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Is French still important? | ||
Tags: Language Importance | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| decamillisjacob Newbie Canada Joined 4733 days ago 38 posts - 63 votes  | Message 1 of 44 29 June 2012 at 12:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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Based on common observation, English definitely has taken centre stage in the world... and other languages certainly are gaining importance---German in science, Chinese and Spanish in both business and shere number, etc. French has, on the other hand, definitely slipped in its importance even though it's still in institutions like the UN, NATO, as well as any Francophone country, L1 or L2. People though don't seem to want to study it anymore though and are definitely leaning towards other languages?
Is French losing ground or does it still hold international function? Edited by decamillisjacob on 02 July 2012 at 7:06am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 2 of 44 29 June 2012 at 1:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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It all depends on what happens with French in Africa. In the long run, it will either
become a native language there or else it will be replaced as an official language by English. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4639 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 44 29 June 2012 at 1:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree that the countries in Africa with French as an important language will play a key role in determining how French will continue working as an "important" language. However, I highly doubt that French's historical and cultural importance will ever diminish. Perhaps in business and politics it has strong competitors, but there'll probably always be people interested in French. Worth noting is the fact that French is still often used for business in Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, etc.), while the Arabic dialects are used most (in my experience) at home. In general, French still has a good ground in some parts of those countries.
4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4637 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 4 of 44 29 June 2012 at 2:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think you're quite wrong about people not wanting to study it. It's highly regarded in China and Japan next to English and German. It's the only language other than English that is truly international, and France is a huge player in medicine and business.
Considering South America is still developing and Spain has some bad economic problems right now, I don't understand why people think Spanish is important for business. Is this just speculation/based off the large number of speakers or is there some huge turn around I missed? I honestly have no clue, I don't keep up with that stuff. Can someone enlighten me? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 5 of 44 29 June 2012 at 2:53am | IP Logged | |||||
You must be working with a very odd definition of "international". 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4637 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 6 of 44 29 June 2012 at 3:36am | IP Logged | |||||
No, I think I have it down. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Map-Franc ophone_World.png 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 44 29 June 2012 at 4:34am | IP Logged | |||||
Probably based on projections. Latin American economies are growing very rapidly, while those of the Francophonie are mostly growing more slowly. Africa is developing, too, but its fastest growing economies (in the south and east) are not Francophone ones. Further, the dominance of Spanish in Latin America (except for Brazil) is undoubted, undisputed by other languages, and extremely unlikely to change. I don't know if the same can be said for the parts of Africa where French is currently used. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 8 of 44 29 June 2012 at 4:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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For what it's worth, I applied recently to some UN jobs. In my field (environmental
work) all of the postings required fluency in English, most required a working knowledge of French, and a few required a working knowledge of Russian. A very few required fluency in Arabic, but these last were restricted to natives of Lebanon. These were the only language requirements, even for jobs based in SE Asia. UN is still a pretty significant world-institution; ergo French sill has a role in the world. Now - this is just a snapshot in time; maybe next month every posting will require Chinese and German. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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