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France has done a turnaround | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4667 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes  Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 17 of 34 09 March 2015 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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All puristic languages fall down,
(socio)linguistic freedom is the future. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| caam_imt Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 4861 days ago 232 posts - 357 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, Finnish Studies: German, Swedish | Message 18 of 34 09 March 2015 at 11:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I also think the article's headline is extremely misguiding. One school doesn't mean the
whole country. Just to balance the equation, I'll say that I hope puristic languages don't succumb to English. Influence from other languages is ok, loanwords are ok..but that doesn't mean that EVERYTHING coming from English is by definition benign to other languages. Languages are intrinsically linked to culture, and importing so much culture (via English) should have its pros and cons, not just pros. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7204 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 19 of 34 10 March 2015 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Where can we see how this was reported in the French mainstream news?
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4638 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 20 of 34 10 March 2015 at 9:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Most French mainstream news have not bothered about it as far as I can tell - after all, it is not like every French youngster tries to enter ENA. There was much more controversy about the new law for higher education and research adopted in July 2013, which opened for all universities to use English instead of French as a language of instruction in certain courses. A simple search will give you a lot of results regarding that law.
When searching on the net about the ENA reform I did come across this opinion piece in the Catholic newspaper La Croix, the authors of the piece represent different associations and organisations for the teaching of languages like German, Russian, Italian etc, as well as organisations for the defence of plurilingualism. As I mentioned in an earlier post here, the criticism is that all other languages are sacrificed and that only knowledge of English will count for being admitted to ENA. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5429 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 21 of 34 10 March 2015 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | ||
I think the important point here is that need is what is driving this global phenomenon. More and more people need English for work, or at least there is the perception that English is useful. Actual proficiency will vary considerably of course according to the amount of actual exposure, but long gone are the days where entire countries like Spain or France were not interested in learning foreign languages. I saw the other day a program on real estate agents and tourist people in Spain learning Russian for pretty obvious reasons. I'm sure that in certain areas or industries of Spain, English is essential. But certainly not everywhere of course. Still, I should think that every student under the age of 25 must think that learning English is a good idea. The flip side of this phenomenon is the question of the learning of foreign languages in English-speaking countries. Let's take French in the UK. I haven't looked at the statistics but I'm pretty sure that the interest in French in the UK is a very far cry from the interest in English in France. This is not surprising, but what it says is that the younger generation of French people will be quite bilingual whilst the same generation of English- speakers will be monolingual. This will probably have all kinds of implications. To be followed... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4098 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 22 of 34 10 March 2015 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, yes. The by far most common reason that people learn a language, or any skill whatsoever, is because they perceive a need (or, for those who object to such a loose definition of "need": a significant benefit). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4621 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 23 of 34 10 March 2015 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
I remember going on holiday to France with my parents in the 80s. They often had to use a mix of High School French and English to communicate, there was no other option. Now the perceived need in the UK to learn even widespread languages like French and Spanish is diminishing rapidly. However, I think French society still demands that people coming to live in the country should learn to speak French. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5429 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 24 of 34 11 March 2015 at 8:19am | IP Logged | ||
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When I said that need is driving this increased proficiency in English as a foreign language throughout the world,
I meant exactly that, i.e. that more and more people are required to use English in their studies and in their jobs. This is way more than nice to have and something to impress friends and family with. This is exactly why real estate agents and veterinarians in France, in the example given above, have learned English. We all know that in many fields today a knowledge of English is mandatory. By the same token, many people, as much as they might like to know English, have no real need for it. Actually, this probably applies to many of the languages of us HTLALers here. As I have said, what I find worrisome in all this is the perception in English-speaking countries that knowledge of other languages is not necessary. After all, everybody is learning English. This is a trap because the other languages are not going away. In essence, as the world becomes increasingly bilingual, monolingual English- speakers will be at a disadvantage globally because of a lack of proficiency in other languages whereas everybody else will be able to speak English. This I believe, for example, is what drives the massive effort to learn English in the Asian countries. Edited by s_allard on 11 March 2015 at 1:10pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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