English pushes aside French as the language of status in Lebanese capital

Lebanon has been particularly affected by the spread of English and the decline of French. The Lebanese can now be said to be in the phase of English- learning, the next phase being the near-total disappearance of French through disuse.

BEIRUT–There's a deal being offered on Mazda automobiles in this freneticMiddle Eastern capital, a city where little stays the same for long. "Turn me on," urges a billboard on Zalka St. in the east end of Beirut. "Zero down payment, 1.99 per cent interest. Limited quantity."

Sounds good – but what is most intriguing about this advertisement is not the nature of the offer. It is the nature of the language in which the offer is being made. The offer is being made in English – and only in English.
The same goes for much, if not most, of the brash outdoor advertising that sprouts like gaudy thickets of mercantilism along the boulevards and avenues of Beirut.
"The Chivas Life." "For Burger Lovers!" "Chicken Your Way." "Sally Hansen Line Freeze for Lips."
Never mind the absence of French – long the language of choice for cultured Lebanese – there isn't even a single Arabic character to be found on most of these signs.
"English is cool," said a Western diplomat in Beirut. "If you're hip and you're young, you speak English."
You do if you are Lebanese.
According to Christian Merville, an editorial writer at L'Orient Le Jour, Lebanon's only French-language daily newspaper, English has incontestablement (indisputably) supplanted French as the language of status in this resolutely status-conscious land. Or, as Merville, puts it: "Rambo has replaced Rimbaud."
He's referring, in the first instance, to the action hero played by American Sylvester Stallone in a series of 1980s movie thrillers and, in the second instance, to the mercurial 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud.
It's a play on words, but the point is clear. English – particularly American English – has muscled French aside in this Mediterranean land,whose capital was once known as le Paris du Moyen-Orient. The Paris of the Middle East.
In many ways, the sobriquet remains apt.
Despite the pummelling it has suffered during a succession of wars, Beirut continues to boast an array of continental charms, including fine restaurants, an exuberant nightlife, a sophisticated café culture, and enduring ties to a certain former imperial power whose capital is the Paris of Europe.
Increasingly, however, when les citoyens et citoyennes of Lebanon converse with the outside world – or even among themselves – they do so in English, not French.
Granted, Arabic remains the sole official tongue of the country properly known as Al-Joumhouriya al-Lubnaniya. But even Arabic is starting to buckle somewhat under the globalizing force of English.
This is Merville's view, anyway. He believes that Arabic speakers in Lebanon increasingly express themselves in an impoverished vocabulary and tired clichés.
"There's a decline in the quality of French," he said, "but there is also an extraordinary decline in Arabic."
Arabic, of course, has been spoken in these lands for millennia. French, however, arrived in the late 19th century, when Jesuit clergy in France sought to counter increasing Protestant influence in the region by dispatching legions of missionaries to the mountainous eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
Following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the territory now called Lebanon became a French protectorate, an arrangement that lasted only a quarter-century. But Parisian influence – linguistic and otherwise – endured long after Lebanon became an independent state in 1946. "Cultured Lebanese were all educated in French-speaking countries," said Ghassan Moukheiber, a Beirut lawyer.
Even families that could not afford to send their children abroad typically dispatched them to local schools where the language of instruction was French, not Arabic.
Explanations vary for the recent ascent of English.
Some observers here – oddly, these individuals tend to be native French speakers – advance the view that English is a "simpler," less challenging tongue than French.
But others note that English opens more doors nowadays than French ever could. It is the primary language of the Internet, for example, as well as the lingua franca of industrial and commercial globalization.
In Lebanon, as in much of the world, U.S. television and films are a powerful cultural force, easily exceeding the influence of their French counterparts.
At the same time, Lebanese citizens who may be contemplating an international move – as many do – are far more likely to be accepted as immigrants in English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada or the United States than they are by France.
"English," said a French-speaking diplomat, "is a lot more useful if you want to go abroad."
Still, French is far from dead in Lebanon. Especially among gatherings of well-educated folk, it is not uncommon nowadays to hear the conversation shift easily from Arabic, to English, to French, and back again. "It's a wonderful trilingual country," said the Western diplomat. "In a single sentence, you will hear all three languages."
And, although dramatic and unmistakable, the current shift toward English is not uniformly spread among all of Lebanon's four million citizens.
Fluency in French is still highly prized in the affluent Ashrafiye district of Beirut, for example, a neighbourhood mostly populated by Maronite Christians, for whom the language of Voltaire continues to imply good breeding and high economic status.
The country's large Shia Muslim community, meanwhile, is said to be the sector of Lebanese society most drawn to English, but no group in the country is immune to the economic opportunities or the cultural appeal now associated with the language of – well, of Sylvester Stallone.
Repos dans la paix, Arthur Rimbaud. Rest in peace.

TheStar.com - News - English is cool in
trendy Beirut

October 08, 2007

12,000 native English teachers to teach Spaniards

This story from last year is reminiscent of plans by France's Sarközy (de Nagy-Bocsa) to boost English teaching at French public schools. Zapatero's desire for Spanish children to become fluent in English highlights the spread of English in Europe, a region where French used to be dominant in the second and third language slots but is now increasingly losing out to English in spite of stiff resistance from French institutions and the French government's funding of Lycées Français and Instituts Français throughout the European Union. On the other hand, the kind of Spanglish used in this article would suggest that the Spanish still have some work ahead of them before they can compete with the likes of the Swedes, let alone English native speakers on the global marketplace.

Spanish Prime Minister announces plans to develop English education in Spain
larger | smaller
By h.b. - Feb 19, 2008 - 2:41 PM
Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero - Photo EFE
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero set a ten year target for students to dominate what the Spanish often refer to as 'the language of Shakespeare'

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has unveiled ambitious new plans for the teaching of English in Spain. He has given an undertaking that 15% of total classes given in Spanish schools will be in English within four years, with the intention that children who pass through the Spanish education system will be bilingual and dominate the language in ten years.

For the plan to be put into action some 12,000 native English teachers are to be employed, together with a further 8,000 native teachers assistants. 20,000 Spanish teachers of English will meanwhile be given a month’s course in an English speaking country.

Speaking at an institute in Fuenlabrada, Madrid, the Prime Minister said that Spain needed the move to complete economically, and that Spanish youngsters would benefit by being able to compete professionally.
‘There are families who can easily pay for their children to travel or study abroad’, he said, ‘but our priority is for those who cannot’.

Courtesy of Edward J. Cunningham

a seismic event in Man's history

Health issues have prevented yours truly from posting new stories to this blog for these past few weeks. I am getting better and expect this place to be back and running relatively soon. Meanwhile, I would like to thank Edward J. Cunningham for drawing my attention to the below report about the phenomenal rise of English and the failure of all other languages to achieve global status.

