[Sixstrings]

The Brussels-based French-language press corps reacted with fury Wednesday to the release in English of the EU's annual report cards on the bloc's 27 economies.

In an angry open e-mail to the European Commission, the correspondent for the daily Liberation newspaper Jean Quatremer said -- in French: "Once again, all the documents published today are available only in English. This is unacceptable."

The Commission released 1,500 pages of hotly-awaited reports on the state of the bloc's economies along with proposals to redress public finances as Europe fights the debt crisis threatening some of its biggest economies.

"I can't see why the Anglo-Saxon media should benefit from such an unbelievable competitive edge on the remainder of the other media and I can't see any practical reason for the Commission's incapacity to do this work."

"The right to be informed in one's own language about the social and budgetary sacrifices demanded by the EU executive is a minimum right," he added.
His protest was backed by most of his French colleagues.

A spokesperson for the Commission told AFP that "the translations are coming."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/french-irked-eu-english-205346768.html

Sigh.. French resistance to English.. to my knowledge, the French (and quebecois) are the only nationalities that put up such a fuss about English. Everybody else just uses it, it's practical, it enables a Swede to speak to a Japanese.

I may be wrong here, but last time I heard they regulate how much English can be used in France. On TV, radio, in print. They also have the "acedmie francaise" to invent new French words to replace new English words creeping in.

At the end of the day.. regulation of human evolution is silly. You can't just stop progress by government fiat. The global village needs a language and it just worked out to be English, the French ought to get over it.

[SeaGypsy]

Funny, even when the French speak perfect English, they still would prefer whoever speaks to them do so in French. For people at such high levels to have such a hard time translating the most common business language in the world, seems a little immature. Can anyone imagine the world had the French won the culture wars? Presumption of guilt over innocence etc.

[rockdoc123]

I may be wrong here, but last time I heard they regulate how much English can be used in France. On TV, radio, in print. They also have the "acedmie francaise" to invent new French words to replace new English words creeping in.

The regulating done is to keep from Anglicizing the French language. They aren't trying to regulate you from speaking English but what they are saying is that the proper French is "fin de semaine" not "le weekend". Parisiene french has been quite vulnerable to being anglicized whereas Quebecois remains intact as the language it essentially was when the French ruled eastern Canada (some would claim they still hold Canada at ransom). I commend them on trying to keep their mother tongue pure as I commend the folks in Nova Scotia and the north of Scotland for trying to revive Scots Gaelic. At the same time there does need to be a common language for interaction and English seems to have become the default.
Whatever happened to Esperanto?

[Keith_McClary]

ONE FREE PIZZA, POR FAVOR, WITH NO BIGOTRY ON THE SIDE

Pizza Patrón giving away large pepperoni pies next Tuesday to anyone who walks in between 5 and 8 p.m. and says, “Pizza por favor.”
...
The Dallas-based chain’s Facebook page is salted with nasty criticism
...
“So now Mexicans get more for nothing,” a second person wrote. “I call on all Americans to boycott this trashy pizza shop.”

[radon]

If anything, borrowing words from other languages makes your own language only richer and more expressive. Eg, Russian has evolved substantially over the past 30 years due to borrowing many words from other languages. Not sure why the French are psyching over it.

[dinopello]

Jean Girard: My name is Jean Girard and I am a racing-car driver just like you except I am from Formula Un. I am the greatest one in the whole world. I have been following your career with great interest, Monsieur Bobby.
Ricky Bobby: I can't understand a word you've said the whole time.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Did you eat some peanut butter or something?
Ricky Bobby: Yeah, you sound like a dog with peanut butter on the roof of your mouth
Jean Girard: I think what you are hearing is my accent. I am French.
Ricky Bobby: You say you're French?
Jean Girard: Oui.
[sounds like 'We']
Ricky Bobby: We? No, we are not French. We're American, because you're in America, okay? Greatest country on the planet
Jean Girard: Well, what have you given the world apart from George Bush, Cheerios, and the ThighMaster?
Ricky Bobby: Chinese food?
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Chinese food.
Jean Girard: That's from China.
Ricky Bobby: Pizza.
Jean Girard: Italy.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Chimichanga.
Jean Girard: Mexico.
Ricky Bobby: Really, smarty-pants? What did French land give us?
Jean Girard: We invented democracy, existentialism, and the Ménage à Trois.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Those are three pretty good things.
Ricky Bobby: Hey.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Well that last one's pretty cool.

