in the US of A.

The french are bigoted jerkwads who treat their immagrants like poop, and language snobs to boot.

Still like hanging out in France though.

russkaya-arabskaya amerikanka

I wouldn't mind - Spanish is like 2x easier to learn than French and 5x easier than English. It's the most phonetic language I can think of - the only problem you run into is that accents and dialects vary wildly.

As for Chirac - I have to say fsck him. Not because of "cheese eating surrender monkeys", not because of the Iraq war, but just because I've come to accept that French foreign policy is like Dick Cheney's wet dream. They don't give a shiat about shiat. As a Canuck, I know that most of us were against the Iraq war because it was a bad, unjust idea. With the French and the Russians, I'm quite sure that they just were siding with their oil-buddy. Look at the French attitude to Darfur. Plus there was the nuclear weapons testing in the '90s, and the trainwreck that is French colonial Africa.

NCg8r:

"However, it is a bit embarrassing when they ask "How many languages do you speak?" and expect a REAL answer..."


I just told my European friends that (i lived in NY at the time) if I needed to know another language to communicate with people in Connecticut or New Jersey then I'd learn one.

ribbit, ribbit!

2006-03-24 10:07:02 AM Animatronik the French are rather annoying in how they view their own culture/language. back in the 90's, they required radio stations (by law) to play a certain number of French language songs every day. i love the French culture and French is probably the only foreign language I could speak with a refesher course, but they take themselves way too seriously.

Yeah they have the 'Academie Francaise' come up with french words instead of the commonly accepted english ones that have seeped through so everyone was happy with weekend being used in the french language then suddenly you have to start calling fin de semaine. You don't get english speaking countries gettign huffy cos we use the word bouquet or croissant, lighten the fark up and use which ever is shortedt and easiest to say.

2006-03-24 10:11:59 AM emjaymj

Animatronik: the French are rather annoying in how they view their own culture/language. back in the 90's, they required radio stations (by law) to play a certain number of French language songs every day.

A lot of countries have these sort of laws. I'm not sure if the songs you're talking about had to be in French or FROM France. Not much of a difference, but its very important. In Canada, we require that a certain percentage of songs are Canadian content, same with television stations regarding TV shows. It's to support the local industry because lets face it, no recording or film industry can support the budgets the United States can. It's no different than certain controls placed on the importing or exporting of goods, because that's essentially what it is.

But forcing ppl to listen to Johnny Halliday and Plastique Bertrand is just wrong and immoral

I wish I had a time machine, I'd go back and help the Germans. Why did we rescue France?!?!?! After electing Bush, that was our 2nd greatest mistake.

Vive l'fromage!

Andric: In all fairness, the only reason Americans don't have problems with languages is that everyone else on the earth (I'm not exaggerating, I swear) speaks at least some English. English could very well cause the extinction of some languages within the next cen

Also, in all fairness, the US is a pretty daggone big place: about 2/3 the size of all of europe. Which means that we can drive a long, long way and still speak the same language. Drive three hours from Dusseldorf and you might have to speak three languages to buy a pepsi and gas for your car. To make matters worse, the US boarders Canada, the vast majority of whom speak fluent english as well. And Canada goes all the way to the top 'o the earth. We only tend to speak one language (in my case 1.25, with my half @55ed espanol), because we don't really need to learn a second one.

We should as a general excersise, however. It's good for ya.

The French government has long had a huge, splinter filled stick shoved up their asses about language issues. It's one of the main reasons we see them as snobby pricks, but when Chirac acts like whiney child about it yet again, he does a great job reinforcing the stereotype.

French gov't... I'm sorry you have an inferiority complex, now get the fark over yourselves.

Omelet du fromage?

/obscure

Spanky McLapdance: Animatronik: the French are rather annoying in how they view their own culture/language. back in the 90's, they required radio stations (by law) to play a certain number of French language songs every day.

Doesn't Canada still do this? Any great white farkers out there?

Blame God. See Genesis 11:1-11:9

/Rabble rabble Babel Babel
//Blab blab Abacab

WHAT THE fark is it with french people and their goddamn language?! Honestly, please will some french person explain this??

