Posted on 11/04/2006 9:35:12 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Chirac tests Ban's French during lunch
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Nov 3, 9:04 PM ET
Parlez-vous francais? If you want to rule the United Nations, you'd better learn. Ban Ki-moon, who will become U.N. secretary-general in January, has been plugging away at French lessons, and on Friday he passed a crucial test in Paris: a French-only lunch with President Jacques Chirac.
The South Korean foreign minister had met Chirac in the past but Friday was their first encounter since Ban's election last month, and apparently the first with such a rigorous language requirement.
"I will cooperate closely with the French government at the U.N.," Ban told reporters afterward, in French.
French and English are both working languages at the United Nations, and France insists that all U.N. chiefs speak the language of Moliere.
Some say the demand is a relic. French was the language of international politics a century ago, but today English is the world's primary lingua franca, whether in diplomacy, business, blogging or pop culture.
Even the European Union has grown from six members — half of them French-speaking — to a bloc of 25 nations where English is increasingly used as a common language.
But in the halls of the United Nations, French signage is as prominent as English. On Friday, Chirac recalled "the place of Francophony in the system of the United Nations."
Before Ban's election, some French officials had privately expressed concern about his language skills. France had initially appeared to prefer Ban's closest competitor, U.N. Undersecretary-General Shashi Tharoor of India.
Ban was undeterred, and U.N. diplomats said that when he met the French foreign minister during the annual ministerial meeting of the General Assembly in September, they spoke one-on-one in French. In October, Ban read pieces of his acceptance speech in French.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said French officials were closely keeping track of his language progress — and that they planned to continue doing so even after he takes over at the U.N.
His French is still awkward and heavily accented. His English is stronger, and he earned a master's at Harvard University in 1985.
But the key verdict on Ban came from Chirac, who can be exacting about his native tongue. At an EU summit last December, he walked out of a meeting where a Frenchman spoke English.
After Friday's lunch, conducted entirely in French, Chirac praised Ban for his command of the language.
I find this small-minded and petty. However, since Ban was one of Sunshine/appeasement gang in S. Korea, I could care less about him continuously hounded by French. He deserve much worse than that.
I bet that Ban and Chirac savaged U.S. in French with huge dose of cynicism. That is how you can make friends with French elites. A lot of cynical condescending remarks on U.S., especially Bush, in fluent French.
I wouldn't speak that language of crap weasels if you paid me by the word. (If you talk to them loud enough, they'll understand you.)
That's OK. French is literally a dying language; it's losing speakers and finds it impossible to adapt to new concepts (because l'Academe strictly bans foreign-sourced words.)
I predict French will be spoken as a second language only even by the French by 2100.
Alas, I *do* know the language.
How is Chirac's Korean?
Anyone have a photo of the junior senator from MA?
No offense intended. I'm just pulling some liberals' chains.
Better Ban had tested Chirac for testicles.
I would not count on Chirac to ever try to pronounce a single Korean word properly.
To a French, pretending not to understand a foreign language even if one does is considered a show of French pride. One cannot expect much from folks with such a mindset.
If snobby arrogant French "intellectual" is nice to lowly "third world" folks for no particular reason, it is a good bet that he is trying to spread his anti-Americanism, or find a person who is anti-American.
Chirac's Arabic is flawless.
Ban was undeterred, and U.N. diplomats said that when he met the French foreign minister during the annual ministerial meeting of the General Assembly in September, they spoke one-on-one in French. In October, Ban read pieces of his acceptance speech in French.
If this is how France makes decisions on a matter like picking the UN secretary-general, then France is a phenomenally silly country, not to be taken seriously.
Well, in that case, if we want to make Chirac speak flawless Korea, some Koreans have to fly 747's into another American skyscraper. Only N. Koreans can pull it off. That means that, if Chirac can ever speak Korea, it would be Korean with heavy Pyongyang accent.
Now there is a fine example of an individual dedicated to helping solve the worlds problems regardless of circumstances... NOT
What a bufoon!!!
The French, as a people and a country, appear to be dedicated to worshipping and remembering the glories of the world spanning French empire which bowed to no-one and had no equals... which never existed.
ROTFLMAO!!
If I was new UN chief I say SHUT UP Frogs speak English that Market of the world you idiotttttt
i smell cheese
dang this is an eye opening article...
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