The Volokh Conspiracy

The one-word reply to such acting-out: Waterloo.

Ahh the petty petulance of the French continue to brighten my days.

he does have a point about British food, it really is pretty awful for the most part.

Really? I think that their curries are outstanding.

Seriously, though, the French attitude gets a bit tiring even for non-English speakers like myself. Some French get a bit "Talibanish" in their imposition of their language on others. I have been in meetings where more time was spent in arguing about the language of the meeting than in the meeting itself. This is almost never a problem unless (a) one of the participants does not speak English (a very rare occurrence), or (b) one or more of the participants is French.

he does have a point about British food, it really is pretty awful for the most part.

Really? I think that their curries are outstanding.

Yes, Britain has very good Indian food. It's the British stuff that's awful.

This part is hilarious:

When President Chirac had a one-to-one dinner last year with President Bush, he insisted on speaking his mother tongue the whole time, even though the US President could understand him only through an interpreter.

At one UN summit where there was no translation, President Chirac pretended not to understand questions in English and demanded that Tony Blair, who speaks French, act as his interpreter.

President Chirac has announced plans to start a French version of CNN to promote culture. He was furious when its managers disclosed that most of the output would be in English because otherwise few would understand it.

"Childish and petulant."

Nothing describes the French more succinctly.

Chirac has a lot on his mind: France's 10%-15% unemployment rate, tepid economy whose survival depends on subsidies and other borderline legal protectionist policies, negative native French Net Reproduction Rate, unassimilated and rapidly growing Islamic population, and third-rate military Perhaps that explains his petulance.

Bruce --

Actually, the Frenchman calls Arthur a silly knight, pronounced "kuh-nig-hit." You've got to admit, as great a language as English is, it does have some oddly spelled words.

As for Chirac, the sooner he accepts that the Lingua Franca is no longer the Lingua France, the better off he'll be.

Jason, the "kuhniggit" bit was in the part I edited out. I can't help imagining Chirac saying Seilliere's mother was a 'amster.

Without saying another word, President Chirac, who lived in the US as a student and speaks fluent English, walked out, followed by his Foreign, Finance and Europe ministers

now if only they'd all do it.

Besides, he does have a point about British food, it really is pretty awful for the most part.

well, there's Fish &Chips... annnnd Fish &Chips.

What's wrong with Finnish food?

it's horrible, but this is a natural reaction to the women being so stunning- life is telling you that you can't have everything.

Did anyone get John Kerry's reaction?

BWAAAAAAAAhahahahaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Is it possible he's not just obnoxious, but actually deranged? It does happen to people from time to time....

But, yeah, British food... Got a British cookbook for a gift once, and the things it says to do to decent ingredients ought to be a misdemeanor at the very least!

In the past, French women could indulge themselves with the notion that they were "sexy," but now with every elementary school girl practicing acts that were historically Oh-La-La, what's a Frenchman to do but be spiteful and petulant.

Well once again, to be fair to France, they do have Audrey Tautou and Eva Green, among others. Heck even Anne Parrilaud looks pretty damn good in La Femme Nikita. They run out of sexy women by any means.

Eva Green is definitely an acquired taste. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's her ears - they are huge.

Eva Green is definitely an acquired taste. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's her ears - they are huge.

She looked pretty damn good in The Dreamers.

Why does Paris have tree-lined streets?

So the German army can march in the shade.

Allow me to correct my earlier egregious oversight in neglecting to mention Julie Delpy of Before Sunrise / Before Sunset fame.

"Now I'm willing to cut Mr. Chirac some slack here. Granted it was childish and petulant of him, ... I think we can afford to be generous here and regard his temper tantrum with amusement rather than anger."

I am amused. Thank god Kerry is not president, and we can regard France as the third rate, third world country it really is.

I've a couple expat Brits in my freinds, and they cheerfully agree that much of English cooking is wretched.

But what does anyone have against Finnish cooking???

British food, other than Indian, was pretty bad during most of the 20th century but in the 1980s it began improving markedly, and while things are uneven today, there is a lot of very good British food (though not necessarily in Pubs and low cost restaurants--Pubs are a real mixed bag even today). Indian food remains excellent. And, IMHO, while French food is still generally excellent, I think it has slipped a bit--both in some simple bistros and in some Michelin starred restaurants, the latter because of a [misguided] desire to be exotic. I have spent over two years in Britain over the last four decades and almost as much time in France, so I've been able to make extensive comparisons. I also agree that Italian food at its best can rival French food. German food (surprisingly at least to me) has also improved markedly in the last decade or so. Since I've never been in Finland, so I have nothing to offer on that point.

As to the post, Chirac's walkout was simply infantile!

Ah, the political right ... when various things are going wrong, take potshots at the French or, even better, over-the-top stereotypes of the French.

Chirac is deeply flawed, of course, but he is the Conservative Party's man in France. Personally, I was rooting for Jospin.

I should have aded that right about when we got there there was a piece (by Richard Morrison IIRC) in the Independent to the effect that British cuisine isn't lousy; they just have the sense to outsource it.

"Whatever its other flaws, France has good food, good wine and a solid record of contribution to Western thought (Descartes, Voltaire, Pascal and countless others) that is anything but third rate." My first reaction to this is, so what have the French accomplished since the 18th Century?

OK, not entirely fair. I can think of some great 19th Century French scientists, and one in the early 20th: Pierre Curie (co-discoverer of radium, with his Polish wife Marie). But it sure looks like the French have been living on past accomplishments since WWI.

From what I understand, Esperanto isn't even really a neutral international language; it's almost entirely Indo-European in structure and perhaps in its word roots, as well.

Changin the subject womewhat,if I had children, my first choice for their second language would be Chinese, both written (the written language, I understand, is the same regardless of dialect) and spoken (Mandarin). French would be well down the list, behind Japanese, Spanish, German, and possibly Korean.

Brett: It is not at all clear that the entire world will at some point know English perfectly. English is a difficult language (like all national languages), so that even people who have studied it for a long time often speak it imperfectly, and there will always be opposition to using the language of the dominant culture or nation (with the current story as a good example). Esperanto is simple to learn (no grammatical irregularities and reduced stock of vocabulary roots, made possible by relying on compound words), and it is far less likely to arouse opposition to its use in international communication, since it doesn't belong to any one nation or culture. Adopting Esperanto (instead of English) inconveniences the native speakers of English, and is easier in the long run for speakers of other languages. In the short term, of course, because of the widespread use of English, English is more convenient even for non-native English speakers than Esperanto, but there is reason to think that this situation is less than ideal in many ways, and will not necessarily become more entrenched in the future. Also, in many cases learning Esperanto pays off by making other languages easier, so it's a no-lose proposition.

Jim: Esperanto's vocabulary is almost entirely European, and its grammar is chiefly European though with some features that are not found in European languages, but its neutrality is not linguistic, but cultural. (Any conceiveable language will have some kinds of linguistic biases.) Esperanto does not belong to any culture, and everyone who learns it can use it equally, without giving advantage to one cultural or national group, either actually or psychologically.

Mike BUSLO7:

While I can't speak to your experiences in France, I've spent a considerable amount of time there, and lots of French people speak English and are happy to do so. Indeed, when I try to speak French in many parts of Paris, people often answer me in English (making the rational conclusion that their English is likely better than my French). I've also found plenty of English speakers in the French countryside, Provence, etc. The only place I've ever encountered French speakers actually unwilling to speak English is in Quebec.

In contrast, one argument for English-as-universal is based on the combination of America's influence and the somewhat embarassing trait of American's to be uninterested or unable to speak other lanugages competently.

I agree with you re Chinese.