I'm forever embarrassed for the french and their bizarre complex regarding the french language. Everyone has to cope with all the languages on the globe why the hell can't the french show a little dignity? Picking such an insignificant aspect of life to freak out over makes me realize why there's unrest in france. EVERYONE's culture is being dilluted, we're all coming together as the globe is made smaller informationally and with the ubiquity of fast transport bloody well cope with your nationalism with some degree of realisation of that, or everyone will look at you with pity and disgust. I know I'm way over the top sick of it.

Fromage-manger singes de reddition!

elendilmir: only in Quebec.

in Canada, radio station have to respect "cancon", or Canadian content, which states a certain percentage of songs played have to be Canadian (either the artist, songwriter, producer, etc)

Professor Hubert Farnsworth: This is my Universal Translator. It could have been my greatest invention, but it translates everything into an incomprehensible dead language.
Cubert J. Farnsworth: Hello.
Universal Translator: Bonjour!
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: See? Utter gibberish!

French chicks have hairy armpits and they smell bad.

Common: I move to have the French language taken off all US passports and officially removed as a language of world diplomacy. They are a bunch of biatches and we should punish them as such. Having a single language for global diplomacy makes an unbelievable amount of sense. That way diplomats don't need to waste energies learning 57 different languages to effectively communicate with the rest of the world. France needs to realize they are a second rate country, and if they hadn't switched sides in the middle of WW2 to our side, they would have ended up with no say in the EU. Read the treaties and groups formed leading up to the EU formation, and you will see France was basically gifted the EU by us because of our restrictions on Germany and Italy.

It would make sense if global diplomats actually had to learn the other languages...they don't. It's easy for you to say that, since you're probably an American and speak English. However, not everyone in the world grew up speaking English, and they'd like to see their nations represented ideologically, culturally, as well as socially.

As for WW2, few countries took Hitler as a serious threat, and no country was really equipped to fight him. GB was saved from France's fate by the English Channel, and the superior skills of their fighter pilots, but not until after London was torn to pieces. The US was spared from that fate because we're on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The USSR was sufficiently far away that it imposed a logistical problem for Hitler, and that cold Russian winter was another factor.

However... France, Belgium, Holland, and Poland all had the unfortunate displeasure of sharing a border with the only country that had built up it's military after WW1 and had developed completely new tactics. They also lacked a strong leader in the government, a guy like a Lincoln or a Churchill, to keep the country fighting while many were ready to end the war. La Resistance, however, did not have a weak leader, and many, many, many of its members died obtaining information that would have made D-DAy impossible....they also played a vital, vital role in making the Germans believe the invasion would come at Calais, not Normandy.

And, before anyone brings it up, in WW1 the German line had been pushed back to Belgium and was basically a stalemate. The thought of over a million fresh American troops is what led to Germany's surrender. However, it's easy to ignore that we could have very easily gone in on the Central Powers side, since we were supplying both sides throughout the war and Americans had strong cultural ties with the Allies and the Germans. The Zimmerman note, and the Lusitania(which was in fact smuggling weapons to the British) is what made us go in on the side of the Allies.

Quelle fromage =
Easy Cheese?

Francais, baiseur de mere ! Le parlez-vous ?

/Babelfish translation so it's probably way off

Des maintenant et toujours, je refuse de parler en Anglais quand dans FARK.com.

/cheinnes

Jacques Chirac is a terd head.

Lemmy Kilmister: elendilmir: only in Quebec.

in Canada, radio station have to respect "cancon", or Canadian content, which states a certain percentage of songs played have to be Canadian (either the artist, songwriter, producer, etc)

D'oh! That's what I meant. So you would have a quota of, say, Rush songs (I can't force Celene Dion on even the Quebecois) in most of france while an American song in french would count in Quebec?

Ok, I just couldn't do it.

I surrender.

I'll speak English.

Sorry Jack...I tried it your way, but it sucked. I felt so dirty...the kind of dirty that comes from a centrally regulated economy that makes water too expensive to bathe regularly so people can have overpaid jobs at a Perrier factory.

Trying to protect French culture is understandable to a degree. Especially since the French haven't been an influence to anyone outside Paris for 30 years.

But this is the silliest thing to happen since they banned the use of terms like e-mail internally. Tehy made up a word couriel to replace it. institutianaly forcing the use of a name for something they didn't invent, and the rest of the world uses would be like us forcing Champagne to be called Fripple here.

This is probobly the most rediclous thing in multinational politics since the Vietnam peace talkswhen they took months just to decide on the shape of the table.