Monday 16 February 2009

Sarkozy does not speak English

I just learned that the ex-President of the Council of the European Union and still-President of one of the major EU countries - Nicolas Sarkozy - does not speak (enough) English to talk to the newly elected US president Obama without translator - which embarrasses the advisors of the latter.

This is maybe also why France is still putting so much weight on the usage of the French language within the EU and other international organisations...

2 comments:

citizen of Europe said...

It would be great if the Americans had to learn the language of the Europeans (whereas it is vice versa today).

Anonymous said...

"It would be great if the Americans had to learn the language of the Europeans (whereas it is vice versa today)."
I agree that Americans should learn more languages, but what you propose makes no sense. Americans should learn Italian, Czech, French, German, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, etc? The fact is that English is a major business language and one of the primary tongues of international diplomacy. You can instead thank the British Empire for the origins of that one.