French staff sue US multinational for making them use English

The Guardian ^ | November 23, 2004 | Amelia Gentleman

[ijcr]

The integrity of the French language is defended by the Académie Française, an institution created in 1635 consisting of 40 immortels, who are not immortal, but do wear a very attractive green ceremonial sash and sword when they pose for photographs.

The mission of the académiciens is to protect the French language from the threat posed by English, or rather American English. New words appear in the French dictionary by their consent only.

This stifles innovation and thought.By the time the people have used a new technology or concept for two years, the Academy will meet and then give it a French name.

[Montresor]

I wonder what the Napoleanic Codes have to say about this...

[nothernlights]

Actually lately they have just borrowed words that Quebecers have developped,certainly "courriel" is an example of a word borrowed from the North American cousins.

[minus_273]

this is a parody right? i mean the french cant be that stupid can they?

[Natural Law]

I once attended a senior staff meeting of an Israeli company in Tel Aviv whose CEO was a German (appointed by the lead investor Deutsche Bank). When the Israeli staff complained about the meetings not being in Hebrew, the German CEO stated: "When Israel wins two World Wars we will have themmetings in Hebrew, but for now we will have them in English." The same advice applies doubly for France.

[TChris]

How do you say, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" in French?

[Robert357]

Thank you for the stock tip to purchase more GE stock.

[investigateworld]

"We don't even have a language, just this stupid accent"
(M. Defarge, History of the World, via Mel Brooks)

[SAJ]

S'il vous plait, Mlle Chabart, essai pour propulser de divers sous-produits de vos reins verticalement le long d'un morceau de chanvre tissé.

In H*ll, if at all possible.

[NRA2BFree]

They say General Electric Medical Systems is sidelining the large proportion of its workforce who speak little or no English.

Is this a case of outsourcing gone bad? IF so, I hope this sends a message to other American companies who want to outsource.

[turnrightnow]

Now there's a German with perspective!

[konaice]

Isn't anti-english a hate crime under EU law?

[Cultural Jihad]

"Why do you say 'check-up'? You should use the proper French term: 'examen général.'"

"But it takes too long -- 'Ex-am-en gé-né-ral.' . . . 'Check-up' is much quicker!"

[HipShot]

"If the technician putting the equipment together doesn't understand the instruction manual, which is in English, the results could be very dangerous," Ms Chabart said.

My logic may be flawed, but didn't she just make GE's case for learning and using English?

[Timm]

And the _Guardian_ is writing an amicus brief.

[ijcr]

Isn't anti-english a hate crime under EU law?

The EU’s translation service, located in Brussels and Luxembourg, is the largest in the world – with a permanent staff of 1,300 linguists and 500 support staff.

The EU translation budget is expected to rise to 880m euros. About $1 Billion...

The figure include the cost of translating thousands of pages of official documents into EU languages and interpretation costs will rise from €105m in 2003 to €140m per year after enlargement of the Union.

English is the language spoken by most officials in the EU since the last enlargement.

[SiVisPacemParaBellum]

&%$#%**&^#$&^% %$#&*@ *&^%^+$#%!!!!!!

Pardon my 'french'.

[risk]

Ms Chabart said: "I was employed as a trilingual secretary and so my English is very good. But a lot of the time I don't understand business American."

Snark!

[BJClinton]

"We-a-a-a-a-a-a-ux"?

[crabpott]

The French lost it language wise when it was decided way back when by some international organization that ENGLISH would be the international language of all airline pilots. It irritated them when it happened and I think it still rankles. Good.