Bad French prolongs Russia-Georgia conflict

By Peter Allen in Paris, 08 Sep 2008:

Last month's ceasefire agreement centred around the creation of "buffer zones" between Russia and the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia which are now effectively controlled by the Kremlin. The agreement was brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president whose country currently holds the EU presidency. But the original diplomatic coup became an embarrassing failure as Russia failed to move its troops off the main body of Georgia.

Bernard Kouchner told a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the weekend that the ceasefire agreement was written in French before being translated into English and then Russian. Asked what problems surrounded the buffer zones, Mr Kouchner replied: "The translation, as always."

Last month's five day conflict in Georgia cost hundreds of lives, with many more injured and made homeless. Russia has redrawn the map of Europe and opened a new threatening chapter in its relations with the West.

President Sarkozy is due to begin talks in Moscow on Monday about maintaining a lasting peace. Troop withdrawal will be a key issue when he meets his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. Splits in both the EU and Nato have been exposed as a result of the Georgian conflict - the US, UK and some new EU members such as Poland have not been found support for a tough stance against Russia in the absence of a withdrawal of troops from Georgia.

One reason for the continuation of the conflict now appears to be a passage in the Russian translation of the agreement that speaks of security "for" South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The English version speaks of security "in" the two areas.

The difference is crucial, because Russia continues to keep its tanks and armed troops "in" Georgian territory. The international community, in turn, wants security "for" South Ossetia and Abkhazia without the Russian army staying in Georgia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that the ceasefire wording made his country sound like an aggressor. He said the Georgian interpretation "contains a whole range of distortions" including replacement of the preposition "for" with "in".

The farce is a huge blow to the French belief that theirs is a lingua franca, spoken and understood the world over.

In fact French has long been replaced by English as the language of diplomacy, and is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the international community.

Last week French education minister Xavier Darcos admitted that "the secret of success" for French youngsters nowadays was to speak English.

The U-turn came just two years after President Jacques Chirac stormed out of an EU summit after a French business leader addressed delegates in English.

Mr Chirac's view is still regularly backed up by L'Academie Francaise, which promotes French as an international language, as well as opposing the use of "Franglais" words like "le weekend" and "le parking".

WHY FRENCH TEACHERS HAVE THE BLUES

From Pave France, February 23, 2005, previously published on http://www.expatica.com/:

The French language is in dramatic decline around the world, including in its traditional foreign heartlands, according to international language teachers recently gathered in Paris ...for the Expolangues trade fair...
A teacher from Portugal, Teresa Santos, said in her country 70 percent of Portuguese students preferred to take English courses, compared to just 10 percent for French.
"English is magnifique!" a teacher of Ancient Greek at the Aristotle University in Thessalonika, Thalia Stephanidou, said. "Even in poorer neighbourhoods, that language - which replaced French right after the second world war - is taught, even to old people," she said.

Even in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, English has crowded French out of the classroom, despite French being one of the country's official languages.

In Russia, where speaking French was once a prized talent among the tsars, French is trailing "far behind English" in Moscow and Saint Petersburg schools, Mascha Sveshnikova, of the Russian Cultural Centre, said.

Hat tip: Damian

French is losing ground fast

In wordquests.info:

English is the dominant global language

English is becoming more popular than French in many countries
The dominance of English as the world's lingua franca continues to grow, with the number of pupils studying French dwindling every year.
The predominance of English on the internet, the relative ease of learning basic English and the perception that English is "cooler" —thanks in large part to popular music and films—means French is becoming more and more restricted to older generations and the upper classes of many countries where it used to be the second language of choice in schools.

French is losing ground fast

French remains a beautiful language much appreciated by the upper class but it is losing ground in curricula, even in areas near the French-German border. French is still holding up compared to Italian and Spanish, but that may change.
Given the difficulty of French grammar and spelling, many prefer not to learn French. A teacher from the Spanish town of Burgos said most of her colleagues agreed that French was "in free fall".
A teacher from Portugal said in her country 70% of Portuguese students preferred to take English courses, compared to just 10% for French.
Even in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, English has crowded French out of the classroom, despite French being one of the country's official languages.
In Russia, where speaking French was once a prized talent among the tsars, French is trailing "far behind English" in Moscow and Saint Petersburg schools.