Language

I scrolled through my past articles to see if I had already railed against this phenomenon and was surprised to see I had not.  After 13 years it still gets my goat, it seems that just as I am feeling integrated, the French have a knack of putting me back in my place.
Today we had a meeting to organise our village fete in March.  The discussion turned to buying new decoration and the possibility of getting some "winflags".  If like me you don't know what this is google it.  Anyway one of my colleagues complained that the word was Anglo- Saxon and asked for its French translation.  He commented that he is always battling against these Anglicisms.  So in French its an "oriflamme", so now you know.   Another colleague commented that she found the French term more poetic.  To which I responded that this underlined the difference between English and French.  The French like poetic, literary terms, while the English prefer vocabulary that is punchy and has more of a buzz about it.
The same week I noticed an article in our village magazine commenting on a recent concert.  An Australian friend of ours is the lead singer.  His group sing a mix of rock and jazz classics in both French and English.  What disappointed me in the article was the line which said, ".. the accent of the Australian singer when he sang in French couldn't help but make the spectators smile."
Then my seven-year old comes home telling me that his teacher wants to meet us.  Apparently he had a bad mark in "dictée", a pillar of the French education system.  The teacher dictates a word and the children have to write it.  It seems that because we speak English at home he made mistakes in his dictation.   The fact that it is the first bad mark he has had in dictation does not seem to be an issue.  Now I have to contain my anger and avoid making the observation that good English is going to be more useful in a global economy than good French, as that will only make his situation worse.  Arrogant Englishman!
It may seem that I am being too sensitive, but I have had to put up with this "BS" for thirteen years.  The sensitivity of certain sections of French society about the domination of English.  During her nursery school we were warned about speaking two languages to our daughter, and confusing her!  While working as a English trainer I devised a course entitled "Anglais pour telephone et E-mail", only to be told by a colleague that I should have used the term "mel".  While I accept that it is frustrating for the French to see the language of their historic enemy dominating the world economy, I think they need to get over it as the Scandinavians, Chinese, Indians, Germans, etc have.  If not they could find themselves trailing far behind in an ever decreasing Francophonie.  As far more I am going to keep speaking English to my kids in the knowledge that being bi-lingual will serve them better than just speaking one language.