The French have come up with a new way to save themselves the trouble of having to speak English. Operating through the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (International Organization of La Francophonie), they have reinforced French’s traditional status as one of the two official languages of the Olympics.

Why?

Or should I say, pourquoi?

I’m all for using two languages at the Olympics, but that should be English and the native language of the host country. French has no place as an official language at worldwide events, even if you accept it as the world’s second most influential language. It only has that ranking because the French-speaking community is so actively promoting its use around the world, which I’m tempted to say is solely to save the French the effort of having to learn English. The paper by George Weber, linked above, has a more balanced discussion of the status of French (the text between Figs. 10 and 11 is of particular interest), but it comes down to the same conclusion: French is artificially held to be more influential than it really is.

Abdou Diouf, the Secretary-General of La Francophonie, said the promotion of French as an integral part of the Olympics was to ensure linguistic and cultural diversity that will benefit all languages and cultures.

Ehm, Mr. Diouf, please explain how forcing everything Olympic to be done in English and French is going to benefit the Dutch language and culture.

The way I see it, it only ensures that the French don’t have to speak English. The driving force behind this agreement was French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been praised for improving relations between France and the USA. So, just when it looked like Sarkozy’s France was reaching out a little bit, they pull a 180 and go back to their old chauvinistic ways. If they don’t want to speak English, that’s fine, but they should not then force the rest of the world to speak French. Ils ne peuvent pas avoir leur gâteau et le manger aussi.

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