Happenings in France and Corsica.
 

I asked the mods and was granted permission to start this thread on current events in France and Corsica. This is not an Alizée thread it is only for general France and Corsica news story's that many outside of the country would never hear about. So if it concerns Society, Political, Economic and General news it's posted in this thread. PLEASE behave yourselves or it will be closed if you can't have a rational and calm discussion on current events.

Most don't fully understand the French culture and this is the place that we non French can learn about their daily life and comings and goings in France and Corsica.

Al

First story was a economic piece I saw last week from Time Magazine on the really tough economic times the French are living through. It was the spark that got this whole discussion on this possible new thread going.

Forget-paris-stymied-by-socialist-policies-the-french-start-to-quit-france

Great idea ALS. I'm one of those who knows little about French culture. That article didn't so much teach me how things may be changing there, rather I learned about how some things are. I look forward to learning more from this thread.

Here is an article I saw last week. It's about allowing some university classes to be taught in English there rather than in French, and about the debate regarding doing that.

http://www.wtop.com/236/3332266/Mon-Dieu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6u_4_ZfvYs

Yeah... that's sad... :(

I have friends in Canada and Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in Africa, and they can't understand the problem with integrating some english. Fact is, France doesn't seem to want to use ANY language outside of it's own. I believe there is a department in France that makes sure that newspapers, printers and universities do not bastardize their language. I mean, come on, everyone in the rest of the world knows it's a computer and not an ordinateur!

Rocket - A girl and her thoughts. Glean from them what you will! ;)

Lol ^^ yeah, i've got nothing against teaching english in french schools, which has always been done, just like british kids are learning french in theirs.

But the problem comes from the fact that our language has always been very well respected, until the end of the second world war and the overwhelming american cultural offensive that came with the Marshall plan... then the UK and France's international status decreased dramatically. The language of science, politics , diplomacy and art used to be French while the language of trade, economics , industry and travel used to be proper british english. Now both the UK and France that were once rivaling for worlwide supremacy are both crushed under the immense power of the american empire which explains why french speaking populations across the globe are now more and more turning their back on Molière's language, while at the same time the authentic british english is being americanized with each passing day .
I mean, I love the US, and I know there's nothing we can do against the world adopting the language of the dominant power, and might not be a bad thing , but I feel sorry knowing that france's last prestigious universities where our elite is being taught , are forcing more and more teachers to teach in english in order to please foreign student who don't wanna bother learning french... :/

(as always , sorry for my grammar :p )

Hello, you're attending a University in a country that doesn't speak English as a first language then you had better be fluent in that countries language before applying to said University. What, people no longer have any common sense on this planet.

So a small group of students who are probably coming from America are demanding that the university that they plan to attend offer courses in english. Well Boo Hoo! I agree with both of you.

This reminds me of what happened at the University of Illinois. For years the school's mascot was Chief Illiniwek, a noble chief who danced during half time at football and basketball games. This was fine for everyone until a small group of Native Americans enrolled and began protesting that the school's mascot was an abomination toward all indians. This group goes around to american universities that have indian mascots and force the school to get rid of them or give them a large sum of money.

They tried this at Florida State who had the Fighting Seminoles. Instead of giving in to their demands, they went to the Seminole tribe and offered to pay them a yearly salary in order to use their name. The Seminole tribe accepted and the militant group left the school.

So I would tell these students to either learn french or or apply to another school that does.

Then, in a decade or so we'd all have to learn how to speak Chinese! :D

With a population 1/5 of the U.S. France has a homeless population 1/2 of the U.S. :(

Special Report: French homeless seek refuge in offices