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| Europe |
| Greece signs up to francophone club |
| 2004-11-28 |
| GREECE — a country where only 13 per cent of school children choose French as their first foreign language — will today [26/11/04] be accepted as the 57th member of the Organisation of French Speaking Nations. The Greek Foreign Ministry said that it would join La Francophonie at the organisation's two-day summit in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to support the battle against the spread of English. Although Greece could hardly claim to be a fully fledged French-speaking country, its application will be welcomed by President Chirac of France, who is in Ouagadougou for the meeting. It will, by no means, be the only non-francophone member of what is, theoretically, a francophone association. Set up ten years ago, after France had tried and failed to bind its former colonies into a form of French commonwealth, the International Francophonie Organisation includes a disparate array of countries. Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldavia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Egypt are among them. The official objectives of the organisation are to use "the links created by sharing the French language" to promote "peace, cooperation, and development". The promotion of democracy and "dialogue between civilisations" are also goals for La Francophonie. However, in practice, the organisation's main concern is to stop English from becoming more dominant than it already is — and to preserve a space for other languages. Many member states see La Francophonie as a lever to promote their own language, rather than French. A current of anti-Americanism also runs powerfully through the organisation. Paris sees it as a body that will help M Chirac in his campaign for a multipolar world in which Europe acts as a counterweight to the US. Giorgos Koumoutsakos, the Greek foreign ministry spokesman, said yesterday that his Government "believes in multilingualism". He added: "We want to join this organization because we don't want a monopoly by a single language but to have many languages. "We need to express ourselves in many languages. Anything that can be done to avoid the move towards single language is worth doing." In the sixth form, a vast majority of Greek pupils drop French. At this level, 91.2 per cent study only English. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #19 Seriously, Aris, some of those countries are surprising. I can understand, say, Romania, since they've had relations with France since before WWI, and had many of their elite educated there, but Bulgaria?. I don't see them as Francophone. Though I guess the rest of the article makes it that several of the others are simply anti-English. If this thing had real teeth, I wonder how long it would be until it simply forbid more than X% of the people from learning English. I suppose the elites would not apply the rules to themselves, but simply keep the peasants ignorant. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-11-28 9:57:07 PM |
| #18 Greece is the only part of Turkey that will ever be in the EU. |
| Posted by: Random thoughts 2004-11-28 9:43:13 PM |
| #17 A number of Greek "intellectuals" and "artists" have been educated in French universities. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-11-28 7:18:36 PM |
| #16 I'm thinking of putting together a helpful phrase book, a la Monty Python... "My nipples explode with delight!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-11-28 7:10:37 PM |
| #15 LOL - mojo! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-11-28 6:57:26 PM |
| #14 Ok, Greeks - repeat after me: "Yo soy un maricon." |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-11-28 6:52:05 PM |
| #13 Spanakopita and dolmas? I also prefer Greek belly dancers. I used to pay 'em on the side at my favorite Greek restaurant to sensuously bump my client's chair across the room when we showed up for lunch. The "shy" clients (they were Oil & Gas guys - usually in R&D) never forgot the attention - blushed like little boys - prolly telling their grandchildren about it today, recalling what studs they were. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-11-28 6:19:47 PM |
| #12 "what has Greece produced for the last 2,000 years?" Well, buzuki (bouzouki) is a nice instrument. (Bazooka may be considered an instrument too but it did not originate from Greece). Other than that, nothing really comes to mind. |
| Posted by: Cornîliës 2004-11-28 6:10:35 PM |
| #11 Brett, is there a question somewhere in there? Are you disagreeing with me somewhere? As for the nationalistic snobbery it only makes you personally contemptible. Cornilies> That would be France and the perceived contaminant is English. And likewise with Greece, and the same perceived contaminant. "Czech Republic is not much Francophone" Neither is Greece. My point exactly. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-11-28 6:09:01 PM |
| #10 "fearful of cultural contamination from nations linguistically dominant in the present day" That would be France and the perceived contaminant is English. Czech Republic is not much Francophone... yes, I knew about a handfull people that could muster it fluently. But due to cultural proximity, German was the most learned, folloved by the current lingua franca--English. I don't count Russian that was mandatory on all edumacational levels before 1989. Students pretended to learn it and proffs pretended to give grades. :-) |
| Posted by: Cornîliës 2004-11-28 6:03:45 PM |
| #9 Come on, Aris. Why wouldn't these countries join the Phrancohpone group? (And when I say country, I mean, of course the elites of those countries) It just means trips to Phrance for the elites and much good food and wine. Should I stay in Cairo/Bucharest/others? Or go to Paris? Speaking of Greece. If one thinks Phrance is a washed-up has-been, look at Greece! Greeks were passed-up two millenia ago. Other than Zorba, what has Greece produced for the last 2,000 years? |
| Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-11-28 6:02:44 PM |
| #8 Mrs. Davis, I'm tired of your inane babble and your mirthful wallowing in your own ignorance. If you have something to say to me, say it, if you have something to dispute, dispute it. But right now, I stand by everything I said in that sentence you quoted, and I also stand by everything I said that you didn't quote. Glad to see how easily you consider yourself verified by events, even when Francophonie includes countries like Poland, Czech Republic and Romania, which you'd be unlikely to consider "allies" of France. But allow me to keep on thinking that I have a better knowledge of Greek politics and attitudes than you do. Anything that can be done to avoid the move towards single language is worth doing. They're opposed to people being able to talk to each other, preferring that only governments do so. They're linguistic nationalists, wanting to "protect" their language. Nationalism makes them inherently opposed to EU supranationalism and fearful of cultural contamination from nations linguistically dominant in the present day. So they oppose the strengthening of the concept of "working languages" in contrast to smaller languages. This linguistic xenophobia is at its core an anti-EU force. But *hey* Mrs. Davis, feel free to consider it part of an evil EU scheme instead, as all things must be. Even though that makes no sense at all. But hey I wouldn't want to stop you from being a political simpleton. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-11-28 5:41:52 PM |
| #7 Anything that can be done to avoid the move towards single language is worth doing. They're opposed to people being able to talk to each other, preferring that only governments do so. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2004-11-28 2:37:32 PM |
| #6 Tom, only yesterday Aris informed us: Greece is not an "ally" of France even if we consider antiAmericanism alone -- Greek antiAmericanism seems to me for example to have very different roots than French antiAmericanism, since for example in Greece the most anti-American tend to also be the most anti-EU as well, representing an aversion to the whole of the West. "Now I see," said the blind carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-28 2:00:19 PM |
| #5 A friend of mine from the Royal Swedish Air Force told me about a meeting he attended in France. The Swedes were welcomed by a French general in french. The Swedish general responded in french and then the meeting proceeded in English, a language in which all parties were equally proficient. French is OK unless you want to discuss science, technology, aviation, business,... |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-11-28 12:24:13 PM |
| #4 this isn't scrappleface? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-11-28 11:39:39 AM |
| #3 I refuse to believe that those other countries do not have the phrase "I surrender" in their native tongues. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2004-11-28 11:37:19 AM |
| #2 One more step toward the abyss of le selection naturale. And aligning with Macedonia too! How's your French, Aris? |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-11-28 11:23:19 AM |
| #1 It's prolly safe to assume that Iraq was DFRed* recently. What's wrong with all of these stupid people? Don't they realize French is the language of * Dropped From the Rolls |
| Posted by: .com 2004-11-28 10:06:17 AM |