Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

Jacques Chirac is an excellent English speaker himself; if only the anglophone world had someone as good at, say, French or German, as the French have in Chirac! Yes, U.S. cowboy Bush speaks passable Spanish, but what does he know about Ibero-America? NOt much, judging by some verbal blunders he committed in Brazil years ago!

I lived in France and I do agree the French - not just the Frenchmen but all French spakers including Canadians, Aostians (Valle di Aoste in Northern Italy), Belgians and Swiss take an inordinate pride in the penetration by French of other cultures; Frederique CHopin a Pole, Fredrick the Great a German - all francophiles!

Why should the French not try to maintain a status quo that's been so cosy for everybody?

Anglophones are no different, but unlike francophones, they have now secured their language a position in world affairs that causes friction. The French language never caused so much friction - whatever friction it caused was mainly in the anglophone world.
This is because France has since the French revolution been the No. 1 destination of persecuted dissidents. People adopted French as their second mother tongue because France adopted them as her own children on flight from their fatherlands.

While I thought, Monsieur CHirac overreacted he certainly wanted his point to get the attention you are giving it. As a matter of fact, that meeting he was attending has adopted three working languages: English, German and French. You can speak any one of them.
Unlike in the bureaucracy of Brussels where you can speak any one language provided it's native to your part of Europe. Prior to what came into being as the E.U., in its predecessor organisations, French always predominated.

[Brooks]

this reminds me of a story:

I was at the Russian university where I used to teach, talking to a Russian professor of English. She introduced me to a French consular official.
He might have worked in Novosibirsk. I think he came to check out the teaching of French at the university.

Then she showed me these books we had in the corner of the room, these books in English. They were ELT books from Oxford, Cambridge, etc. They were on display on a table.
"But where are ze FRENCH books?," the consular official demanded.

"oh, here they are, in the cupboard," the professor said. They were behind the books on display, out of sight. Out of mind, even.

The French man angrily took them out and put up a few for display, and he had to move a few English books aside. Then he was satisfied.

[Pollux]

[Roger]

[quote="Pollux"]

[Deconstructor]

[Roger]

I don't know what your inferiority comnjplex as a Quebecker is, but I do not share your take on it fully!
The French speakers of Quebec have a very distinct accent that reminded me - when I toured Canada with my then French partner - of the French South. It was at times hard to comprehend, approximately like an Aussie strine that is directed at a Londoner who has never heard it before. That a French national might wish to "correct" your Quebecois is understandable though I agree, not appropriate.
But that French Canadians are misrepresented here as language police is hype, and unbelievable at that. What's wrong if they refuse to speak what to them must appear as a foreign, albeit more correclty, their second, language? IT's just the mirror image of the anglophones' attitude: who of all the anglophones speaks French? Why so few?
And, dceconstructor, we can also likely turn the table on the anglophones: don't they routinely poke fun at those quaint non-native English speakers from Quebec?
Doesn't accent, intonation and pronunciation define who is 'in' and who is 'out' in any linguistic community? Don't English speakers the world over ridicule speakers of other variants of their mother tongue?
Canadians ought to be grateful to have this linguistic diversity; it's the anglophones that do not see its cultural richness! IT is them that want to impose a monocultural identity on not only their own countries but the whole world!

[sonya]

[Deconstructor]

[Stephen Jones]

[Perpetual Traveller]

[sonya]

d'ac..didn't you mention tour guides? there's no need to get defensive if there's a misunderstanding. Wherever you go it's possible to find people who speak English, yes, especially among the more educated professions, but English speakers (and I don't mean a few basic phrases in English) are far, far less commonplace outside of Paris.

And they aren't quite deigning to listen to and support your French, are they? The monolingual American is often something to joke about.. and you're right, stereotypes are crap, though I still find most Parisians a bit snooty.

[Perpetual Traveller]

That wasn't defensive, I was just clarifying my position, problem with these forums is that you can't hear tone. Anyway, the only thing I had a problem with was your generalisation about Parisians, some may be snooty but at least an equal number aren't and I think you find that in most places.

[william wallace]

nil

[sonya]

[Roger]

sigh, carissimo deconstructor! What a temperamental post! So, your feelings seem to corroborate my opinion on you though your words are contradicting me... who or what shall I now believve?

You speak better French than a Frenchman? OK, and Who Jintao speaks better English than George Bush, right?

You know, I can empathise with those that feel the French ride roughshod over their feelings - quite common in Belgium or Germany. The French do have a certain haughtiness, but that is none too alien to NOrth Americans.

I wholly disagree with you in your claim that anglophones "do not have a chance of speaking French" - you are the best piece of evidence there: people from anglosaxon countries REFUSE to speak anything other than their sanctosanctorum English! We have seen that in South Africa, in the U.K. and in North America!
And that's the main problem these days! Not the French and their blase attitude! They are only cutting themselves - but you anglophones are cutting others.