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French better than English?

We can argue on a ton load of topics, but this one truly takes the cake for me.

By Eli AlainPublished 4 years ago 7 min read
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Image taken from the Website Sputnik AFP |Philippe Huguen

You see, I am a French person from Canada with — as you may have guessed — French as first language. I grew up surrounded by this language, strongly attached to its melody and syllables. English was of course, always a part of my childhood, learning it in school, through the social medias, etc. But it always remained my ''second-language-that-I-needed-to-perfect-to-have-an-international-job'' later in the future. That's why I should excuse myself in advance for any following mistakes that may cause some bloody type of damage to your eyes.

Talking the language of Molière since my youngest years, I learned to appreciate the word flow in the sentences and each sound made by the letters in the alphabet when used by Jacques Prévert or Victor Hugo in their poetry works. French has a multitude of words to describe and a rich vocabulary when it comes to express ideas, resulting with a more nuanced and elaborated thought, less straight forward than English. It is a soft and colored language, with romance and latin origins. I learned to fall for its culture and meaning, to appreciate its grammar, its particular phrasing and idioms such as ''tomber dans les pommes (falling into the apples)'' which means fainting.

Little parenthesis, I must say, the first time I tried to put that expression in one of my essay, my teacher froze, looked at me with a puzzled face, not understanding a bit what I had translated from French. When I explained her what I meant, she slowly pulled her glaze back up to look if I was messing with her. Then, when she realized I had no idea what I did wrong, she exploded in laughs telling me that you cannot translate idioms from other languages. I came back to my place with the word fainting wrote in my essay, but mostly with embarrassment painted all over my face. Until now, I dedicate a little part in my brain called ''things-to-not-translate-word-to-word'' and idioms were gladly invited to join.

Now English, because of it's way of communicating directly exposing what the interlocutor wants to say without leaving room for interpretation, is the second most spoken language in the world with a total of 983 millions of speakers according to the article of George Julian of the Fluent in 3 months Website. It is the lingua franca of the 2020's Earth.

But, what is a lingua franca miss?

Glad you ask!

It is a ''bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, [that] is a language or dialect systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.''

Thanks Wikipedia.

To put it simply, English is implanted in nowadays cultures and societies all around the world and it's safe to say that it will not disappear for the next couple of decades.

This is where tensions arise between me and my entourage for which is the best. I strongly support French (but I still wrote that text in English, how ironic) and my friends are pro-English. Their arguments are resumed by ''English is everywhere : music, social medias, shows, education, culture, working spheres, etc. It is better to conforme and become american too than to fight for a language that will not be useful in the future.''

And honestly, it pisses me off.

I agree with the ''it's everywhere'' part since it's the lingua franca, but the other part triggers my nationalist side. How can you say that when thousands of people have died to preserve the French language they are speaking right now? I live in Quebec, and if you open History books, it will not take long before you realize that we were surrounded by English, first from Britain and after from the United States. We fought to keep French alive with, notably, Honoré de Mercier to defend it against the other provinces of Canada and still from the USA, the greatest treat of them all, when they tried to assimilate us.

So, that is why, in my opinion, you cannot just give up your first language. A language is a part of who you are as an individual and saying you would prefer being american literally implies that you wouldn't mind losing a part of your identity, as supported by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UNESCO :

A language is far more than a means of communication; it is the very condition of our humanity. Our values, our beliefs and our identity are embedded within it [...] It is through language that we transmit our experiences, our traditions and our knowledge.

Maybe it's impossible to get away from the English language in the daily, maybe it is more useful, maybe it's better for thousands of reasons, but from my point of view, there is much more benefits to have English as second language.

By knowing the French language already, you can learn the English one too and notice all the little differences between both (for example, the idioms, the way of saying things and the values carried by it).

These differences are called commonly diversity. They make the world interesting.

If you travel in India, do you expect to encounter [insert the most stereotyped English american] everywhere? The answer is no. You want to meet true Indians that speak their language, with their traditions and mentality.

So I guess the true question of my debate is : is it better to learn English as a second language?

English do also have values and an identity, I am not saying the opposite. But since it's everywhere, that's precisely why you should have it as second language, you can never lose it, because you are always confronted to it. However, let's face it, when you learn a language in school and never come to use it again, you forget it as quick as a flash. Bilingualism (see this video for further details) and multilingualism in general, have amazing gains for the human being. Translating and learning strengthen the brain, but only while you are using it.

I feel like when you already speak English, you lose the interest of speaking another language, because you can be understood by everyone : it's the lingua franca! Thus, you lose opportunities to understand and connect fully with the world's other none-speaking-English humans, as Nelson Mandela once stated : ''If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.''

Diversity of language is better than only English in 2020, because of the fact that English is the lingua franca, as it was the case for Latin in the Antiquity period (not for the same reasons though). ''Do in Rome as the Romans do.'' This proverb is exactly the rule that we should not follow. Because, the Roman Empire was everywhere in Europe, meaning that everyone should do as they do, that is to say, speak their language, respect their traditions and follow their mentality.

If we want to keep a world in all its color shades, we need to promote the survival of other languages, at all cost, to protect the global cultures slowly eaten by the efficiency and productivity of English.

In conclusion, English should definitely be learned as a second language, because in this context, with my native language being French, it represents my identity and culture, which I am strongly attached to, with its rich vocabulary different from English. Also, it maintains languages diversity all around the world, so important to keep people open-minded about the differences between nations. Lastly, according to my scale of values, Culture and Diversity are coming truly before Efficiency and Productivity, because we are not robots already. If you are still not convinced by my text that it is the best to have English as a second language, let me ask you one question. If I am wrong, why would the school system still promotes the learning of other languages than English?

Sincerely yours,

A french Canadian definitely not English native

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