Just as Englishmen in centuries past learned French so as not to handicap themselves when French was the language of diplomacy and culture, and why Saint Thomas More wrote an elegant Latin in his day.` Patriotism and practicality need not be enemies, but should usually walk hand in hand.
This is lost on Quebec. Their loss.
Fair enough. But if France has survived wars and revolutions, they surely can survive Macron and snobbery! The French have much to be proud of. I’d rather see the glass half full and hope and pray France will return to its Catholic roots. The patriotism shown when Notre Dame burnt gives one hope.
I figured he’d be exhorting them to learn Arabic…
The issue isn’t whether they can survive everything happening now like they did wars and revolutions, but rather do they *want* to survive the invasion and colonization by the Third World.
If Le Pens conviction is not overturned in appeal next year then she is looking to put Jordan Bardella forward, the current leader of the RN, to run in the 2027 elections. He is young. He is gaining popularity amongst young voters. The party has already used the political witch hunt in her favour to gain favour. It takes a regime change to set the wheels in motion. The RN party platform is vehemently opposed to open borders. Look how things turned, almost overnight, in the USA, when Trump came into power…
I could wish that academia would listen.
Nearing the end of 8th grade, readying for 9th, we needed to choose a foreign language. Most of us chose Spanish; it was the 80s, we viewed Latin dimly. I still haven’t heard good reason why any American needs learn a foreign language. Most of us aren’t diplomats; the rest of the world speaks English if they want to talk to us. Seems that academia HATES that idea. They want to try to force everyone to be exactly equal.
I was in high school in the 90’s and I decided to take Spanish instead of Latin. Probably my biggest academic regret.
When I went into theology as a course of study I basically also went into a self-taught crash course of Latin, although my (Jesuit) university “recommended French or German”… because of course they did.
You could learn French, German AND Latin. Even Italian. Our esteemed host exclaimed “Bravo!” on the title of this Post. That’s Italian. 😉
I spoke Italian as a second language as a kid (my grandparents came to America in the early 50’s) but lost it to a large extent by age 10. Spanish was really easy for me because of that background. With Latin, I knew the words but I was (and still am) terrible with tenses and conjugation.
Rationally, the tweet makes sense. Emotionally, I’m on the side of the French maintaining their culture. Realistically, the whole question will be moot in a year or two if not already, with developments in real-time interpretation.
I love languages despite not having much talent in them. It’s easy to see how technology could be helpful short-term and detrimental long-term on this. The person who knows more languages will always have a benefit, not merely in translation but in mental flexibility and cultural understanding.
I still think it’s funny when we call English the “lingua franca” though.
John F:
The ability to handle a second language (especially an older language with an extensive literature) was a mark of an educated man from the time of the Romans down to John Dewey’s disdain for the classics in the early 20th century, when “pragmatism” leveled everything in education but commercial and scientific skills (and left science alone because it had become commercially valuable). Nothing to do with any modern academic mania for “equality”, which (for all his faults) was never Dewey’s issue.
Josh – it’s pretty great you knew Italian. I don’t think you ever really loose it. Spanish is probably pushed because of Latin Americas close proximity to the US. Which can be annoying. Because sometimes immigrants don’t bother to learn English. That’s not acceptable.
Asian languages are predominant for us. The neighbour across the road has Chinese characters on his mailbox. I have no idea what it says and that bothers me. We live in Australia. We also have had to tell two staff members that they cannot converse in Korean. We tolerated it for 7 months (because English is their second language and they communicate easier explaining work tasks), but as uncomfortable as it was we had to remind them we live in Australia and we speak English. I was annoyed we had to have that uncomfortable conversation because you have to be careful not the tread the line of being labelled a “racist”. Anyway it is what it is.
Tom B,
I well understand your thought about foreign language. If I saw schools dedicated to Latin–or Greek–and providing a classical education, I might agree. If schools typically sought to instill a love of Christ, or at least His creation, from classics, I might praise them. For that matter, a school teaching a language in which much of a Major course of study had been written would earn my high regard. Who better to teach than their intellectual ancestors in a subject?
Sadly, as you say, Dewey’s pragmatism took over instead.
I took a language which I felt might be at least vaguely useful to me for a few years, if only so I didn’t curse the existence of my professors or their colleagues.
It taught me nothing of use about the human spirit that I didn’t already know.
Incidentally, ..sadly, science has not been left alone. If scientific principles don’t change, ..they still suffer being misrepresented. Or even simply lied about.
Dewey perhaps wasn’t fussed about equality. His intellectual descendants… are.
I think English’ domination came down to a secret device small enough that it could be installed aboard a sailing ship. You see… latitude is easy but:
A clock on board a ship, specifically a marine chronometer, is crucial for determining longitude. By comparing the time on the ship’s chronometer, set to a known location like Greenwich England, with the local time determined by celestial observations, sailors could calculate their east-west position.
Thus the English Navy was able to navigate anywhere in the world, knowing where they were, and spread the language while also being very receptive to new words, like pajamas… .
Greenwich Mean Time is of course still in use today.