Times Online, January 15, 2005:

WHAT WOULD you think was the biggest thing to hit human culture, worldwide, in the past quarter century? To the anthropologist of modern Man, what change would head the list? The explosion of air travel? No, most of those alive today will never fly. HIV-Aids? No, just one of many terrible scourges our species has faced: diarrhoea and malaria still kill more. The collapse of communism and rise of the global free market? The internet? These point the way, but still reach only a minority.

The answer stares us in the face. Like much that does so, it is widely overlooked. But it struck me forcibly in Africa this week (and I bet it will have struck Gordon Brown) as I sat in the back row of the Grade 1 class at Digum Complete Elementary School, by the side of a dirt road nearly 1,000 kilometres north of Addis Ababa in the Tigra region of Ethiopia.

This country, you will recall, was for many centuries a remote and independent African kingdom whose only colonial experience was as an Italian possession for a short period before the Second World War. The British never came here much. Ethiopia is in nobody’s “sphere of influence”.

My class at Digum school were aged between five and seven: 44 boys and girls, some barefoot, some decently dressed, many in rags; some fit and healthy, some with sores or burns, or eye problems. Few would ever have been to Addis Ababa. None had seen another country and few ever will. None will ever have been in a lift or seen an escalator. Some will not have entered a two-storey building. Most will never have made a telephone call and some will never have seen one taking place: a fascinated crowd gathered as I made a satellite call from our campsite to The Times. None will ever have had a television, though some of their parents will have owned a radio and all of them will have listened to one.

The children were divided into a morning shift and an afternoon shift. Thus did their impressive headmaster, Mr Getachew, and his 30 staff, manage to run a school of 1,644 children housed in six long single-storey cabins scattered over an acre of dust.

I had arranged my visit quite by chance. Our guide thought we would be welcome, and we were. Every child stood as we entered a class. “George Bush and Mr Tony Blair will never visit our school,” said the Grade 8 teacher, Mr Hailay, “so you are our most important foreign visitors.” He should invite Mr Brown.

The Grade 1 classroom where I sat had no teaching aids at all, save tiny wooden benches and single-plank desks, dog-eared newspaper-covered exercise books, a blackboard, and a keen and patient young teacher, Mr Hadush. Discipline was absolute.

“Let us sing, children” said Mr Hadush. “Come to the front Abraham.” A tiny boy marched confidently up, all the others rapt. “This is the way I wash my face, wash my face, wash my face,” shrieked Abraham, making face-washing motions with his hand. “This is the way we wash our face,” shrieked all 44 tots, in an ear-splitting chant, “Early in the morning!”

There is no piped water in Digum — just a well with a hand-pump, down by the dried up river.

“This is the way I put on my clothes, put on my clothes, put on my clothes,” shrieked Abraham delightedly, doing the motions. “This is the way we put on our clothes.” Yelled the class, full of excitement at learning and at showing off their learning, “Early in the morning.” Some of them barely had any clothes.

Mr Hadush called a little girl, who looked about five, to the blackboard and handed her a stump of chalk. She wrote out the English alphabet perfectly on the blackboard. Ethiopia’s native script, which she also knew, is composed of the bewildering symbols of Amharic.

The spread of English across the globe is a seismic event in our species’ history. It is one of the biggest things to happen to mankind since the dawn of language. Speech is fundamental not just to communication but to the process of thought itself. No single language has ever before approached universality. English is now doing so. No other language has ever advanced as far, as fast, as ours. This is the first time in history that it has been possible to denote one language as predominant.

Within the lifetimes of Times readers, every other serious contender for that status has been eliminated. French is dying outside France. “Francophone” Africa is turning to English. Portuguese Africa is abandoning Portuguese. German made a small, temporary advance across emergent Eastern Europe but elsewhere outside Germany it is dead. Russian, which we once thought we would all have to learn, is finished. The Japanese are learning English, and developing their own pet variant. China will resist, but Mandarin and Cantonese are not advancing beyond their native speakers. More of the world’s new Muslims are learning English than Arabic. Spanish alone is raising its status and reach — but among Americans, who have English already. India is making an industry out of English speaking, as call-centres daily remind us. A quarter century ago, as the dismemberment of our Empire neared completion, we might have thought that the predominance of our language had passed its zenith. It was only dawn.

It is imponderable what may be the consequences of the advance of this linguistic tide. Within a few generations and for the first time in the story of Homo sapiens, most of our species may be able to communicate in a single language.

The advantage lent to us British by our fluency (and that of the Americans) in this world language should not be exaggerated. The number of native English speakers may not grow much; our relative influence may decline. They know little of us in Ethiopia. Yet all over that country street signs and business billboards are appearing in English, beneath the Amharic. English is cool. The very lettering confers status.

At Digum school I also sat through a Grade 8 class of 56 students. Here in the top form boys and girls aged between 10 and 20 were being coached by the excellent Mr Hailay. He was teaching the uses of “just”, “already” , “up to now”, “yet”, “ever” and “never”, and, astonishingly, most of them had a pretty good grasp. Over the shoulder of the boy in front I read his battered computer-printout English textbook, instructing the reader in the correct tenses to use in reported speech. I asked Mr Hailay if I might ask his pupils a few questions.

Did they want to learn English? Yes, replied everyone. Why? “It is the language of the world, and I want to know the world,” replied one boy.

I asked what other languages they would acquire if they could. Spanish, Chinese and Arabic were cited in reply, but none had any plans to learn these. To my surprise, one of the boys asked me afterwards what language I spoke — was I Italian, he wondered? I saw that knowledge of English was not regarded as an indication of nationality, but as a possession, a philosopher’s stone: one which anyone could get. At Digum they were struggling to get it.

English, I realised, as I left the school while the children chanted “I was a pilot, a pilot was I,” isn’t really ours any more. We are losing ownership of international English. Internet English is already looking unfamiliar. Africans rely heavily on the present continuous, and manage perfectly well. Different parts of the globe will develop their own pidgins.

There will be no point in fighting this or regretting it. We should just take pride in what we have started. It gives us no mastery and nor should it, but it gives us a link. All the world will have an open gate into our story, our culture, our ideas, our literature, our poetry and our song. And we into theirs.

English Learning Craze In China

In the Book Of Joe blog, May 23, 2005. link to original post

'By 2025 the number of English–speaking Chinese is likely to exceed the number of native English speakers in the rest of the world'.

So said Gordon Brown, the U.K. finance minister, during a recent trip to China.

If we won't learn Chinese then the Chinese will simply do the heavy lifting and learn English. It's as simple as that and it's happening.

The Financial Times is well aware of who's going to be ruling the planet in decades to come and is doing its level best to tell us, in our own language, how it's going to happen.

The Times article that follows, by Andrew Yeh, appeared on April 13, 2005. It speaks for itself.

New Dawn in a Shared Language

Many more Chinese are learning English to further their opportunities, driving the market for education

On a typical weekday morning, Gao Long retreats to a snow-covered park among the grey buildings of Beijing Normal University to practise English by herself.

Several other students do the same.

Some sit on benches mumbling over books while others saunter to and fro in sub-zero temperatures while reading aloud.

