Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sundubuman]

style over substance......our first Korean UN Secretery...

Is Ban Ki-moon a franco-phoney?
Dec. 14, 2006

Jacques Chirac is probably kicking himself.

The incoming secretary general of the United Nations can barely speak a word of French.

Once considered the main language of diplomacy, le fran�ais has lost its �lan.

Just moments after Ban Ki-moon recited his oath of office to become the eighth secretary general in UN history, he read a carefully scripted speech that included three paragraphs in French. However, during his first news conference with the UN press corps afterwards, he could barely muster a 'pardon?'

In Canada we're familiar with the politics of language � our federal leaders must be bilingual or at least make a convincing effort to show they're trying. At the UN, the "linguipolitik" is even more pronounced.

The official languages of the UN are English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. But the main working languages of the UN have traditionally been English and French. In fact, France puts such importance behind its mother tongue that it will not support a candidate for secretary general who doesn't speak French.

Which brings us to Ban Ki-moon.

French government officials tell me that President Jacques Chirac only gave his nod to Ban when they learned he was taking French lessons. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, France was one of five countries with the power to veto the selection of the new secretary general.

On the day of Ban's nomination as secretary general in October, I told the UN press office I planned to ask him a question in French at his news conference that afternoon.

As an employee of both the CBC and its sister French-language network Radio-Canada, I have the privilege of working in both of Canada's official languages. I dutifully wrote my name at the top of the sign-up list for journalists asking questions, but I never got the chance.

Blame it on bad luck or deliberate manipulation, but only English questions were permitted at the incoming secretary general's debut performance. I was determined not to let it happen again.

Over the last week I e-mailed and harangued the UN press office, demanding the chance to ask Ban a question in French on behalf of Radio-Canada following his swearing-in ceremony on Dec. 14.

My request caused considerable discussion behind the scenes. Several UN officials contacted me.

They all said they couldn't guarantee the incoming secretary general would respond to my question in French. One UN staffer told me one of Ban's advisers had insisted that questions in French be limited during his live news conference.

So what happened after the swearing in ceremony came as a surprise. The first question went as usual to the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association.

The second question went to me. I asked Ban why he thinks French should remain the second official working language of the United Nations. A challenging question for any politician, much less one that doesn't appear to understand French! Ban looked startled when I posed my question in French.

The UN provided a live interpreter, but he still struggled. He said he had trouble hearing me, even though I was seated in the front row of the news conference. I repeated the question and he mumbled an indecipherable reply in mangled French.

The UN employee moderating the news conference tried to explain the question. Ban, whose resum� proclaims he speaks English and French, responded in English.

This isn't a big story for English-speakers around the world.

But in la Francophonie, Ban Ki-moon's difficulty with French � when it's supposed to be the second language of the organization he now heads � is definitely a diplomatic faux pas.

[sundubuman]

ok, I'm beginning to like our new secretery....

[mithridates]

Pas de probl�me � deux questions...mais plus? En tout cas Ban Ki-moon 콤밧!

[sundubuman]

Oh that's great news....he can answer 2 questions in a language which he claims to be wasting his time studying, a language by the way, which is going nowhere rapide...or is that vite....

meanwhile the Earth spins and what? a dozen? or so languages grow ever more important than French by the day.

I wonder if the citizens of countries speaking those more widespread languages will expect the UN leader to speak their tongue....or will they be less, how shall I say, pr�somptueux......

[mithridates]

[Gopher]

Western Europe does not even count anymore with respect to getting doctoral funding via Fulbright.

And none of its languages count for much with respect to Fulbright or any other foreign language/area studies funding for that matter.

If these considerations mean anything, then Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, and a host of East European and other nonWestern languages -- even languages like Quechua and Aymara -- are far more important than French, German, or Italian, for example.

My own foreign languages are Spanish and Portuguese. These hardly even count as "foreign languages" anymore. But at least I can sell them as Mithridates is selling French, above: these languages remain in the former colonial world (Latin America and subSaharan Africa, in my case).

So the Secretary-General has difficulty with French? So what? It is an anachronism that the UN still gives so much weight to French. Perhaps it is time to revise this now...

[mithridates]

I've been wondering lately whether Turkic languages are going to gain strength as well in a decade or so. Turkey has a consistently strong growth rate, Azerbaijan grew at a phenomenal 35% last year (!), Kazakhstan's doing great too, crazy dictator in Turkmenistan died so who knows, maybe they'll get lucky...they also stretch all the way into Uyghur in western China too.

[Gopher]

You are not referring to economic growth (GNP, GDP), are you?

[bucheon bum]

i believe he is. one word to explain azerbaijan: oil.

[cbclark4]

French died a long time a go just after the magna carta.

Once the Brits stopped using it, it had no real purpose.

Dead Language for sure.

cbc

[mithridates]