English versus English

I have been known to take a Magic Marker and write "as if" over that "like" 

Until 10 or 15 years ago, French people didn't really have to learn English. France was a place where tourists came and felt inferior because they couldn't speak French. Vive la francophonie! And le rayonnement culturel!

Now, though, all the good jobs in France require English. Even a lot of the non-good jobs. Managing international affairs requires English. Important people who don't speak English well are made fun of in the media. (Can you imagine an American VIP being ridiculed by everyone for making mistakes in his Spanish or her French?) It must be mortifying for people who believe French is clearly the superior language (there are a lot of them). 

But which English? British, North American, Australian, Irish, New Zealander, South Efrican? 

As in the past, the French usually want to learn British English. The UK is a lot closer and French people can work there legally with no problem. But lately I've been noticing that young people don't care any more which English they learn. Maybe their English is now good enough to notice that there's no unbridgeable gap between British English and le sabir atlantique or American gibberish, as the non-English-speaking generation before them (ostentatiously fond of its "cher Shakespeare") believed. Much less anti-American-English snobbery. Is there a new era in the works? When French translations are no longer labeled "From the American"?

Comments

[Canedolia]

I've been tempted to correct that advert every time I've ever walked past it. I'm very impressed that you actually did!

[CBRetriever]

I love the Wall Street English ads with English bobbies (a bit confusing as I associate Wall Street with the US and not the UK)

And I've had some French people tell me they don't understand my American English.

[vagabonde]

I have read your post with interest. You say until 10 to 15 years ago French did not have to learn English. Well, in lycées that followed the “modern” curriculum you had to take 2 modern languages – you had too. Usually you had a choice between English and German as a first language, then the second could be the one not chosen, or we could choose between Spanish, Italian and Russian, and I am talking going to school in the 1950s! that is where I learned English by the way, and Italian too (au lycée d'Enghien les Bains.) I guess the people you spoke about stopped à l’école primaire? Or followed the “classic” studies where you had to study Latin or Greek. I know all my friends understood English, but they did not like to speak it as they did not feel fluent enough. As for the US – I miss speaking French as very few people speak it. I never speak it with anyone around here (in Georgia.) One of my American friends suggested that I find blogs with a French name and write a comment in case the blog is bilingual, like in Canada. So far I have been around at least 20+ blogs with a French name and wrote a comment in French (une Femme d’un Certain age, La Vie Quotidienne, etc.) and none of them are in French but in English. I really wonder why they use a French title, do you know why, it’s kind of bizarre?

[Sedulia]

Hi Vagabonde,

Actually when I said they "didn't have to learn English," I meant, they didn't actually *need* to speak or use English-- they had to learn it in school, of course, the way college-bound Americans still have to "learn a language"; but that is very far from being able to speak it or even read it fluently, I find!

So quite a few of my older friends here have really only learned English in the last five or ten years or so, when they started using it while traveling or working.

It must be lonely never to speak your native language! I feel for you, in la Georgia profonde. I hope it has consolations....I think Americans and other English-speakers think a French title looks more sophisticated and intriguing. I am surprised there are so many of them that are all anglophone, though!