They come to work on their spoken English and escape the cramped dormitories they share with many roommates.

"You don't disturb anybody in the park because everyone is reading out loud," said Ms Gao, a bespectacled college undergraduate.

"You have to rely on yourself - others can only give you a form or teach you certain ways but it's still up to you in the end."

Ms Gao spends her time here reading passages from her heavily marked English text, stopping every now and again to perfect her pronunciation of tricky words such as "pesticide".

As the weather warms up, she says, even more students from the college will come to the park to practise.

There are countless Chinese youths with the same curiosity and drive as Ms Gao for mastering the English language.

In a country imbued with the values of self-improvement, learning English is often viewed as one of the surest ways to improve one's career opportunities.

And these attitudes are expected to yield significant demand for education-related products and services in the years ahead.

China is a country that has historically placed great value on education. Yet its current fanaticism for learning English is unique.

"It's a phenomenon," said Zhou Chenggang, a former BBC correspondent who is now vice-president of New Oriental, a private Beijing-based company that runs a network of English teaching services around the country.

"The biggest motivation is that they know it will help their lives."

In China today, the keenest students of English tend to be those cramming for foreign exams, with the aim of going abroad and winning scholarships.

To do well on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), a test of verbal, quantitative and analytical skills, for instance, a Chinese student must be familiar with up to 20,000 words.

And someone taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) needs to learn around 7,500 words, Mr Zhou estimates.

Students in the capital, where the country's best universities are located, are known for reading and watching everything they can get their hands on.

This hunger for learning is expected to generate huge growth in the market for English education products, which includes teaching services, textbooks, test preparation manuals, dictionaries and information technology products and services.

The demand for classroom instruction has been increasing, too, though spending power in many Chinese cities remains limited.

New Oriental estimated its total enrolment was 750,000 last year, up from 450,000 in 2003.

And the demographic range of students is widening.

Mr Zhou of New Oriental says that in the 1990s nearly all students learning English were preparing for specific foreign exams - such as GRE, TOEFL and the International English Language Testing System - to give them a chance to study abroad or raise their prospects of a job at a multinational company.

These days those studying the language include children, older people and those with a general interest.

English texts are now the fastest growing sector in China's book education market and account for up to 8 per cent of the retail book market, according to Xin Guangwei, a publishing industry researcher and author of Publishing in China.

Numerous foreign education and publishing companies have been positioning themselves to cash in.

Their success, however, will be determined by the extent to which they can access the market and how well they can outperform and co-operate with Chinese publishing houses.

There is considerable Sino-foreign co-operation in the market for learning English. Oxford University Press and The Commercial Press, one of China's oldest publishing houses, together produce a bilingual English-Chinese pocket dictionary.

Oxford University is also involved in producing English coursework materials for China's classrooms.

Gunawan Hadi, Asia vice-president of McGraw-Hill Education, says his company has been working with Chinese publishers to develop English texts and reference materials.

He adds that the company's China revenues have grown steadily in the past five years.

Other foreign publishers such as Pearson Education and Cambridge University Press have also been trying to target the country's English enthusiasts.

Gordon Brown, the UK finance minister, said during a recent trip to China that Britain's education exports were now the fastest growing export earner, having nearly doubled in five years to £10.3bn ($19.5bn) - equivalent to about 1 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

Mr Brown said that education exports would be vital to the UK economy - possibly reaching £20bn a year in 15 years time - and that China is expected to be the primary driver of growth.

Many believe that China already has the world's largest number of people learning English.

"In 20 years time, the number of English speakers in China is likely to exceed the number of speakers of English as a first language in all the rest of the world," Mr Brown said during a speech in Beijing.

"I believe this is a huge opportunity."

Those on the crest of the wave of learning are endlessly creative about study methods.

Jessy Zhao, a 23-year-old from China's western Xinjiang region who is now studying for a Masters in education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, covered her dormitory room wall with memos with English words she wanted to remember.

"There was a movie that I really liked a lot when I started to learn English, so I tape recorded the conversation and repeated it again and again just for fun," said Ms Zhao.

Students can be particularly obsessive about memorising vocabulary. Maggie Cheng, a student of English at Beijing Foreign Studies University, recalls how someone from her home town was given two Oxford dictionaries by her family as study aids.

She ended up using one as a reference guide and the other for memorising.

"She would read a page and then rip a page - for a sense of accomplishment, I guess," Ms Cheng says.

There are many study aids available to Chinese students.

Aside from the internet and English books sold in stores, outdated foreign newspapers and magazines are often for sale at a discount from street vendors and underground hawkers.

Ms Gao of Beijing Normal University has been studiously flipping through issues of Time magazine because the "stories are real rather than a sham", she writes in an e-mail.

"I read every book I can, I'm very interested," explains Ms Gao, who spends long hours in the library.

"I think books help broaden our modes of thinking and knowledge."

********************

Cost and Complications Take Some of the Appeal Out of Studying Overseas

Despite China's fascination with the west, the number of Chinese students heading overseas has been declining in recent years, while those returning have been on the rise.

More than 114,600 students went abroad to study last year, down from 125,000 in 2002, according to statistics from China's education ministry.

And in the last five years, the number of Chinese returning from overseas stints has been increasing, exceeding 25,000 last year.

Many students are choosing to stay at home to avoid the cumbersome visa procedures associated with foreign travel and the heavy financial cost of studying abroad - in marked contrast to the trend of the 1990s.

UK universities in particular have witnessed a significant drop in the number of postgraduate applications from China, as well as other Asian countries.

But for many students, the returns they seek can only be met by leaving China, where the job market for young professionals is tight.

English language skills, coupled with scarce expertise in a technical area, are seen as a combination for success.

"I regard [learning English] as a key to open the door to another world in which there are different cultures and people I want to understand," says Annan Yang, a 23-year-old from Hangzhou, near Shanghai, who is studying for a PhD in biology at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

"It's a tool like a computer to get information," she explains.

"Especially in science, if I want to know the development of a field, I must know English because the best magazines are in English."

Gao Long, a student at Beijing Normal University, says she wants to go to the US since it represents fairness and better opportunities.

A book she is now reading describes an American town where life is "in harmony with its surroundings".

"It's an open country," says the 16-year-old.

"In China, many jobs are based more on background. In America, people pay more attention to your ability."

Tunisia To Step Up English Language Teaching

In Kongo Times, 27 Jan 2009. Here is the link to the original story. Another nail in the coffin for the French language in Africa.

The Tunisian Ministry of Education and Training signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Council in London Tuesday, to prepare for a huge project aimed at English language teaching reform in all state primary and secondary schools in Tunisia. The MoU signing ceremony was attended by Hatem Ben Salem, the Tunisian Minister of Education and Training; and Lord Kinnock, Chair of the British Council and former Leader of the Labour Party.

The project, known as 'English for the Future', seeks to design and introduce new English language materials and course books for primary and secondary education in order to produce output standards that are within the Common European Framework for Languages, and to equip learners of English with better vocational language abilities.

