Insulting the French is OK….Just Not Their Language
Aussie Dave | Jul 13, 2005 | 2 comments
Insulting French is bad..mmmmkay?
Tokyo Governor Sued for Insulting FrenchA group of teachers and translators in Japan on Wednesday sued Tokyo’s outspoken nationalist governor for allegedly calling French a “failed international language,” a news report said.Twenty-one people filed the lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court, demanding that Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara pay a total of 10.5 million yen (US$94,600) compensation for insulting the French language in remarks last October, national broadcaster NHK said.In their suit, the plaintiffs accused Ishihara of saying: “French is a failed international language because it cannot be used to count numbers.”“It’s natural for different languages to have different names for numbers and different ways of counting them, so it’s unacceptable for him to insult French in this way,” Malik Berkane, who heads a French-language school in Tokyo, told reporters at a news conference.
Just for the record, I’ve never actually insulted the French language. Just the French people. I kind of like the way French sounds. It is only when I understand what they are actually saying that my anti-French neurosis starts playing up.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
ok, I speak french but I have no idea what he means by “can’t be used to count numbers”. HUH?
Excuse moi Francais but… I hope the courts tell those French-speakings loons to go $#@!