The head of the European Commission spoke at a conference in Italy today and announced that he would not speak in English because that language has lost its influence. Instead, he spoke French.
It's really humorous to see the leader of the EU decide to ditch English. Clearly, this was designed as a slap at the UK in view of Brexit. It cannot be because English has lost its influence. Of all world languages, only Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people than English. Mandarin speakers, however, are almost all in China, while English speakers comprise the majority of at least ten countries and a sizeable segment of a great many more. On the other hand, there are only about a quarter as many speakers of French as of English. Further, with the continuing decline of France as a world economic or military power, the number of French speakers has been declining, not growing.
If president Juncker of the European Commission wants to speak French, that is fine. If he wants to talks about languages with declining influence, he needs to open his eyes.
It's really humorous to see the leader of the EU decide to ditch English. Clearly, this was designed as a slap at the UK in view of Brexit. It cannot be because English has lost its influence. Of all world languages, only Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people than English. Mandarin speakers, however, are almost all in China, while English speakers comprise the majority of at least ten countries and a sizeable segment of a great many more. On the other hand, there are only about a quarter as many speakers of French as of English. Further, with the continuing decline of France as a world economic or military power, the number of French speakers has been declining, not growing.
If president Juncker of the European Commission wants to speak French, that is fine. If he wants to talks about languages with declining influence, he needs to open his eyes.
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