During the ceremony, Lord Kinnock stressed the Council's commitment to Tunisia.

"Our commitment to Tunisia, to education specifically, and within that to English language teaching and training is very very strong indeed and we would like to do much more of it," noted Lord Kinnock.

The English language is not only vital for employability, but "the fact is: an international language can be a medium of tolerance and comprehension," Lord Kinnock said.

The Tunisian Minister underscored his country's focus on improving education.

"Since its independence, Tunisia has decided not to invest in arms but to invest instead in education," said Ben Salem.

"The budget for the Ministry of Education is one fifth of the whole state budget," he added.

However, the Tunisian education system had mainly invested to enable people to have access to education, noted Ben Salem, adding that now is the time "to go further and work more on quality, not only in education but also in vocational training."

Tunisia, which boasts of around 2,200,000 students in primary and secondary schools, has the burden of 100, 000 high diploma holders who are unemployed, prompting more focus on vocational training, where mastering the English language is key.

"Now there is a target; to have students go to vocational training," said Ben Salem, adding that learners would not benefit by finding jobs in Tunisia only, but also by being employed in Arab Gulf States.

"Ministers in the Gulf are asking for experts from Tunisia who are skilled in English," noted Ben Salem.

The project also aims to focus on training Tunisian teachers of English to reach a certain level of expertise, especially since there has been an increase in the number of English language teachers and students.

"The Tunisian President Ben Ali had decided to impose teaching English for sixth year primary school children, which was revolutionary in Tunisia where people are accustomed to French. So the new teachers will need more training," explained Ben Salem.

The project initiative will begin by assessing the current situation of English language teaching in Tunisia before planning to set out a clear feasible strategy.

But the Tunisian Minister is optimistic that the project's success will make it a positive model for neighbouring countries.

Preparations for the project have already begun.

"Just over a year ago we had a three person scoping mission - distinguished consultants from the UK - who worked with a team from the Ministry and looked at the whole situation of English language teaching, root and branch," said Peter Skelton, British Council Director.

"The team produced a very weighty report," said Skelton, which will be the basis for work on the way forward, adding that the project could last as long as 8 years "as it is one of the biggest investments the British Council has made anywhere."

"It is being launched in Tunisia as a pilot not only for the Near East and North Africa region but for the rest of the world," explained Skelton, to see "what can be done using the British Council's new products and services."

"The absolute key in this is sustainability," stressed Skelton.

When asked about the significance of this project in comparison to previous British Council initiatives in Tunisia, Skelton said the Council "was involved with one off projects, good at the time but did not have a lasting impact. Now we're looking at long term impact and sustainability."

Removing the Language Barrier

insidehighered.com, June 27, 2007:

As European universities continue moving toward standardizing their degree cycles, universities in the continent’s non-English speaking countries are increasingly offering master’s degree programs in which English is the language of instruction — in a bid to increase their competitiveness throughout Europe, and beyond.

“It’s taken off in the past 5 to 10 years, since the advent of the Bologna Process,” says Mariam Assefa, executive director of World Education Services, a non-profit organization specializing in foreign credential evaluation. The Bologna Process, named for the Italian city where the agreement for “harmonizing” European higher education was signed in 1999, aims in part to foster greater student mobility by creating a common structure for higher education in Europe.

“Basically when they decided to open their systems internationally, it was thought that English-language taught programs would make the programs more accessible, because the students don’t necessarily come equipped in German or Dutch or French – particularly if they wish to attract students from beyond Europe,” Assefa explains.

The English-language professional degree programs are primarily in business, the sciences and engineering, but as more and more pop up, more and more options are obviously available. A database of “international” master’s programs (which, by and large, are taught in English) maintained by Finland’s Centre for International Mobility yields 151 master’s degree programs in everything from radio frequency electronics to forest products technology to tourism. The number of master’s degree programs taught in English in Germany has risen to 362, with most of the programs less than a decade old. The University of Heidelberg, for instance, offers master’s degree programs in American Studies, international health and molecular and cellular biology, all in English.

Even France, a nation not known for its love of the English language, has jumped into the arena with a 206-page guide to programs taught in English. “Students no longer have to choose between coming to France and studying in a language they understand,” André Siganos, director-general of Agence CampusFrance wrote in a message to potential students in the front of the guide.

“That,” says Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president for the Institute of International Education, “was a big break-through in France over the past decade or so.”

The faculty composition for these programs can vary, with M.B.A. programs often taught by a mix of international and host country faculty, and engineering programs, on the other hand, mainly taught by host country faculty fluent in English, Blumenthal says. The cost of these programs for international students can also vary dramatically, from nothing at all (the old European price model) to 20,000 Euro or so, or about $27,000 (much more akin to the American model). Yet, by offering instruction in English, the international language of business, universities aren’t solely looking to attract American or British students in search of a cheap(er) or even free program — far from it.

In Germany, for instance, the majority of students are coming from China, India and Latin America, with a “considerable” number also hailing from Eastern Europe, says Ulrich Grothus, director of the German Academic Exchange Service’s New York office. “There’s a much smaller number of students coming from developed countries like the United States or Western Europe – in these particular programs,” says Grothus. “It is true that the majority of American students coming to Germany do so not in spite of the fact that we speak German but because we speak German.”

Hat tip: Edward J. Cunningham

English – fifth language of Switzerland?

Technorati:English Switzerland's lingua franca,decline of French in Switzerland

swissinfo.com, August 22, 2002

While the majority of Swiss speak one of the four national languages, the number using foreign tongues – especially English - continues to rise.
According to a recent study, almost 64 per cent of Swiss speak German, 19.5 per cent French, 6.6 per cent Italian and less than 0.5 per cent Romansh.

But almost ten per cent of people living in Switzerland do not count one of the national languages as their main tongue.

Since 1950 the proportion of foreign language speakers has risen steadily and now languages such as Serbian, Croatian, Albanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish and Kurdish – not to mention English - are more frequently spoken than Romansh.

Of all the foreign languages spoken in Switzerland, English is by far the most dominant and could soon become the main foreign language taught in schools in many cantons.

So is English destined to become the principal lingua franca between the different linguistic regions of Switzerland?

A decision last year by canton Zurich to make English – rather than French - the first foreign language in the school curriculum has made this more likely.

Canton Zurich’s decision met with a strong reaction in French-speaking Switzerland.

The day after a press conference in September 2000 by Zurich’s chief of education, Ernst Buschor, the French-language newspaper “Le Temps” asked if the inclusion of English in the canton’s school curriculum spelled the “End of Switzerland?”

Many people, particularly in the French- and Italian-speaking areas of the country, feared the choice of English would undo the glue in the Swiss national identity.

While Switzerland’s linguistic minorities need to learn German for professional reasons, Swiss from all language areas find it useful to acquire a knowledge of English.

Many parents want their children to have access to the language of globalisation. In the field of scientific research, in some professions and at the higher levels of UBS, Swisscom, and Novartis, English is already used for in-house exchanges.

