The other weird thing about the French Language is that they actually have a global supreme arbitor of the language - I think it is called something like the 'Acadamie Francais". I meets once a week to argue the toss over words, and find french sounding words for new things being invented and named by English speakers!
Even in this there is a cultural difference.... the English speakers leave words to the 'free market' to decide if they enter the language (a word gets in our dictionaries only if it survives common useage for a length of time). The French government have socialised this process and state control it! Tells a story in itself....