Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Fri 10/08/2004 View Thu 10/07/2004 View Wed 10/06/2004 View Tue 10/05/2004 View Mon 10/04/2004 View Sun 10/03/2004 View Sat 10/02/2004
1
2004-10-08 Europe
Chirac lashes out against US cultural domination
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by Steve White 2004-10-08 2:35:35 AM|| || Front Page|| [11130 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Jacques the Weasel
Posted by BigEd 2004-10-08 3:53:02 AM||   2004-10-08 3:53:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 My heart is breakng for ya Jacques. American Spanish is by far a more important language and culture. South American and Central American culture is much more important than then France will ever be unless they strike gold and oil under Paris. Want to talk about an important Culture lets speak about China. France is a joke. The problem isn't the domination of the worlds culture by the US it is the domination of French culture by US culture. Jacques can even win in his own counrty.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom  2004-10-08 4:12:29 AM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2004-10-08 4:12:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Darn it. Jacques can't even win in his own counrty. Fixed now.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom  2004-10-08 4:13:51 AM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2004-10-08 4:13:51 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Factoid:
English is today both the language of wealth and, more importantly, of aspiration to wealth. A fascinating statistic employed by Bragg compares the net worth of the speakers of various world languages, showing that although there are many more Mandarin-speakers than English-speakers, they are only worth £448bn. Against that Russian-speakers are 'worth' £801bn, German-speakers £1,090bn, Japanese-speakers £1,277bn, but English-speakers are worth a staggering £4,271bn - more than the rest put together.

Melvyn Bragg: The Adventure of English, 500 AD TO 2000: The Biography of a Language
Posted by .com 2004-10-08 6:51:52 AM||   2004-10-08 6:51:52 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 One does have to wonder how much that great culture consumer, Pier 1 Imports, has done to preserve cultural diversity.

France's problem is that their exports seem to be confined to expensive foodstuffs (including wine) and some technical materials. Oh yes, and the tourist industry, centered around Paris. But the midrange quality foodstuffs are priced too near the top tier, and its awfully hard to seduce the tourists when all your culture workers are on strike again. And the rest of their culture, pfeh! From what I've seen of their films and music, you have whiny soft-core porn, and native Maghreb tunings. Edith Piaf, we miss you!
Posted by trailing wife 2004-10-08 7:11:21 AM||   2004-10-08 7:11:21 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 When the French took over Indochina (now Viet Nam) before World War II Viet Nam was about 90% literate in the native language. Everyone went to school. The French banned teaching in any language but French. It didn't take long for the Vietnamese to go from a literate country to illiterate. They were much easier to control that way.
Posted by Deacon Blues 2004-10-08 7:25:24 AM||   2004-10-08 7:25:24 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 "That's 'cause only Hollywood and Bollywood make films people actually want to see (as proof, I give you the Canadian Film Board)."
Too true. I struggled through a couple of Canadian movies and then gave up. I like a movie to make SOME kind of sense.

I only know one French word and I have no idea how to spell it but it sounds like 'merde' and it means 'shit'.
Posted by Bryan 2004-10-08 8:42:58 AM||   2004-10-08 8:42:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 The world is moving on, and the center of gravity is nowhere near France. Chiraq is one man fighting the current, or maybe a better analogy is that he is high and dry on a sandbar.

Chiraq has been extremely successful at pissing off Americans, well, maybe not Woody Allen. Heh, that counts for something.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2004-10-08 9:01:16 AM||   2004-10-08 9:01:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Now the Canadians made one good movie (actually it was only set in Canada) Strange Brew with Bob & Doug MacKenzie.
That film had me laughing so hard I was shaking like a frenchman in a thunderstorm.
Posted by JerseyMike 2004-10-08 9:46:17 AM||   2004-10-08 9:46:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 US cultural domination, heh? We have a lot of cultures here, Mssr. Chirac. Which aspect of which one?

Choked by US values? Like freedom of speech? Freedom to worship as you choose? Like working hard to earn your money? Like meaning what you say in international dealings? Quelle horreur!