Decline of Romansh and Italian

But while French and German are continuing to hold their own against the onslaught of English, Romansh is rapidly losing ground.

In 2000 Switzerland’s fourth national language was spoken by just 0.46 per cent of the population – or around 34,000 people – compared with 0.6 per cent 10 years before.

This trend has led a number of Romansh representatives to ask canton Graubünden for stricter measures to protect the language.

One example would be to oblige dual-language communities – where Romansh and German are spoken – to use Romansh as the language of teaching and administration.

Fewer people are also speaking Italian. Some 7.6 per cent of people living in Switzerland used Italian as their main language in 1990. Ten years on this figure has dipped by one per cent.

The drop is in part due to the diminishing number of Italians amongst Switzerland’s foreign population. In 2000, Italians accounted for 21.4 per cent of the country’s foreign population, compared with 60 per cent in 1960.

Federalism – a double-edged sword
It remains to be seen how many cantons will ultimately embrace English as their first foreign language.

But the debate on English highlights one of the fundamental problems which has be to confronted by the Swiss federalist system: the possibility of a clash between the autonomy of the cantons with respect to education, and an appreciation of the needs of cultural minorities, and the subsequent effect on the sense of unity within Switzerland.

swissinfo/ Andrea Tognina

English is the 'Neutral' Language of Switzerland

Saturday, February 16, 2008

I follow the use of English in Switzerland more than in other parts of the world because my school is made up of a large percentage of Swiss students. Most of them come to San Diego to prepare for the Cambridge Certificate Exams.

On my first trip to Switzerland in 2001, I went with the expectation that the people there could speak at least two of their four national languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh) and that since I knew some French, I could rely on that more than on German. I didn't expect people to prefer to use English. Contrary to my image of a country where people moved freely from region to region, easily slipping into French in Geneva, Italian in Lugano, and German in Zurich, there were strong feelings against German-speakers in the French or Italian part, and against Italian- or French-speakers in the German part. So, apparently, the way this small country functions with four distinct national languages is by strong regional linguistic separation. In addition, with the recent introduction of English into the public school system, English is becoming the neutral lingua franca of Switzerland. That is, most German speakers would rather speak English than French in Geneva, and French Swiss would rather speak English than German in Zurich.

Naturally, I am not the first to make this observation, and I've often queried my students about this phenomenon. Their responses vary. For example, I have encountered Swiss school teachers who were rather irritated or indignant that they had to pass an advanced level Cambridge exam in order to secure or hang on to their teaching positions in Switzerland, even though English is not one of the country's national languages nor is there any deep historical connection to an English-speaking country. (But see an account of the English love of Swiss). On the other hand, many young Swiss German students are happy that they had an opportunity to study English early in their education. Few German-speakers enjoy studying French, especially since they 'dislike the sound of it.' Likewise, the French and Italians claim that German is a harsh-sounding language that is difficult for them to pronounce.

The following are some online references which you might want to peruse. The first is an essay by Duermueller entitled "English in Switzerland: From Foreign Language to Lingua Franca?"From a different perspective, there is an abstract by Christof Demont-Heinrich, "Language and National Identity in the Era of Globalization: The Case of English in Switzerland." For a historical perspective, Duermueller also wrote an article about 20 years ago based on a survey of roughly 5,000 Swiss military recruits, exploring their attitudes toward learning English.

Romansh, which is a nationally recognized language of Switzerland, now appears less important than English. In fact, the canton of Zurich broke tradition when it made the change from French to English as 'the first foreign language' for its school-age children. Swissinfo.com comments here on the importance of English - the Fifth language of Switzerland? Finally, here is some commentary in French and German about English in Swiss schools. 

Hat tip: Edward J. Cunningham 

Switzerland: more English, less French

Technorati:Languages in Swiss education

swissworld.org

Foreigners often assume that the fact that there are four national languages in Switzerland means that every Swiss speaks four languages, or at least three. However, the reality is very different.

The Swiss can certainly be proud of their linguistic proficiency and many understand the other languages of their fellow countrymen very well. However, proficiency in the national languages is decreasing in favour of English. Quadrilingual Switzerland is apparently becoming a two-and-a-half-language Switzerland. Many people speak their mother tongue and English and understand a second national language.

Each canton makes its own decision about which language will be taught when. In German-speaking Switzerland children have traditionally started French from the age of 9, while French speakers have started German at the same age. In Ticino and the Rumantsch-speaking areas, both French and German are learned during compulsory schooling. Ticino decided in 2002 to make English a compulsory subject, alongside French and German. To lighten the load, children will be able to drop French when they start English in the 8th year.

Zurich's education minister provoked a national debate in 2000 by announcing that his canton intended to make English the first foreign language, rather than French. Supporters of the move point out that English is more useful in the world. They add that children and parents are in favour and that since motivation is an important ingredient in language learning, pupils are likely to learn English more successfully than they do French.

Opponents see the decision as a threat to the unity of Switzerland, and fear that French and Italian speakers will be put at a disadvantage because they will still need a good standard of German to rise in their careers within Switzerland.

The French are afraid of the workload of learning languages. Who'd have thought?

Hat tip: Edward J. Cunningham

English Language in Switzerland

Technorati:English in Switzerland,l'anglais en Suisse,l'inglese nella Svizzera,Englisch in der Schweiz

switzerland.isyours.com

Traditionally, Switzerland is home to a large anglophone community. The English language is very widespread and is used as a link between Switzerland's various linguistic communities. Switzerland is extremely open culturally and economically, and thus has all the services an anglophone could possibly want. So much so that some English speakers who have lived in Switzerland for years have not felt the need to learn one of the national languages, since they are able to deal with any situation in English.

The bulk of the anglophone population is concentrated in the Lake Geneva area (31%), where the cities of Geneva and Lausanne are located. Other thriving communities also exist in large cities such as Basle (12%), Zurich or Zug (9%). The percentage of anglophones has reached as much as 13 to 15% of the population in some communities such as Founex or Bogis-Bossey, near Geneva.

The English language is very widespread in Switzerland. After their mother tongue, the Swiss speak English best, since it is used as a link and the language of communication in this multilingual country of germanophones (65%), francophones (20%), italophones (7.5%) and Romansh (0.5%). The Swiss English-language skills shown in the following table indicate that two out of three German-speaking Swiss and one out of two French-speaking Swiss speak English.

Swiss English-language skills (Grin: 1999)

The tourist industry and the presence of many international organizations and businesses make English a must in Switzerland. English dominates the worlds of business, commerce and finance. The Swiss are used to English, which conveys a young and positive image. It's the language of choice for advertisers wishing to avoid multilingual campaigns. And it's not by chance that the recently privatized Swiss telecommunications firm adopted a single English-sounding name: Swisscom. The same goes for the major Swiss airline, which is called Swissair. As a general rule, "Do you speak English?" is greeted with a smile and a well-spoken reply in this multilingual country. Proof of this is the fact that many anglophones who do not speak any of Switzerland's national languages have lived there for years without the slightest communication problems.

