Chirac flees summit in a fury over use of English

[Meticulous Man]

Originally posted by OzzyKP


English > Culture

English is dull.

[Az]

I am not dead yet

you're dead inside.

anyway,

Embarrassed French diplomats tried to explain away the walk-out, saying that their ministers all needed a toilet break at the same time.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
What a freaking turd. One wonders how somone like Chirac ended up being President of a country.

Well, here in United States we have our own turd for president.

[Pekka]

Language is an important part of any culture. However, language is also means of communication, it's like... set of rules so we both understand what we talk about. As such, it's not a big of a deal culturally speaking.

When I'm with you guys, I ramble English so that I'm understood by you and vice versa.

When I'm with my friends, I talk in Finnish. And then it has more cultural value etc etc etc.

I'm not giving up my culture when I talk with other people in English, if we all understand it.

It's Chirac and the likes of him tha tI don't like about Europe. They're like the.. they are the idiots who I truly don't like, their attitude and all that they represent. I know most of us agree and don't like the types, but it seems like when you think of Europe, idiots like him comes to your mind.

Don't worry guys, if Chirac takes the punching of the stomachs contest, I promise not to back out.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by MrFun
Well, here in United States we have our own turd for president.

But he doesn't mind speaking Spanish if the crowd is Spanish/Hispanic.

[DinoDoc]

This seems like a good place to post this:

One third of French say they are racist

PARIS (Reuters) - One third of French people say they are racist, a French human rights watchdog said on Tuesday, after a survey that showed an increase from last year in the number of people who acknowledged being racist.

Some 33 percent of 1,011 people surveyed face-to-face by pollsters CSA said they were "somewhat" or "a little" racist, up 8 percentage points from last year, according to an annual report by the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights.

The poll asked the question "When it comes to you personally, would you say you are ..." followed by a list of options: somewhat racist, a bit racist, not racist, not very racist, not racist at all and don't want to say.

...

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-03-21T223053Z_01_L21456332_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-FRANCE-RACISM.XML

[Pekka]

"Some 33 percent of 1,011 people surveyed face-to-face by pollsters CSA said they were "somewhat" or "a little" racist"

So.. that basically means there are still 67% of French who still can't admit everyones a bit racist?

What's next? 42% of Taiwanese think they are a bit biased in some way?

[dannubis]

So DD, what your opinion about them ragheads these days ?

[mrmitchell]

At one UN summit where there was no translation, President Chirac pretended not to understand questions in English and demanded that Tony Blair, who speaks French, act as his interpreter.

What kind of UN summit doesn't have translation services?

[Sandman]

France needs term limits. As does Britain.

[Kidlicious]

I find this difficult to comprehend.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


But he doesn't mind speaking Spanish if the crowd is Spanish/Hispanic.

Yeah, I know -- he's just a turd in so many other ways, though.

[Dauphin]

I'm trying to work out if Chirac wins or loses politically here. Its hard to tell what he was trying to accomplish.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by dannubis


well there ARE also people who freak out when spanish is spoken instead of english...

The comparison with this situation and dealing with internal issues such as schools and goverment services isn't such a great one. Good try though

[Winston]

It's not just Chirac. This is just the latest example of why the pompous French are disliked by most Europeans who have to frequently deal with them.