The French protect their language like the British protect their currency

By Andrew Gallix. A row over using English in universities has blown up in France, where language is at the heart of the national identity. The front page of Libération, one of France's leading dailies, was printed entirely in English on Tuesday. "Let's do it," ran the banner headline. Sounding like a Nike slogan penned by Cole Porter, it in fact referred to a new bill, which, if passed, would allow some university courses to be taught in English. Inside the paper (and in French), the editorialists urged their compatriots to "stop behaving like the last representatives of a besieged Gaulish village". The nod to Asterix – the diminutive comic-strip hero who punches above his weight thanks to his cunning and occasional swigs of magic potion – is highly significant. For decades, France has identified with the plucky denizens of Asterix's village, the last corner of Gaul to hold out against Roman invasion. This is how the French fancy themselves: besieged but unbowed – a kind of Gallic take on the Blitz spirit. The reason Uderzo and Goscinny's books resonated at the time of their publication is that they replayed the myth of French resistance in the context of the cold war. This time around the invaders were no longer German or Roman, but American. Asterix's first outing (in a long-defunct magazine called Pilote) occurred in 1959, the year Charles de Gaulle became president, and grammarian Max Rat coined the word "franglais". My contention is that this is not purely coincidental. Read more...