What would Mr. Chirac have us do linguistically, have translaters available for every one of the 200+ languages and dialects of people doing business in the world today-at every business, at every conference, at every social institution? No? Then maybe he thinks we should call a conference at the UN so that France and France alone can decide which languages will be used in international dealings?

No, this linguistic problem is one that will sort itself over time. Dominance of one or two languages in several geographic regions of the world will cause some languages to disappear in commerce. Chirac is a little overreactive right now-French won't disappear as a language of international communication in his life. But he is dreaming if he imagines English (and a couple other languages) won't come out on the top of the pile. There are many second language speakers of English already, and English has enough geographical influence and financial weight that it will continue as one of the few dominant languages of global reach.
Posted by jules 187 2004-10-08 9:54:19 AM||   2004-10-08 9:54:19 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 Let's see,
France=Frog legs,snails,cresaunts.
U.S.=tamalees,charcol grilled t-bones,biscuts and gravy.
Guess wich one I choose?
Posted by Raptor 2004-10-08 10:24:30 AM||   2004-10-08 10:24:30 AM|| Front Page Top

#12 What would Mr. Chirac have us do linguistically, have translaters available for every one of the 200+ languages and dialects of people doing business in the world today-at every business, at every conference, at every social institution?

No, Jules, I believe Mr Chirac wants "government funded" translators at all of the mentioned events. Which government? Why the World Government, of course, the one he is president of...
Posted by Capsu78 2004-10-08 10:39:56 AM||   2004-10-08 10:39:56 AM|| Front Page Top

#13 Hanoi. Bet that brings back some memories, right Jake?
Posted by tu3031 2004-10-08 1:01:21 PM||   2004-10-08 1:01:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Perhaps a campaign to move French into the Dead Languages department at US colleges would have a salutary effect on Jock's blood pressure? Like send it to zero?
Posted by Anginesh Unomotch3553 2004-10-08 2:32:57 PM||   2004-10-08 2:32:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 When you consider the non-native English speaking countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, etc. the figure is much higher in Lord Bragg's estimate(who by the way is a big LLLer and former TV presenter in England). I have a good friend in Italy. He owns a constrution company and is an ex-professor of civil engineering at U.of Rome. His wife is a very well known TV personality. Both speak exceptional english and have raised their children (in Italy) by speaking English as the first language!! Why? Because, as he says, I want the BEST for my kids and they need to prepare to achieve all the world will offer them. Speaking and "thinking" in English gives them one big step ahead of everyone else in their peer group.
Posted by Jack is Back! 2004-10-08 3:19:43 PM||   2004-10-08 3:19:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 That's a smart and secure man-he realizes that English is a plus for himself and his family, and that speaking it doesn't in any way diminish his love for his native language or his "Italianness".
Posted by jules 187 2004-10-08 3:24:08 PM||   2004-10-08 3:24:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 Wonder how many of France's multi-billion euro corporations have adopted English as their corporate language?
Posted by lex 2004-10-08 3:34:06 PM||   2004-10-08 3:34:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 Bugs me to say it, but RBs best trolls/annoyermen have exceptional English skillz.
Posted by Shipman 2004-10-08 5:45:41 PM||   2004-10-08 5:45:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 Hey, Jackie, if you don't like it, why don't you make the Phrench culture and music and movies and food as attractive to the world as America's obviously is?

You can do that, right?
Posted by Barbara Skolaut  2004-10-08 7:41:27 PM||   2004-10-08 7:41:27 PM|| Front Page Top

13:52 Uleque Glavise4887
19:42 just another victim
10:41 Ptah
07:17 2b
07:01 2b
00:40 Super Hose
23:56 ex-lib
23:45 Alaska Paul Having a Guinness
23:25 Frank G
23:25 Frank G
20:23 John (Q. Citizen)
20:20 John (Q. Citizen)
20:19 Three Monkies
20:18 Old Patriot
20:15 Old Patriot
20:12 Old Patriot
20:03 John (Q. Citizen)
19:50 Old Patriot
19:41 Barbara Skolaut
19:39 RWV
19:36 Phil Fraering
19:36 RWV
19:34 Phil Fraering
19:32 Steve









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com