[dorlomin]

Waterloo.

Gas

The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself....

[dolanbaker]

Waterloo.

Gas

The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself....

ABBA 1974

[Sixstrings]

Waterloo.

Gas

The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself....

ABBA 1974

Good song, that.

[rockdoc123]

If anything, borrowing words from other languages makes your own language only richer and more expressive. Eg, Russian has evolved substantially over the past 30 years due to borrowing many words from other languages. Not sure why the French are psyching over it.

not an expert on the Russian language but I suspect knowing a bit about it, what you are referring to is the incorporation of technical terms for which there was no original Russian translation (you see this in Arabic all the time). This isn't the case with which the French are concerned. What they do not want is someone saying "je faire de shopping" when there was already a well worn term "je faire de magazanez" (excuse my spelling). I do not see a problem with that. If you want to speak French, speak French, if you want to speak English have at it. There really isn't a need to mix the two. The same can be said for Spanish or Arabic or any other language.

Our languages define who we are and who we came from. My own heritage is deep in Gaelic which my parents spoke and I unfortunately understand very little of. That language went unchanged for hundreds of years until it became basically unused. Other languages like Greek are much older and although used little today have not been changed over time. Classical Arabic (fusa I believe it is called) is hundreds of years old and deep in historical richness (only being slightly abused by the colloquial Egyptian learned though television and movies). I believe there is a good case to preserve these languages.

It is interesting to look at the case of Algeria. If you have the opportunity to speak to an Algerien it is common for them to mix Berber, Arabic and French in the same sentence. It is their "street speak" if you will compared to the fact that when amongst their families in the Kabili they speak Berber and when in business in Algers they speak either French (if speaking with the traditional older educated generation) or Arabic if they are trying to blend in to the new reality.

[SeaGypsy]

The same is true is places like Singapore, Hongkong, Manila, with local dialects making up new languages when blended with empirical tongues. There are aboriginal dialects spoken in Australian cities which are blended from over 50 indigenous languages with English deliberately not used.

[radon]

not an expert on the Russian language but I suspect knowing a bit about it, what you are referring to is the incorporation of technical terms for which there was no original Russian translation (you see this in Arabic all the time).

True to some extent, but this is far more than that. Not too many technical terms don't have Russian translation. Lots of borrowed words are non-technical and have clear analogies (translations) in Russian.

Eg., a borrowed Russian word "пиар" (piar) - meaning Public Relations, a direct phonetic transcription of "PR", and then "пиарщики" (piarshiki) - PR agents, verb "распиарить" (raspiarit) - to promote something aggressively. "Аудит" - audit, "провайдер" - provider, "букировать" (bukirovat) - to book (hotel or accounting entry), "ресепшн"- reception, "креативщики" (kreativshiki) - creative artists etc. Examples are abound.

You see, a foreign root is taken and then wrapped into Russian grammar add-ons, thus creating new Russian words that now live their own life. Russian is very suitable for absorbing foreign words and using them in every possible way. By contrast, English is rigid in this respect, capable of absorbing only simplest words (like troika), and otherwise awkwardly placing foreign words in italics to emphasize their non-native origination.

This probably has to do with the general Russian cognitive culture: lots of knowledge advancement in Russia resulted from learning (or stealing ) from the neighbors on the west (like gunpowder), south and east, and then using to its own advantage. In this sense the language is a reflection of the general culture of the society.