http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4840160.stm

Thats the french for you. Chirac is an idiot IMO
Just cause a meeting is conduct in English doesnt mean the whole french language is going to colapse. There has to be a middle ground and its just happens to be not french.

I would be more worried about the chinese laguage taking over more than the great english language If I were him.

Could swaer Chirac appears in the papers about once a month whining about something to do with us.  :?

Well, the adopted language of Europe in terms of official EU things is French.

French is a great language, but very difficult to speak well. The French are very proud of their language and see it as an attack on their customs. Its a shame as I can speak far better French than I did a year ago, but it is not as useful in the world as English is. French is not going anywhere, itll be around for a long, long time, and is one of the nicest languages to hear, in my opinion.

President Chirac speaks very good English as far as I know.

Cheers
Tongy

Quote from: TongyWell, the adopted language of Europe in terms of official EU things is French.

French is a great language, but very difficult to speak well. The French are very proud of their language and see it as an attack on their customs. Its a shame as I can speak far better French than I did a year ago, but it is not as useful in the world as English is. French is not going anywhere, itll be around for a long, long time, and is one of the nicest languages to hear, in my opinion.

President Chirac speaks very good English as far as I know.

Cheers
Tongy

Id agree with that.
French is just such a sexy language, everything you could posibely say sounds so nice, even if you calling some one an asshole.

I never got on with French, I feel like too much of a ponce if I actually make an attempt on the accent, and its all backwards, ergh.

Give me German any day

Trying to protect French is fine, but protect it inside France!

About 125 mil speak french, 405 mil english and 420 mil spanish, the two latter ones must be much more useful to know.  

According to that article English is taking over as the main EU language.

Bias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used. Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes  make you do.

lool sam

QuoteEnglish is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes make you do.

Quote from: SamAccording to that article English is taking over as the main EU language.

Bias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used. Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes  make you do.

If you have seen serenity/firefly it has the idea of chinese/english hybrid where chinese integrates more and more into english. I could imagine this happening more. The odd word or term from chinese appearing more and more in common use, small amounts of chinese characters being used. I think this is the only possible way chinese can become more of a common language. Enough people start to use it and bit by bit people will get used to the words, just as there are lots of other languages in english atm for some terms were there wasnt an english word for it.

Lets get one thing strike, Chirac...

If it wasnt for the UK and the US, youd be speaking german, you insecure little turd...

And as someone has already pointed out, alot more people can and do speak English than french..

His parking brake cant endure the whole inertia of the EU.

Quote from: maximusotterHis parking brake cant endure the whole inertia of the EU.

good analogy  

Quote from: bearAbout 125 mil speak french, 405 mil english and 420 mil spanish, the two latter ones must be much more useful to know.  

And thats just as a first language Im assuming. If you look at how many people speak English as either first or second Im sure it would wipe the floor with everything bar Mandarin.

Quote from: SamAccording to that article English is taking over as the main EU language.

Bias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used. Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes  make you do.

The thing with Chinese is, Chinese people have something different about their palate/tongue or something AFAIK that prevents them from making certain sounds necessary in English without them sounding wrong. I reckon it will be around a lot longer than French, at least.