French: You long forgotten language

In Lebanon, our private school system is usually dominated by one language: French. We learn French in kindergarten and from the very first grade all throughout the school years. In it, we learn the sciences, mathematics, history and pretty much every school subject. Arabic is also taught but relegated to Arabic literature, Arab history, and geography courses. French literature has the same grade weight as Arabic on the report card. Some people even use French to speak to their young children, who in turn pick up the language earlier than the rest (the same people also use it with to talk to pets, but that’s another topic). Now other schools use English instead of French for the same reason, they are more of a special case, and I won’t mention them here further here. At some point in the academic course, a third language makes an appearance. The world most indispensable language: English. It is taught later in the academic course, and its role and its grade weight are small in the overall grade point average. But students will get about 8 years of it in school. Once your average school graduate goes to university he will have his choice between French and English language institutions. Most of the brightest and most affluent will chose the English language institutions. Then 3 to 5 years later released into the labor force, English will be used extensively for all business communications and professional work. But that is far from the entire story. Average Lebanese people are just like the rest of humanity addicted to television and movies. In Lebanon, these are imported from the USA as is and are not dubbed but subtitled at the bottom in Arabic and sometimes French. The result is that even before their first official school English course, your average Lebanese child is already familiar with some English which he acquired through watching TV. Furthermore, as the years go by the amount of time he listens to English being spoken through media or reads it online far exceeds the time he listens to French. The end result: your average Lebanese twenty-something has long forgotten a lot of his French and has become an anglophile. The results are depressing. Very few can maintain an entire conversation in French without resorting to some English words. A few even have trouble understanding spoken French. To the great nation that is France that is a net power loss in Lebanon ( a country that has been under its mandate during the first half of the 20th century). Let’s get it right off the bat: English is a more useful language to learn than French. It is the world’s Lingua Franca (a second language that most people speak between countries around the world). It is also the language of international business and computers. But once you have a good command of it, should you invest any time to maintain a third language that you supposedly already learned. What are the advantages of having an adequate level of French? Well for one thing, here in Lebanon French will give you access to cheap and high-quality graduate education (supposing you did your undergraduate in English). And although a lot of universities have English language programs, the French language ones come with the support of the French government (Aside from two institutions, the American government doesn’t support directly the Lebanese educational system). The more important issue is the education one might be able to get in France proper which is again a lot cheaper than the English language equivalent (in fact tuition-free) and of the world’s highest quality. France boasts some of the world’s most advanced research universities and countless contributions to engineering, the sciences and a large number of Nobel Laureates. The other advantage would be to talk to native French speakers around the world. There are 86 million of them and one always appreciates being spoken to in his own language. This might be a big boost to business deals, especially considering that native French-speaking countries are rich western first world countries. So for a small business in Lebanon, this can bring a lot of advantages. As it happens French skills have played an important role in the technology outsourcing movement that took place since 2007 in Lebanon. French companies have realized that they can have access to high-quality engineers who speak their language and earn competitive salaries. So French can be an asset in Lebanon for getting your next job. But ultimately the biggest advantage one might find in maintaining French language skills are what I like to call intangible advantages. French is just a beautiful language and maintaining adequacy by reading French language books and watching the occasional French movie or French TV sometimes opens one’s horizons to a vibrant and intellectually stimulating culture. Furthermore, the Lebanese people have always been known for speaking three languages and this has always been an asset. The loss of this part of our identity will be felt. You might are not convinced. In which case I don’t blame you. What I didn’t mention about the French educational system, is that business (and France boasts some of the world’s best business schools) is now taught in English (although not for free). One reason is that the French want to have access the largest and best possible pool of international candidates and well most people across countries don’t speak French. The second reason is that they want their citizens to have English language skills in business so they can communicate with other people. Indeed, I am writing this essay in English so that it is read by the most significant number of people who would not be French speakers.