English is really en vogue with young people. Most of the successful films are American and the music that is popular with the youth is almost exclusively anglophone. English is also the language of the Internet, which many Swiss use as a means of communication.

You can be understood in English in almost any shop or business. At the post office, the bank or the train station, all the employees speak English. In all the major urban centres there are English-language bookstores and video rentals as well as English grocery shops. Most of the cinemas show films in the original English as well. The anglophone community in Geneva benefits from a dozen or so cultural organizations, notably the American library. Several English-language radio stations broadcast in this region, the main one being World Radio Geneva on 88.4 FM. And of course, all the English newspapers are available at any news stand.

You can find English churches in all of the linguistic regions, and anglophone schools are located throughout Switzerland. The most renowned are along the Genevan Riviera and in the Vaud Alps, giving Switzerland its excellent international reputation for private education. Young people from around the world come here to study. Princess Diana studied in Switzerland, as did many other members of the Royal Family. So it's not surprising to find the gliterati taking part in the joys of skiing each winter in the Vaud Alps and Gstaad ski resorts.

Hat tip: Edward J. Cunningham

The Globalization of Language

Technorati:Spread of English,Japanese obsession with English

BY AMIN GHADIMI
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 29, 2008 on the columbiaspectator.com

In case anyone had any doubt, the contagiousness of our current economic crisis has made it painfully clear how integrated our global neighborhood is. It doesn’t make much sense, though, that we can’t all speak about this world-embracing problem in the same language—literally. It is time that all nations swallow their pride and agree to adopt a common language, one that every person on Earth would speak, read, and write.
Visceral reactions to such a call for language commonality are understandably indignant. What about national sovereignty, cultural identity, or tradition and history? On the surface, demanding that everyone speak the same language seems bigoted and culturally imperialistic—who can say that one language is better than all others?
A universal language does not, however, mean the extermination of linguistic diversity.
It is possible to maintain bilingualism or even multilingualism in a society. Everyone at Columbia, for instance, speaks English, but we are all required to learn a foreign language as well. Rather than linguistically and culturally homogenizing the world, speaking a common language would increase opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue and intercultural understanding, as it would allow direct dialogue between people of different origins.
Furthermore, times of economic suffering remind us that being rational and pragmatic is sometimes more important than clinging to tradition. It is inevitable that some feeling of national sovereignty and distinction will be lost if everyone speaks the same language, but it is naive to believe that the conception of cultures as discrete entities has not already been significantly eroded. The fact of the matter is that adopting a universal language is not too large of a step from where we already find ourselves in our globalized world—English has already infiltrated societies across the globe.
Evidence for the proliferation of English abounds. France has found itself so inundated by English that one of the branches of its Ministry of Culture, the Commission Générale de Terminologie et de Néologie, has devoted itself to preventing the contamination of the French language by English words. Although it maintains Web sites intended to encourage French speakers to use native alternatives for words such as “podcasting” and for phrases like “beach volleyball,” it is difficult to be optimistic about its chances for success when words such as “Internet” have become so universally ingrained.
Indeed, if the French backlash against English only hints at the extent of the globalization of English, the Japanese obsession with English offers unequivocal evidence. It is not only words for things that are un-Japanese, such as “pizza” or “necktie,” that the Japanese borrow from English. Using English in Japan has become so trendy that English words regularly replace Japanese ones in pop culture: for example, “getto,” Japan’s adaptation of the word “get,” is so frequently used that it has become part of the vocabulary of the average Japanese youth. With English so prevalent in societies across the globe, it isn’t as huge a leap as one would expect to call for a more formalized, codified role of a global language. The obstacles are largely ideological and psychological—the will rather than the way seems to be the largest barrier to linguistic unity.
Yet the fact that English has become increasingly globalized does not in itself justify a more formal role for universal language. The reasons for a global language are more fundamental and more pressing. A common language would be a significant step towards the elimination, or at least the diminution, of racial and cultural prejudices that have no place in our contemporary world. When people are technologically capable of communicating with essentially anyone in the world with Internet access, why should they be linguistically deprived of this opportunity?
More importantly, a single global language makes economic sense. According to an article in July 2006 in British newspaper the Independent, the European Union budgeted one billion euros for translation of documents into each of what was then its 20 official languages. One billion euros is only the budget for one year in the EU—the cumulative cost of translation for small and large businesses and organizations across the globe must be staggering. With world economies slipping into recession, it is the right time to reconsider the wisdom of allocating resources to the culturally symbolic but highly impractical and difficult service of translation.
Of course, some may rightly argue that adopting a universal language would also incur costs. Would the staggering one-time cost of translating already-existing documents in all countries to a single global language really be less than the cumulative daily costs of translation? What would happen to translators and interpreters whose jobs would be demoded? How feasible would such a shift to a common language be? How many generations would it take? All these questions are profound and challenging, but they are nonetheless—or therefore—ones that multinational organizations should consider carefully.
Our global economic recession reminds us that we are all interconnected on this planet, and it is detrimental to seek to sustain anachronistic and artificial linguistic barriers merely for the sake of the antiquated concept of cultural autonomy. Each nation, of course, should value its own culture highly and seek to preserve it, but not at the cost of the welfare and progress of our world. Perhaps the United Nations could put the question of language on its agenda. To avoid having English or any other language inadvertently or arbitrarily imposed upon them, nations must proactively and cooperatively decide their own linguistic destiny.

The author is a Columbia College first-year.

The fading French connection

Technorati:French in Asia,Olympic Games French

Greenway wrote this in the IHT, on November 19, 2008:

As summer was ending I went up to St. Andrews in Canada; a pretty little seaport town near where New Brunswick melts into Maine.

There are signs everywhere of a British past. The streets are named Prince of Wales, King, Queen and Princess Royal, not to mention Victoria Terrace. Up the hill is the Loyalist Burying Ground, filled with New Englanders who decided to remain British during the Revolutionary War.

But this is bilingual Canada, and in places where they don't want you to leave your car the signs say: "Stationnement Interdit" as well as "No Parking."

Canadian French may make Parisians wince, but it is French, nonetheless, jealously promoted and mandated by Canada's Francophones even in English-speaking provinces. Canadian politicians when speaking abroad often begin the first couple of paragraphs in French, which will be broadcast back home, before they revert to English.

Elsewhere, the French language isn't doing so well. A recent insult came last summer when the Ladies Professional Golf Association insisted that proficiency in English be required of its players. Libba Galloway, the organization's deputy commissioner, was quoted as saying that since the fan base and the sponsors are mostly English speaking, "we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English."

South Korea's golfing star, Se Ri Pak, said: "We play so good all over.... When you win you should give your speech in English." But the rule could run into trouble in the United States, where discrimination on the basis of national origin is illegal.

French used to be the language of diplomacy. Lingua franca means a common language by which people can communicate. But today most diplomats use English as their lingua franca. I remember covering a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in which the Asian leaders really got to know each other on the golf course speaking English.

