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Kindergarden Classes
Posted by Raven on March 24th, 2006
Oh my…someone spoke English and poor old Jacques JUST couldn’t take it. Like a child, he had a tantrum and walked out. Typical of the fiesty French- just run away. LOL.
President Jacques Chirac said on Friday he had been so shocked to hear a fellow Frenchman speak English at a European Union summit the previous day that he had felt compelled to leave the room.
“I have to say I was profoundly shocked to see a Frenchman express himself in English at the (EU) Council table. That’s why the French delegation and myself walked out rather than listen to that,” Chirac told reporters.
Chirac said France had fought for a long time to ensure that French was spoken and used within multinational institutions, from the European Union and United Nations to the Olympic Games.
“It is not just national interest, it is in the interest of culture and the dialogue of cultures. You cannot build the world of the future on just one language and, hence one culture.”
This makes so much sense. The EU is made up of many nations. Each has it’s own language and culture. I guess France doesn’t give a rats ass about THAT though. So much for global relations and tolerance and respect.
French once dominated the EU, but English has overtaken it since the bloc expanded to take in Nordic countries in the 1990s and east European members in 2004.
Chirac, flanked by his foreign and finance ministers, quit the summit chamber on Thursday when Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, head of a European business lobby, switched from French to English during a speech to EU leaders.
Chirac missed Seilliere urging leaders to “resist national protectionism in order to avoid a negative domino effect” in the EU’s internal market, a veiled criticism of France and others who have tried to block cross-border takeovers.
English, French and German are the working languages of the 25-nation bloc, which has no single official language. All 20 languages of the member states are used at summits, ministerial meetings and in the European Parliament.
Maybe they should take turns, electing what language is spoken, every so often. It reminds me of a kindergarden class for chrisakes.
March 24th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
The French are so snooty about foreign language “stuff.”
Hey, Raven! Did you hear the good news about CAIR’s lawsuit against Anti-CAIR? See this
March 24th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
LOL, that is how the french fight, they walk out of the room, usualy with a white flag in the air…
March 24th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
AOW I will check it out tomorrow…I did read something about it earlier.
ROTF let’s send Chirac a couple cases of while flags Michael. We can have the word SURRENDAR, in English of course, printed on them.:twisted:
March 26th, 2006 at 3:41 am
The French — spit!
Despite their long has-been status as a country of importance, many French people continue to believe that they are a significant factor in the world of today. These folks still think that their language should be a dominant language among…
March 28th, 2006 at 10:14 am
How does one spell ‘SURRENDAR’ in english?