English rocks French

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

English rocks French

The French government spends millions of Euros every year to promote  
French and discourage English in every corner of French life. And  
French Président Nicolas Sarkozy is one of the French language’s  
biggest fans, when he isn't being distracted by his new bride, the  
Italian singer/songwriter/model Carla Bruni.

But apparently the government-run television network France 3 didn’t  
get the memo calling for all French, all the time, and so five weeks  
ago it selected an English-language song, Sébastien Tellier’s  
“Divine,” to represent the nation in the annual Eurovision song contest.

Sarko’s Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, who is responsible  
for ensuring that French TV complies with France’s national language  
policy, confessed this week that she had no idea that France 3 had  
done such an unpatriotic thing. Perhaps she didn’t get the memo  
either. . . .  When the news of the latest French capitulation to the  
English juggernaut (a Hindi word meaning 'juggernaut') came to light,  
the response was predictable: an uproar in Parliament and a protest  
from Marc Favre d'Echallens, director of the organization Defense of  
the French Language,


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Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English                                   	
University of Illinois	

608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

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