Newsgroups: de.etc.sprache.deutsch,nl.taal,sci.lang,soc.culture.french,soc.
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!portc01.blue.aol.com!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!spool.mu.edu!agate!howland.erols.net!surfnet.nl!swsbe6.switch.ch!scsing.switch.ch!blackbush.xlink.net!slsv6bt!news
From: kanze@lts.sel.alcatel.de (James Kanze US/ESC 60/3/141 #40763)
Subject: Re: Why is France systematically excluded?
In-Reply-To: tim.reay@world-net.sct.fr's message of Wed, 28 Aug 96 12:08:00 CET
Message-ID: <KANZE.96Aug28204023@slsvhrt.lts.sel.alcatel.de>
Lines: 45
Sender: news@lts.sel.alcatel.de
Organization: GABI Software, Sarl.
References: <> <4v6kr7$88o@mars.worldonline.nl> <4vd31o$3es@lyra.csx.cam.ac
	<KANZE.96Aug27174012@slsvhrt.lts.sel.alcatel.de> <5016aa$i53@news.sct.fr>
Date: 28 Aug 1996 18:40:23 GMT

In article <5016aa$i53@news.sct.fr> tim.reay@world-net.sct.fr (Tim Reay)
writes:

    [...]
|> IMHO although English is widely understood in much of Europe,
|> and will become more so - just compare the linguistic ability of
|> a sample of 25-year-olds with that of their parents - it is
|> still less understood in Europe (south and east of Benelux) than
|> in much of the rest of the world, particularly Asia.

It obviously depends on what you mean by widely understood.  Obviously,
I have no idea how widely it is understood in France.  I've never tried
it.  I think that it is widely understood in Germany, but again, I've
generally found German even more widely understood there:-).  When I
leave areas where I speak the local language (which, in my case, mainly
means eastern Europe), I find that the language I most often use to
communicate is German, not English.

In many ways, this is not surprising.  German is the largest European
language, so within Europe, it has demographics on its side.  Most of
eastern Europe also has close historical ties with Germany or German
speaking areas in the past.  While the nature of those ties could be a
motive for them not to speak German (which, for example, sometimes
happens in Alsace), recent history has given them a new oppressor to
hate, and this doesn't seem to be a problem.

A more interesting point is that German seems to be spreading to areas
not historically linked to Germany, at least in recent times.  It is at
least as frequent to find someone speaking German as someone speaking
English in hotels in Italy or Greece, for example.  The economic power
of Germany, along with its demographic weight, are the probable reasons.

This is, of course, a purely European phenomena.  In the ex-British
colonies, like India, I am sure that English is the most useful European
language.  In the far east, I imagine that it is still probably more
useful that even Japanese, although I think that there is an evolution
there that is similar to the one with German in Europe.

And of course, in Latin America, even the North Americans learn Spanish.
-- 
James Kanze         Tel.: (+33) 88 14 49 00        email: kanze@gabi-soft.fr
GABI Software, Sarl., 8 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
Conseils, tudes et ralisations en logiciel orient objet --
                -- A la recherche d'une activit dans une region francophone

