[lg policy] UK: French 'useless', says former Government minister

Wed Jun 16 09:20:20 UTC 2010

Via @langology. A UK Member of Parliament, who until the May 2010 General 
Election was the Government minister in charge of relations with the EU 
(and is now in the Opposition party, as his party lost the election), has 
said that it is comparatively useless to learn French as a foreign language 
and that more useful choices would be Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese and 
Arabic. This story comes from the _Daily Mail_, which is a notoriously 
right-wing paper, so you should make of it what you will; but the MP in 
question has a reputation for being controversial, and the story must 
contain at least a grain of truth, I suppose.

Stop press: the story below is from the _Mail_; here it is from the 
_Telegraph_ (also right-wing, but more serious) as well:

http://bit.ly/cYYadp

Damien

======================

Mail Online, 15 June 2010

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286758/French-useless-language-says-foreign-minister.html

French is a 'useless' language, says former foreign minister

By Daily Mail Reporter

A former Foreign Office minister has branded French a 'useless' modern 
language.

Chris Bryant, now a shadow Foreign Office minister, told the Commons other 
languages - such as Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic - were more 
important.

'Unless we have sufficient numbers of people who speak modern foreign 
languages - and not just the useless modern foreign languages like French 
...,' the Labour MP said.

Amid Tory protests that this was 'insulting' to the French, Mr Bryant, who 
was minister for the EU before Labour lost power, said: 'I've said this to 
the French. I think they realise there are problems.'

He defended his remark, insisting that while French had been the 'most 
useful language to use because it was the diplomatic language', things had 
changed over the last 30 to 40 years and now 'it certainly isn't.'

He said the most significant languages to speak now, aside from English, 
were Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.

Mr Bryant was advocating the importance of young people taking up languages 
to win business in the emerging economies.

French was once one of the most popular languages taught in British 
schools. But in recent years, the education system has shunned it - and 
Spanish and German - for more 'fashionable' languages.

In 2000, 83.3 per cent of pupils took one of the three at GCSE. But by 
2007, the figure had plummeted to 48.3 per cent.

Mr Byrant has a chequered history as one of Westminster's most 
controversial figures.

A former Church of England clergyman, he earned himself the nickname 
Captain Underpants after he circulated a photograph of himself along with 
sexually explicit messages through a gay website.

The image of Mr Bryant, a keen triathlete, showed him apparently taking a 
picture of himself in a bathroom mirror, wearing only a pair of Y-fronts.

He was eventually forced to apologise for the 2003 episode.

More recently, Mr Bryant became the first gay MP to get 'married' in the 
House of Commons.

He and partner Jared Cranney held a civil service at Westminster in March 
this year.

SO WHO SPEAKS WHAT?

CHINESE: The world's most commonly spoken first language with an estimated 
1.2billion speakers

ENGLISH: One of the six official languages at the United Nations there are 
believed to be more than one billion speakers

SPANISH: Another of the UN's six official languages, it is used by 
417million people

PORTUGUESE: Spread throughout the world by Portugal's conquests and trade 
links during the 16th century it is spoken by some 230million people

ARABIC: A Semetic language spoken by an estimated 220million people

FRENCH:  Spoken by an estimated 136million people around the world

-- 
Damien Hall
@hall_damien

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
UK

Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
     (mobile) +44 (0)771 853 5634
Fax  +44 (0)1904 432673

http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb

http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/people/pages/hall.htm

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