French Vs English

French President Jacques Chirac walked away from an EU summit meeting last week, since one of the French Delegate started addressing the gathering in English rather than French. Only when the speaker started speaking in French, the President walked back in. This news item caught my attention immediately.

From the French point of view what Chirac did was correct. He wants French to thrive & this is the way of promoting French. When the president of the nation acts this way, all the 62 million French citizens of the world will also do the same. The rivalry between French & the Brits is well known & has only got hotter because of this. If there is no resistance to English, they fear it will eat up French & French culture as whole. It is absolutely right & I agree with this view.

On the other side I feel English has become this popular only because of the fact that Americans also speak the language. If Americans had invented their own language then there would have been severe competition to English. Add to the fact the India & Australia were colonies of Brits & hence English was accepted in these places too. Hence the overall popularity of English has grown.

There is no stopping English & if there is no resistance (like the Chirac issue) then English will swiftly become the global language.

What strikes me is the Indian analogy of Tamil Vs Hindi. Very very similar case. In late 60s politicians vehemently opposed the entry of Hindi in TN & hence have halted its reach in Tamil Nadu. Politicians like Karunanithi , Ramadass , Thiruma & Vaiko all are here to ensure that Hindi doesn’t catch up fast in Tamil Nadu. They do it by stirring up the Tamil love among Tamils, the way Chirac does it for the French.

It is the same all over the world ;-)