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Global language - another domino falls | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6204 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 10 of 37 23 April 2010 at 5:12am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Why is it so important that people speak french? I've never understood the dismay at the declining importance of french around the world, and the attempts at keeping it alive in places where its falling out of use. As long as people don't stop speaking french in France, there should be no cause for alarm; french doesn't belong everywhere else in the world, and its foolish to think that it should. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| The Blaz Senior Member Canada theblazblog.blogspotRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5684 days ago 120 posts - 176 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto | Message 11 of 37 23 April 2010 at 6:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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French in West/Central Africa forms a big enough bloc that it is more likely to increase
in importance as access to education improves than diminish. Rwanda is in the Central African sphere to an extent, but its membership in East Africa is becoming more significant, where English and Swahili are king. Edited by The Blaz on 23 April 2010 at 6:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5988 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 12 of 37 23 April 2010 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well, but the same can be said about English... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5424 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 13 of 37 23 April 2010 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Even though I personally like French language very much, sometimes I do wonder why the great dismay at the decline in the usage of French worldwide. First, in its ex-colonies, the decline in their ex-colonial master language (French) indicates a growth of usage/importance of the local languages - isn't that a good development? I mean, the French have been advocating so much/often for a world that's more multilingual and not monolingual (that is English-oriented), hence, by retreating its role in its ex-colonies while encouraging the use of their local languages, isn't that even better for the protection of local cultures and the respect of its own advocacy that the world should be a more multilingual place?
There's also the constant advertisement (or propaganda?) that many people are learning/speaking French worldwide, which seems to indicate that, you gotta learn French too, otherwise you won't be able to communicate with this large group of French learners/speakers. But if you think about it, it seems more like a "scare-tactic" that made people feel that "ok, everyone else is learning it, so I should better learn it too". Also, apart from France, Belgium, Quebec and a small part of Switzerland (even Zurich announced just last week that French language will no longer be a compulsory examinable subject for its university-entrance exams - that does show the further decline of French language in the world!), the great bulk of French speakers reside in Africa. But if I do not foresee myself working/traveling in Africa, then the so-called big number of French speakers in Africa shouldn't impact/bother/cripple me at all - in terms of social and career aspects! Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 23 April 2010 at 1:59pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Al-Irelandi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5619 days ago 111 posts - 177 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 37 25 April 2010 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well the French tried to displace in Arabic in Africa in places such as West Africa (Mali and Mauritania) and the 'Maghrib' (e.g Algeria), but with many of the inhabitants in them places being Muslim (or even Arab or still Arab speaking) it might have been harder to eradicate then some people had hoped. Thus it might be the case for some to keep fearing I'm afraid about Arabic (or English!) increasing in presence in Africa. Likewise Arabic may be making an appearance in Rwanda too, after the ethnic cleansing that took place over there 'forced' alot of the inhabitants to reconsider their religion and become Muslims, hence they would have to learn some Arabic to get by in their daily prayers and Islamic studies. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53018-2002Sep 22.html 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Smart Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5423 days ago 352 posts - 398 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French Studies: German | Message 15 of 37 25 April 2010 at 1:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||
For me, the thought of French dying out in parts of the world is terrible. English and French should be the languages people learn in school across the globe. French should in all reality be the language of America if one looks at our history, particularly in the fact that all the founding fathers were fluent French-speakers. We must also realize, languages like Arabic and Swahili are not profitable for creating new languages, all that has come out of Arabic is the loss of culture and the creation of many dialects. French on the other hand, is profitable for creating new languages, look at its impact on English and Dutch... Therefore I see no reason for people not to support the French language and we should all be up in arms if languages like Arabic become more dominant, I feel that is the nightmare of polyglots... (for me and some others, at least). Lastly, French should NOT be confined to just Europe and a part of Canada, if English has ANY right to be spoken outside of America/Canada/UK/Australia, then so does French. Anyone on this forum who is American should support French being put into the language learning system in America, right now, it's confined to certain places. Otherwise, expect a Spanish-speaking North and South America within 50 years. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5659 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 16 of 37 25 April 2010 at 4:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Je pense que cet chose est tres triste, moi-meme je adore le langue
francias... malheureusement je ne parle pas le francais tres bien, mais je trouve qu'en est tres belle. Quan on apprendre le francias, on apprendre plus de l'anglais et le espagnol pour exemple. Qu'est-ce que pense vous? (please excuse my spelling) Edited by LatinoBoy84 on 25 April 2010 at 4:35am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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