CHAT Euro-matters (was: HUMOUR: "EuroEnglish": is this for real???)

At 5:16 pm +0200 2/10/00, Mangiat wrote:
[....]
>> There is, you will notice, no mention of French at all in the piece, even
>> though in actual fact English & French (both unreformed) are the two
>> everday working languages of the EU.
>
>Bist du sicher?
Ja, ich bin sehr sicher.

Es gibt etwa 100 Millionen Personen, die, nur in
>Deutschland, Deutsch sprechen. Und wir haben auch die Schweiz, Österreich...
>Ich denke, daß, hier auf dem Kontinent, es mehr Deutsch-sprechende Personen
>als Französisch-sprechende gibt.
Oh yes, on the continent of Europe there are far more speakers of German
than of either English or French.  And IIRC Russian is the most widely
spoken language - tho this figure may have included L2 speakers who have
been declining in numbers since the fall of the Soviet Empire; and, of
course, Russian speaking areas are still outside of the EU.

But, of course, originally, Austria, Switzerland & eastern Germany were not
part of the EU - Switzerland still isn't. But I must confess I was somewhat
surprised when I learnt that the working languages were English & French.
I had assumed German would also be one.  I guess, however, there are two
factors which led the Germans to go along with this: (a) so many of them
speak very good English (not at all like the silly caricatures still, alas,
perpetuated by some), and (b) they didn't want to appear to be dominating
the EU.

>
>(I beg your pardon, my dear German L1 speakers, but I couldn't resist to
>test my (terrible) knowledge of the lang)
I doesn't look terible to me; at least you made a better job of it than I
could   :)

[...]
>
>Well, Mrs Thatcher is (in)famous for her Euro-avversion.
Yes, I don't think well of her for it either (nor for one or two other
things either).  The Conservative Party originally took the lead in taking
Britain into the EU and its leaders were decidedly pro-European; but Mrs T
changed all that and allowed the party to be taken over by myopic,
xenophobic right wingers.

>> Ray,
>> a long standing Europhile.
>
>Unfortunately one of the few, AFAIK, on the other side of the Channel.
There are more of us but unfortunately the tabloid press is decidedly
Euro-skeptic, and unscrupulous politicians are only too happy to play the
'patriotic' card.

>I wish Englishmen were all as you!
Thanks - I wish they were too.

Ray.



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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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