English-language schools dot the back streets in former French Indochina, and a meeting of French-speaking countries in Hanoi a few years back had difficulty finding enough local people to make up a French-speaking staff. Attempts by France to insist that French be spoken in Cambodian hospitals donated by France failed miserably when Cambodians demonstrated in favor of English.

The World Economic Forum, which is based in French-speaking Geneva, insists that English be the official language of its annual meeting in German-speaking Davos. But the forum provides a French-speaking dinner for those Francophones who need a little relief.

Some say that fear of English influences French foreign policy. It is said that France backed the murderous Hutu faction in Rwanda because France didn't want English-speaking rebels from Uganda to win. The Rwandan government prepared a 500-page document accusing France of assisting the genocide, and took Rwanda out of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, or OIF, the French-led association of French-speaking countries.

France denied the charges, but now the former French-speaking Belgian colony is switching its entire educational system from French to English.

The OIF is well financed and, with the help of the Foreign Ministry, tries to make sure that France remains a language of international communication.

The LPGA may stress English, but last summer saw what the Financial Times called an "eccentric quest for perpetual linguistic pre-eminence in the Olympic movement."

Eccentric is not the word any linguistically patriotic Frenchman would have used. After all, was not the modern Olympic movement founded by Baron Pierre de Courbertin? And did not the Belgian head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, declare in Bejing last summer that although English and French were both official languages of the OIC, French took precedence in cases of dispute?

At the Games, signs were in French, English and Chinese, although the Chinese themselves preferred to use English when not speaking their own language.

Spanish, Chinese, even Portuguese, never mind English, may be spoken more than French around the world, but France's effort to keep its beautiful language alive, to turn back the rising tide of English, and combat the dreaded American cultural tsunami has a certain doomed nobility about it.

Even in Uruguay

Here is an interesting account by a French Columbian expat of the decline of French in Uruguay. It is in French. I have no time to translate it into English right now. Should someone volunteer a translation, I'll post that too. Here is a Spanish version of that research work.

HISTOIRE DE LA DIFFUSION DE LA LANGUE FRANÇAISE EN URUGUAY DEPUIS LE XIXe SIÈCLE.

Samantha CHAREILLE Alliance colombo-française (COLOMBIE)

Abstract: The Eastern Republic of Uruguay, one of the smallest countries of South America, is located ten thousand kilometers from France between Brazil and Argentina, with less than four millions inhabitants. An average French person will be surprised to learn how important the French language was for a long time there. Uruguay students used to learn French as their first foreign language. French had a special status. Today it is in steep decline even though it enjoys a positive image. The Lycée Français itself is experiencing grave difficulties. English has been the only mandatory foreign language in schools since 1996 while fewer and fewer students in secondary education have begun the study of French since 1991. One factor contributing to the decline of French in Uruguay could be the lack of interest shown by French and Uruguayan media in the other country. Portuguese and English are increasingly useful languages for Uruguayans to learn, and the young have bathed in Anglo-American culture for decades. Meanwhile, the number of French expatriates living in Uruguay is steadily decreasing. What's more, current French policies for spreading and maintaining French outside of France are very inappropriate.

A few excerpts:






























Samantha Chareille
chareille[arroba]hotmail.com
Doctora en Didactología de las lenguas y de las culturas.
Université Paris III – la Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Ecole normale supérieure de Lettres et Sciences humaines de Lyon.

Decline of French Teaching in Valencia, Spain

In a this pdf from the www.sie.upv.es web site, interesting statistics document the steep decline of French teaching in the area of Valencia, Spain in just five years 1995/2000:

You cannot dictate to ordinary people what words and coins they use

The Spectator, Jun 5, 1999 by Johnson, Paul:

The European Union is an anti-democratic institution run by bureaucrats, lawyers and political elites. When it is put to the democratic test - that is, when the people have a genuine choice about whether or not to abide by its wishes - it invariably gets the thumbs-down. Two particular instances are language and currency. You cannot dictate to ordinary people what words and coins they use. These two things go right to the root of their beings and they decide for themselves. At French insistence, the EU refuses even to consider using English as the common language, though it is the obvious choice, and the Academie francaise makes continual efforts, often assisted by law and government, to ban English. Yet the French themselves, led by their own teenagers, use more and more Anglo-Saxon expressions. Not long ago I spotted Le Monde, which huffs and puffs about the purity of the language, using 'stopper' in a front-page headline, though there is a perfectly good French word. In the same paper, in a front-page article complaining about Anglo-Saxon `cultural imperialism', the author employed the noun 'manager', though again there are two or three acceptable French alternatives.

More and more organisations inside continental Europe use English in their handouts because it makes sense. In Germany and Sweden, important companies with worldwide business now conduct their board meetings in English because it saves time and avoids misunderstandings. A few years ago, a journalist from Scandinavia, where all speak English and very few French, complained to Jacques Delors at a Brussels press conference that he answered questions only in French and had no simultaneous translation. Why? Delors answered that French was `the language of diplomacy', adding under his breath `et de la civilisation'. Neither statement has been true for a very long time.

The currency issue is more acute because the EU has deliberately chosen a common currency as the first step towards a federal superstate. It has identified its future with the success of the euro. This bureaucratic artefact has not even been subjected to the real judgment of the people since it does not yet circulate from palm to palm. But the traders do not want it because they know governments will not stick to the bankers' rules, which must be observed if it is to succeed, and in five months the sceptics have been proved absolutely right. Currency, like language, is demotic. In parts of East Africa villagers still trade and save in Maria Theresa silver thalers from 18th-century Austria because they trust them. In Russia, even under the old Communist regime and long before the rouble officially collapsed, ordinary people used dollars if they could get hold of them. Even Brezhnev had a dollar credit card; so did Mrs Gorbachev; Soviet cruise liners accepted only dollars. It made sense. It's not clear whether we need an official world currency yet but, if we do, the dollar is the obvious candidate. There is no reason why many small countries should have their own currency, any more than their own airline. Bermuda has used the dollar for many years with great success. Argentina, which has managed to keep the peso at parity with the dollar, now wants to join the dollar zone; so does Peru. I foresee a future in which all Latin American countries which contrive to run stable, successful economies will in practice treat the dollar as their own coin.

English Supplanting French At U.N., Journalists Say

UN wire, Friday, February 15, 2002:

Journalists at the U.N. Geneva office have submitted a petition to spokeswoman Marie Heuze denouncing the "marginal" status of the French language there, Le Temps reported yesterday. The petitioners say the use of English is "penalizing significant contingents of Chinese, African, Arab and Eastern European journalists, who have often mastered only French as a working language."

French and English are the world body's two official working languages, but 90 percent of documents produced at the Geneva office are composed in English, and French translations are often slow in coming, according to Le Temps. Vladimir Petrovsky, the U.N. director general in Geneva, does not speak French after 10 years on the job, the Geneva daily reported, adding that French-speaking U.N. employees have taken to writing in English in the interest of their careers.

