Monday, April 25, 2005, 09:17 GMT
Why French teachers have the blues
The French language is in dramatic decline around the world, including in its traditional foreign heartlands, according to international language teachers recently gathered in Paris. François Buglet reports.
French is disappearing from European classrooms in favour of English
The predominance of English on the internet, the relative ease of learning basic English and the perception that English is "cooler" - thanks in large part to popular music and films - means French is becoming ever more restricted to older generations and the upper classes of many countries where it used to be the second language of choice in schools.
That was the consensus among language teachers from across the globe who gathered in Paris in early February for the Expolangues trade fair, dedicated to language teaching, learning and translating.
[The site fittingly illustrates Francophony's predicament. Although sponsored by the French and held in Paris the site for this polyglot fair comes in only two flavors, French, bien sûr -- and English.]
"Some among us see a sort of victory in this. But personally, I side with a campaign in the British press against our deficit in learning languages," said Julie Squires, a Briton who teaches French at Oxford House College.
In Britain, she said, much of the problem lies with a recent government decision to make a second language optional for pupils aged 14 years and older.
Twenty years ago everybody spoke French in Spain but in Burgos now French teachers outnumber students!
She pointed to a study which showed that, across British schools, 72 percent registered a decline in the number of students learning French. German studies declined in 70 percent of the schools, while Spanish declined by just 44 percent.
A teacher from Germany's Goethe-Institut, Christina Trojan, said "French remains a beautiful language much appreciated by the upper class" but it was losing ground in curricula, even in areas near the French-German border.
French was still holding up compared to Italian and Spanish, but that may gradually change.
"Given the difficulty of the grammar and spelling, many prefer not to take up French," she said.
Only Japanese teachers talked of the future of French with enthusiasm
A teacher from the Spanish town of Burgos, Julia Martinez, said most of her colleagues agreed that French was "in free fall".
"Twenty years ago, everybody spoke French in Spain. Today, in Burgos, there are more French teachers than students!"
A teacher from Portugal, Teresa Santos, said in her country 70 percent of Portuguese students preferred to take English courses, compared to just 10 percent for French.
"English is magnifique!" a teacher of Ancient Greek at the Aristotle University in Thessalonika, Thalia Stephanidou, said. "Even in poorer neighbourhoods, that language - which replaced French right after the second world war - is taught, even to old people," she said.
There's only one French school in Greece, and that's reserved for the elite
"My grandmother spoke French, my father too. Today though, there is only one French school in Greece, and that's reserved for the elite," she said.
Even in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, English has crowded French out of the classroom, despite French being one of the country's official languages.
In Russia, where speaking French was once a prized talent among the tsars, French is trailing "far behind English" in Moscow and Saint Petersburg schools, Mascha Sveshnikova, of the Russian Cultural Centre, said.
David Fein, the head of the Alliance Française in the US city of San Diego, said French studies was part of the collateral damage suffered in the transatlantic fall-out resulting from the US decision to invade Iraq, but now it looked as though pupils were slowly returning.
Only two Japanese teachers talked of the future of French with enthusiasm, with one of them saying that the luxurious images the language conjured up were its best advertisement.
"Only two Japanese teachers talked of the future of French with enthusiasm, with one of them saying that the luxurious images the language conjured up were its best advertisement.
French, she said, evoked "dreams, fashion, history, cooking and wine."
February 2005
© AFP
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?channel_id=4&story_id=16980
---------------------------------------------------------
Some comments made by people on the "Pave France - The British Need More Parking" website -
The merits and difficulties of the French language aside, France might want to consider her mother tongue's decline in light of its association with, well, France and everything that is French, and that, in a world trending toward democratic ideals, French snobbism has zero cachet.
The decline of French, the very haecceity of Frenchness, helps us understand why when the French look to the future it is usually in the direction of the 19th century.
Damian
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hardly surprising. English is a natural, living language whereas French is as artificial as Esperanto and will soon enough be as living as Latin.
Jay
--------------------------------------------------------------
I'm reminded of a true story.
Me, innocently: "I was watching a documentary in which a very elderly Chinese was being interviewed, and they were speaking French. I was a little surprised as I might have thought his European tongue would have been English, although I would of course have expected a Vietnamese to speak French as a European language."
Pompous Acadian idiot: "All civilized people speak French as their second language".
Me, not so innocently: "And English as their first".
