karn@thumper.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn) (07/22/88)
This came across the wire today. For some strange reason, it reminds
me just a bit of the international protocol standards game. --Phil
Official Opposes Single European Language
PARIS (AP) _ A Cabinet minister said Thursday that European
integration should not be taken as far as developing a single
European language _ because she said the language inevitably would
be English.
Minister for European Affairs Edith Cresson said Europeans
should work together to defend French as well as Italian, German
and other languages ``because language is also culture and we must
be able to talk to each other.''
Interviewed on RTL radio, the minister said plans to eliminate
the borders among the 12 European Economic Community countries
should not apply to language.
``There should not be a single language in Europe, because it
would inevitably be English,'' she said.
``Children in the Netherlands or Denmark all speak a foreign
language and sometimes two,'' she said. ``There is no reason why
our children, if we start them young learning languages in an
attractive and lively way, could not do it.''