According to Le Temps, a French U.N. diplomat, upon arriving at a recent World Health Organization seminar in Lyons, France, discovered the working languages were English and Russian (Pierre Hazan, Le Temps, Feb. 14, UN Wire translation).

French Decline in Quotes

By Justitia & Veritas:

LE FRANÇAIS DANS LE MONDE: LE GRAND RECUL


E.L., Le français risque de devenir une langue morte aux Pays-Bas, LB 7/6/78

J.H. Défendre le français, LB, 19/7/79
Le français et l’anglais sont les deux langues officielles de l’Alliance atlantique. On y trouve encore des diplomates bilingues, mais en fait, tout se passe en anglais.

André Goosse, Situation et avenir du français en Europe, LB 16/11/81
“Le français aurait perdu la première place en Italie, ce qui serait particulièrement regrettable.”

Luc Norin, Le français, langue des sciences et des techniques, LB 21/10/82
“D’après les premiers résultats effectués actuellement par le CNRS (et qui seront rendues publiques au prochain colloque international de Montréal), le dépouillement de 450 000 articles publiés en un an en Belgique, Canada, France, Québec, Suisse, révèle que 8 p.c. d’ entre eux seulement ont été publiés en français.”

Le français est de moins en moins parlé à la Chambre [Belge]!, LB [Libre Belgique] 15/10/84
Jean Defraigne, président de la Chambre:
“65 à 70 % des interventions sont faites en néerlandais!”

S.G., Espagne: comment meurt le français?, LS 11/3/87
“En quelques années, l’enseignement du français dans les écoles secondaires espagnoles a perdu plus de la moitié de ses élèves.”
“Dès que les premières compétences en matière d’enseignement ont été transférées de l’ Etat central vers les gouvernemùents régionaux autonomes, on a assisté à
l’introduction massive de l’enseignement des langues régionales respectives.”
En plus, l’apprentissage de l’anglais.

Eddy Pennewaert, La Turquie: laboratoire historique de la francophonie, Intermédiaire, 14/3/88
“Depuis près de deux siècles, plus de 70 journaux entièrement ou partiellement en langue française ont paru dans l’Empire ottoman et la Turquie républicaine.”
“Après 1918, la presse française de Turquie se confine progressivement aux domaines ‘culturels’. Son agonie sera irréversible, car de plus en plus de citoyens turcs seront amenés à exprimer leurs opinions dans leur langue maternelle.”
“Ce déclin de l’usage du français en Turquie sera total après la deuxième Guerre Mondiale.”

La XIIIe biennale de la langue française à Québec, LB 22/8/89
“Entre 1974 et 1980, l’usage du français dans les publications scientifiques en france aurait baissé de 69 p.c; à 48 p.c.. Au Québec, l’Institut du Cancer de Montréal et
l’Institut de recherche en énergie d’Hydro-Québec publient en anglais dans une proportion de 92 p.c..”

s.n., Revue de la dir. gén. des études, 9, nov. 1989, p.46
“Actuellement, les Italiens, les Espagnols et les Portugais préfèrent utiliser l’anglais.”

L’ Algérie ne veut plus entendre parler français, VA 28/12/90
L’arabe doit, d’ici 1992, s’imposer progressivement dans toutes les sphères de
l’économie et de l’administration.

Algérie: offensive sans précédent contre le français, AL 28/12/90
“La Ligue de la dawa ‘Appel’ islamique, regroupant les différents courants intégristes, a dénoncé mardi dans un communiqué de soutien aux députés, ce qu’elle a appelé “les partis revendiquant la prolongation de la colonisation culturelle en Algérie.”
“Plusieurs milliers de coopérants français sont en poste dans l’enseignement en Algérie.”

Voyage chez les francophones, Géo, 138, 1990
(p.93) “Le soleil ne s’est pas encore levé sur Phnom Penh que des bataillons
d’adolescents se dirigent vers le carrefour des rues 184 et 19, ex-rues Paul-Bert et Francis-Garnier. Ils garent leurs vélos et se ruent vers des salles à peine éclairées par une maigre ampoule, mais aujourd’hui ... pour apprendre l’anglais.”

Yves de Saint-Agnès, Voyage chez les francophones, Géo, 138, 1990, p.87
“Charles XVI Gustave, quant à lui, est loin de s’exprimer couramment dans la langue des ses ancêtres. Il reflète ainsi le médiocre enthousiasme éprouvé par les Suédois àl’égard d’une langue jugée bizarre et compliquée.”


P.D., Francophonie: le désert scientifique, LB 1/6/92
“Aujourd’hui, une bonne culture scientifique ne peut s’acquérir que dans des ouvrages et des revues publiés en anglais.”

2006 Census: Young Anglophones Forget Their French in Canada

Statistics Canada:

Given that French is generally learned at school, the bilingualism rate reaches its peak in the 15 to 19 age group. Many of these young people are completing secondary school, having been in French-as-a-second-language or immersion programs. Since 1996, bilingualism has been losing ground among Anglophones in this age group.

In the 2006 Census, 13.0% of Anglophones aged 15 to 19 outside Quebec reported or were reported bilingual, down from 14.7% in 2001 and 16.3% in 1996. It should be noted that bilingualism is slightly higher for the 10 to 14 and 5 to 9 age groups.

The ability of young Anglophones to maintain their knowledge of French as a second language appears to decline with time. In 2001, 14.7% of Anglophones aged 15 to 19 were bilingual. In 2006, when the cohort was five years older (aged 20 to 24), only 12.2% reported being bilingual. Similar trends are observed when following the rate of bilingualism over time for the cohort aged 15 to 19 in 1996 (see Figure 3).

So much French teaching is now offered to Canadian kids at taxpayers' expense, but they won't touch it. No amount of State-funded propaganda can fool them. They know French is useless in the 21st century. Those kids are smart, let me tell ya.

The Ideology of English

The Ideology of English: French Perceptions of English as a World Language, by Jeffra Flaitz:













The Ideology of English: French Perceptions of English as a World Language
By Jeffra Flaitz
Published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 1988
ISBN 3110115492, 9783110115499
225 pages

Decline of French in the Spanish Educational System

O ensino do francés a partir dos anos setenta = L'enseignement du français depuis les années 70French teaching from the 1970's
Author: TATO Ma. Silvina, Universidade da Coruña, Spain

Résumé / Abstract
This article presents an analysis of the progressive decline of the French language in our educational system at the pre-university level, mainly in the elementary, secondary and vocational schools during the years that the General Education Act of 1970 was in effect. There is an analysis of how this language was gradually replaced by English as the language most commonly elected by the student body. Also presented is a panoramic view of the redistribution of French and English within the framework of the current Education Act LOGSE.
Revue / Journal Title
Sarmiento ISSN 1138-5863
Source / Source
2000, no4, pp. 119-151 (2 p.1/4)
Langue / Language
Espagnol