At the UN French Slips and English Stands Tall

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 - For diplomatic New York, no directory is more essential than the "blue book," the comprehensive guide to all foreign missions published about twice a year by the United Nations protocol department. Want to know the name of the Thai ambassador (and his wife), the Australian envoy (and her husband) and their telephone numbers? Which of four names to use to address a military attache? An e-mail address? It is all there. But the newest edition of the book, compiled in December and now a best seller at the United Nations bookstore, has moved into some interesting new trend-watching territory. For the first time, it asked the 189 United Nations member nations to name the language in which all correspondence to their missions should be addressed,

Mon Dieu! If this is any indication, French is fast slipping as the language of diplomacy. Given a choice of French, English or Spanish (the other three official languages, Arabic, Chinese and Russian, cannot be handled by most word processors), an overwhelming majority chose English. Only one, Canada, chose both English and French. Isolated Myanmar did not answer. "English is creeping up as the main language of the United Nations," said the discreetly anonymous editor of the diplomatic guide, titled simply "Permanent Missions to the United Nations No.285."But she hastened to add that what happens in New York may not be reflected in capital cities around the world, where the United Nations still tries to address governments in a wider assortment of languages.

Still, with more than 120 countries choosing English, compared with the 40 or so listing French and about 20 choosing Spanish (another language growing in use at United Nations headquarters), the preference seems pretty clear. Moreover, the preference for English was widespread. Among the Europeans, East and West, English is the first choice, except for French-speaking nations like Belgium or Luxembourg, and Romania and Albania. AH of the former Soviet republics opt for English. So does the Arab world, except for Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. All the Lusophones - the Portuguese-speaking countries, including Brazil - choose English, too.

And look at what has happened in Indochina. Several years ago Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary general who now heads Francophonie, a spirited group trying to promote (or save) French worldwide, came back from a conference in Hanoi a little gloomy about the future of French outside France and French-speaking Africa. The blue book proves him right. Vietnam, the jewel in the crown of colonial France, wants to operate in English in New York. Cambodia and Laos stayed loyal to French, but diplomats from

Southeast Asia think it is only a matter of time before a younger generation changes that. Across Asia, English has become the working language of diplomacy and business. Factoring in China and India, with over a third of the world's people, leads to the conclusion that 97 percent of the global population (or rather the elite of those counties) choose English as their international link language, said Joseph Chamie, who watches numbers and spots trends for the United Nations.

"With modernization and globalization and the dominance of the American educational system and media, English - and American English in particular - is increasingly becoming the mode of communication," said Mr.Chamie, director of the organization's population division. An American born in Lebanon, he first spoke Arabic, which he describes as "a very beautiful language with an unbelievably large vocabulary." Later, he learned English, French, German and Hindi. His daughter is learning Spanish, so he is trying to pick that up, too. "English has certain advantages over other languages," Mr.Chamie said "One, it doesn't have gender; that makes it easier. And it's a very accepting language in that all the countries have their own varieties and people are willing to tolerate variation in dialect and accent or pronunciation." And he added: "English doesn't have any kind of stratification. Other languages do. In other words, a person who has been educated could speak in a way that is very different from the language of the street In English, we do not evaluate people as much by how they speak as in some of the other languages." And he said that, politically, it does not have as many overtones as other languages, adding that its evolution from a colonial language to a universal means of communicating has largely stripped it of its stigma. "It's spoken in India, it's spoken in Australia, it's spoken all around the world," he pointed out.

In other words, it no longer belongs to anyone in particular.

Challenge or support the following statements.

1. French is fast slipping as the language of diplomacy.

2. English has become the working language of diplomacy and business.

3. American English is increasingly becoming the mode of communication.

4. English has certain advantages over other languages.

5. English is a very accepting language.

6. English doesn't have any kind of stratification.

7. Politically, it doesn't have as many overtones as other languages.

8. English no longer belongs to anyone in particular.

Have you solved the puzzle of the language priority for diplomatic work?

Exercise 26

Look up the Russian equivalents for the following word combinations:

comprehensive guide to to opt for English to tolerate variation in to evaluate sb by sth

Exercise 27

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