Alice Chauvin SWAMPQUEEN
2006-12-01 15:16:51 UTC
from my Canadian cousine:)
Sudbury Star".....it's a bit long but worth the read..... Moi
French language growing worldwide, despite concern
Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau
Editorial - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 @ 11:00
In a recent survey on attitudes toward bilingualism, carried out by the
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 72 per cent of
Canadians said bilingualism was important, a sharp increase from 56 per
cent years ago. What's more, 84 per cent of Canadians said they believed
that speaking French would help them get a good job.
The link between employability and bilingualism is not a Canadian
phenomenon. Bilingualism is a growing trend the world over. What
Canadians probably don't realize is that internationally, French is
doing much better than is widely believed - even by the French
themselves.
It would be ridiculous to pretend that French is competing with English
on the international stage. Yet during the two years we spent
researching our book, The Story of French, we had some surprises.
Travelling to some 15 French-speaking countries, what we saw convinced
us that French is not only doing better than most people think, it is a
global language - in fact, the world's other global language.
It's simply false to pretend that French is on the decline. The number
of French-speakers in the world has tripled in the last 50 years to 175
million. French is still the world's second international language after
English, and the only other language taught in all countries of the
world.
French far outweighs Spanish, Arabic or even Chinese for its number of
students: 100 million. The International Federation of Teachers of
French has 80,000 members, a small proportion of the world's two million
teachers of French - 10,000 of whom are in the United States.
French is second only to English for the number of countries where it is
an official language - 33 compared to 45 - and for the number of
international institutions where it is used, including the UN, the EU,
the International Monetary Fund, the International Red Cross Committee,
Interpol and the International Labour Organization.
In last September's Summit of Francophonie - an organization often
described as a French-language Commonwealth - only half of the
organization's 53 members are former French colonies. Ten members of the
Francophonie are European, and another 11 European entities have
observer status (not all members are countries). The Francophonie
organization is often criticized for having many non-French speaking
member countries. Yet few commentators consider that if the organization
attracts these countries, if must have something interesting to offer.
But French is more vibrant across the planet than most people think.
Outside of the Francophonie, Algeria has 15 million French-speakers,
while 15 per cent of the population of Israel is francophone (mostly
Jews from North Africa and France). With 1.5 million native speakers,
French ranks as the fourth important native language of the United
States.
More importantly, French-speaking networks are rapidly developing across
the planet, not in competition with English, but parallel to it.
Under the auspices of the Agence universitaire francophone, (itself
under the umbrella of the Francophonie), some 525 French-language
universities have created official links. The agency gives 2,000
scholarships per year to encourage academic research in French. In a
surprising development, many francophone networks now bypass France
almost completely. When Morocco wanted to create an MBA program in the
1980s, it turned to Sherbrooke University in Quebec, where the first
such program in French was created.
The same is happening in the business world. When Franco-Ontarian
businessman Paul Desmarais (of Power Corp. fame) wanted to expand his
empire in Europe, he turned to Belgian business tycoon Albert Frere. In
recent years, French businesses have been outsourcing to countries where
there is less costly French-speaking labour, like Tunisia, Morocco and
Senegal.
If Canadians think French is becoming passe in the business world, they
should think again. The world's second engineering company is
SNC-Lavalin of Montreal. The world's main nuclear power, for civil
energy, is France. North America's biggest printer is Quebecor. The
world's second distributor, after Wal-Mart, is French Carrefour. The
world's second aviation company is Airbus, and Montreal is one of the
world's three most important centres for aviation.
French cinema has more viewers abroad than even at home. Quebec films
have been regularly beating Hollywood productions at box offices in the
last few years. Francophone music and literary festivals are multiplying
across the planet. Francophone literature, particularly from Africa and
the Caribbean, is being used more and more in French departments across
the U.S., as the backbone for black studies - in French.
The planetary exchange in French is impressive, and we were surprised by
the high status both Canada and Quebec enjoy in this system. In Canada,
Quebec is often derided for its language protection measures and Law 101
is considered oppressive, at best. But in the rest of the
French-speaking world, Quebec is heralded as a model to follow in
language protection.
Even the French look to Quebec for ideas on how to keep French
vocabulary contemporary without systematically resorting to English. The
Quebec bank of terminology, which contains references to one million
terms in French, gets 50 million hits per year, mostly from Europe, a
striking success when you compare that to the two million that the
French Academy receives.
One of the most surprising threats to French today is, in fact, coming
from the French, most of whom seem to think their language is
irremediably on the decline.
Canadians seem to know better.
Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau are the authors of Sixty Million
Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, and have just released The Story of French
(Knopf Canada), a popular history of the French language published in
Canada, the U.S. and Britain.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
=A0I copied and pasted this from our Nov.29th local newspaper "TheSudbury Star".....it's a bit long but worth the read..... Moi
French language growing worldwide, despite concern
Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau
Editorial - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 @ 11:00
In a recent survey on attitudes toward bilingualism, carried out by the
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 72 per cent of
Canadians said bilingualism was important, a sharp increase from 56 per
cent years ago. What's more, 84 per cent of Canadians said they believed
that speaking French would help them get a good job.
The link between employability and bilingualism is not a Canadian
phenomenon. Bilingualism is a growing trend the world over. What
Canadians probably don't realize is that internationally, French is
doing much better than is widely believed - even by the French
themselves.
It would be ridiculous to pretend that French is competing with English
on the international stage. Yet during the two years we spent
researching our book, The Story of French, we had some surprises.
Travelling to some 15 French-speaking countries, what we saw convinced
us that French is not only doing better than most people think, it is a
global language - in fact, the world's other global language.
It's simply false to pretend that French is on the decline. The number
of French-speakers in the world has tripled in the last 50 years to 175
million. French is still the world's second international language after
English, and the only other language taught in all countries of the
world.
French far outweighs Spanish, Arabic or even Chinese for its number of
students: 100 million. The International Federation of Teachers of
French has 80,000 members, a small proportion of the world's two million
teachers of French - 10,000 of whom are in the United States.
French is second only to English for the number of countries where it is
an official language - 33 compared to 45 - and for the number of
international institutions where it is used, including the UN, the EU,
the International Monetary Fund, the International Red Cross Committee,
Interpol and the International Labour Organization.
In last September's Summit of Francophonie - an organization often
described as a French-language Commonwealth - only half of the
organization's 53 members are former French colonies. Ten members of the
Francophonie are European, and another 11 European entities have
observer status (not all members are countries). The Francophonie
organization is often criticized for having many non-French speaking
member countries. Yet few commentators consider that if the organization
attracts these countries, if must have something interesting to offer.
But French is more vibrant across the planet than most people think.
Outside of the Francophonie, Algeria has 15 million French-speakers,
while 15 per cent of the population of Israel is francophone (mostly
Jews from North Africa and France). With 1.5 million native speakers,
French ranks as the fourth important native language of the United
States.
More importantly, French-speaking networks are rapidly developing across
the planet, not in competition with English, but parallel to it.
Under the auspices of the Agence universitaire francophone, (itself
under the umbrella of the Francophonie), some 525 French-language
universities have created official links. The agency gives 2,000
scholarships per year to encourage academic research in French. In a
surprising development, many francophone networks now bypass France
almost completely. When Morocco wanted to create an MBA program in the
1980s, it turned to Sherbrooke University in Quebec, where the first
such program in French was created.
The same is happening in the business world. When Franco-Ontarian
businessman Paul Desmarais (of Power Corp. fame) wanted to expand his
empire in Europe, he turned to Belgian business tycoon Albert Frere. In
recent years, French businesses have been outsourcing to countries where
there is less costly French-speaking labour, like Tunisia, Morocco and
Senegal.
If Canadians think French is becoming passe in the business world, they
should think again. The world's second engineering company is
SNC-Lavalin of Montreal. The world's main nuclear power, for civil
energy, is France. North America's biggest printer is Quebecor. The
world's second distributor, after Wal-Mart, is French Carrefour. The
world's second aviation company is Airbus, and Montreal is one of the
world's three most important centres for aviation.
French cinema has more viewers abroad than even at home. Quebec films
have been regularly beating Hollywood productions at box offices in the
last few years. Francophone music and literary festivals are multiplying
across the planet. Francophone literature, particularly from Africa and
the Caribbean, is being used more and more in French departments across
the U.S., as the backbone for black studies - in French.
The planetary exchange in French is impressive, and we were surprised by
the high status both Canada and Quebec enjoy in this system. In Canada,
Quebec is often derided for its language protection measures and Law 101
is considered oppressive, at best. But in the rest of the
French-speaking world, Quebec is heralded as a model to follow in
language protection.
Even the French look to Quebec for ideas on how to keep French
vocabulary contemporary without systematically resorting to English. The
Quebec bank of terminology, which contains references to one million
terms in French, gets 50 million hits per year, mostly from Europe, a
striking success when you compare that to the two million that the
French Academy receives.
One of the most surprising threats to French today is, in fact, coming
from the French, most of whom seem to think their language is
irremediably on the decline.
Canadians seem to know better.
Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau are the authors of Sixty Million
Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, and have just released The Story of French
(Knopf Canada), a popular history of the French language published in
Canada, the U.S. and Britain.