Son of a Pig and Monkey
------------------------------------------------------------------
www.pavefrance.com
The French language is in dramatic decline around the world, including in its traditional foreign heartlands, according to international language teachers recently gathered in Paris. François Buglet reports.
French is disappearing from European classrooms in favour of English
The predominance of English on the internet, the relative ease of learning basic English and the perception that English is "cooler" - thanks in large part to popular music and films - means French is becoming ever more restricted to older generations and the upper classes of many countries where it used to be the second language of choice in schools.
That was the consensus among language teachers from across the globe who gathered in Paris in early February for the Expolangues trade fair, dedicated to language teaching, learning and translating.
[The site fittingly illustrates Francophony's predicament. Although sponsored by the French and held in Paris the site for this polyglot fair comes in only two flavors, French, bien sûr -- and English.]
"Some among us see a sort of victory in this. But personally, I side with a campaign in the British press against our deficit in learning languages," said Julie Squires, a Briton who teaches French at Oxford House College.
In Britain, she said, much of the problem lies with a recent government decision to make a second language optional for pupils aged 14 years and older.
Twenty years ago everybody spoke French in Spain but in Burgos now French teachers outnumber students!
She pointed to a study which showed that, across British schools, 72 percent registered a decline in the number of students learning French. German studies declined in 70 percent of the schools, while Spanish declined by just 44 percent.
A teacher from Germany's Goethe-Institut, Christina Trojan, said "French remains a beautiful language much appreciated by the upper class" but it was losing ground in curricula, even in areas near the French-German border.
French was still holding up compared to Italian and Spanish, but that may gradually change.
"Given the difficulty of the grammar and spelling, many prefer not to take up French," she said.
Only Japanese teachers talked of the future of French with enthusiasm
A teacher from the Spanish town of Burgos, Julia Martinez, said most of her colleagues agreed that French was "in free fall".
"Twenty years ago, everybody spoke French in Spain. Today, in Burgos, there are more French teachers than students!"
A teacher from Portugal, Teresa Santos, said in her country 70 percent of Portuguese students preferred to take English courses, compared to just 10 percent for French.
"English is magnifique!" a teacher of Ancient Greek at the Aristotle University in Thessalonika, Thalia Stephanidou, said. "Even in poorer neighbourhoods, that language - which replaced French right after the second world war - is taught, even to old people," she said.
There's only one French school in Greece, and that's reserved for the elite
"My grandmother spoke French, my father too. Today though, there is only one French school in Greece, and that's reserved for the elite," she said.
Even in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, English has crowded French out of the classroom, despite French being one of the country's official languages.
In Russia, where speaking French was once a prized talent among the tsars, French is trailing "far behind English" in Moscow and Saint Petersburg schools, Mascha Sveshnikova, of the Russian Cultural Centre, said.
David Fein, the head of the Alliance Française in the US city of San Diego, said French studies was part of the collateral damage suffered in the transatlantic fall-out resulting from the US decision to invade Iraq, but now it looked as though pupils were slowly returning.
Only two Japanese teachers talked of the future of French with enthusiasm, with one of them saying that the luxurious images the language conjured up were its best advertisement.
"Only two Japanese teachers talked of the future of French with enthusiasm, with one of them saying that the luxurious images the language conjured up were its best advertisement.
French, she said, evoked "dreams, fashion, history, cooking and wine."
February 2005
© AFP
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?channel_id=4&story_id=16980
---------------------------------------------------------
Some comments made by people on the "Pave France - The British Need More Parking" website -
The merits and difficulties of the French language aside, France might want to consider her mother tongue's decline in light of its association with, well, France and everything that is French, and that, in a world trending toward democratic ideals, French snobbism has zero cachet.
The decline of French, the very haecceity of Frenchness, helps us understand why when the French look to the future it is usually in the direction of the 19th century.
Damian
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hardly surprising. English is a natural, living language whereas French is as artificial as Esperanto and will soon enough be as living as Latin.
Jay
--------------------------------------------------------------
I'm reminded of a true story.
Me, innocently: "I was watching a documentary in which a very elderly Chinese was being interviewed, and they were speaking French. I was a little surprised as I might have thought his European tongue would have been English, although I would of course have expected a Vietnamese to speak French as a European language."
Pompous Acadian idiot: "All civilized people speak French as their second language".
Me, not so innocently: "And English as their first".
Son of a Pig and Monkey
------------------------------------------------------------------
www.pavefrance.com