La Place Du Français

[Nick de Cusa]

Quelle est la meilleur façon de défendre le Français? En remontant le niveau de nos universités pour attirer les esprits brillants du monde entier? Ou l'approche Chirac serait-elle la bonne?

Voici en tout cas comment le FT décrit la dite approche:

Parlez-vous anglais?

>Published: March 25 2006 02:00 | Last updated: March 25 2006 02:00

>>

Zut alors! Ernest-Antoine Seillière, head of the European Union's business organisation, had la témérité to address Thursday night's meeting of EU leaders en anglais. Naturellement, Jacques Chirac stormed out in protest at what his French compatriot described - rightly - as the language of business.

Malheureusement, M. Chirac missed Mr Seillière's impassioned plea for Europe's leaders to resist the swelling tide of national protectionism. The French president's mentalité Maginot is a symptom of that tide, but also a complete failure to recognise that France has been a notable beneficiary of globalisation - precisely because of the language skills of its people.

French companies have expanded across the globe, acquiring businesses outside la francophonie in countries such as the UK and the US. Some of the biggest have chosen to adopt English in their boardrooms, since most anglo-saxons are monoglots - incapable of holding their own in French. Ironically, one such company is Danone, which France's politicians defended as a symbol of la gloire when a bid from PepsiCo of the US was rumoured.

Meanwhile, Insead, the business school, has become France's only world-class higher education institution because it works in English.

When not in the trenches crying "Ils ne passeront pas", M. Chirac has campaigned for Europeans to learn two foreign languages, to equip them for globalisation. He is right: as a recent British Council report pointed out, English is becoming une commodité and l'avantage compétitif will soon come from fluency in other tongues. But even then, English will still be the lingua franca for business - one that the French increasingly speak avec assurance.

[Dardanus]

When not in the trenches crying "Ils ne passeront pas", M. Chirac has campaigned for Europeans to learn two foreign languages, to equip them for globalisation. He is right: as a recent British Council report pointed out, English is becoming une commodité and l'avantage compétitif will soon come from fluency in other tongues. But even then, English will still be the lingua franca for business - one that the French increasingly speak avec assurance.

It is very bon ! La lingua franca ne passera pas (qui défendra l'anglais contre l'abus des latinismes ?)

Tristan Bernard en 1940, après la débâcle (je cite de mémoire) : en 14, tout le monde répétait : on les aura. Et bien, maintenant, on les a.

[pankkake]

one that the French increasingly speak avec assurance

Heu, vraiment ?

[Calembredaine]

Voir a ce propos le très amusant billet de H16: Hop, c'est ici.