Berkley Center

The language barrier is an experience common to most study abroad students, expatriates, people working overseas, and tourists who just want to experience the culture of a country different from their own. Sometimes comical, sometimes frustrating, the inability to communicate in a common language provokes all kinds of responses: curious gestures, pained grimaces, and even the cringe-worthy progressive increase of volume, as if shouting a word somehow makes it more comprehensible. Language has an obvious communicative function, as any traveler who has struggled to find a hotel, read street signs, or decipher menus knows. It’s through language that we express our needs and seek to understand each other as human beings.

Beyond the literal communicative function of language, the words we choose often have less obvious shades of meaning. In France, where the proper use of language has long been a central feature of the country’s cultural identity, linguistic variance and word choice often have a decidedly political dimension. This is a common phenomenon in countries who experienced centralization relatively late in the their histories.

The French language is carefully surveyed and monitored by the Académie française, an authoritative body established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu that is made up of 40 elected members known as immortels (immortals). If this wasn’t grandiose enough, the immortels are furnished with swords as part of their centuries-old ceremonial uniform. The protection of the French language has even reached the legal domain in the form of legislation that targets the excessive influence of other languages. This usually means censoring the presence of English in advertisements, music, and television.

Spearheaded in 1994 by former culture minister Jacques Toubon, the law, commonly known as la loi Toubon, tapped into deep cultural and political tensions that are felt to this day. English words are everywhere in France, from advertisements in the metro to graffiti along the underside of bridges. Even linguistic purists like my host father, who carefully corrects nearly each and every one of my French gaffes, drops the occasional English phrase here and there. Perhaps his favorite is “entertainment,” a word he claims only retains its sense in English because it is, in his opinion, a uniquely American concept.

Of course, the reverse phenomenon exists in English. We also have our fair share of borrowed words and expressions. From bête noir to faux pas, certain French expressions have wormed their way into the daily vocabulary of many Americans. For example, gaffe, a word I used in the last paragraph without thinking twice, is a word borrowed from French. I hadn’t realized this until after I reread my work and confirmed my intuition with a quick Google search.

The French effort to minimize the presence of linguistic mixing-and-matching suggests that the presence of English in French-speaking contexts evokes a stronger reaction than the presence of French in English-speaking contexts. In fact, many Americans believe that incorporating French into their daily parlance suggests a certain level of cultural sophistication. Linguist George Weber attributes these different emotional responses to the recent global decline of French in relation to English: “The French are rightly pained by this situation. Besides a certain amount of fashionability behind the English boom, there are solid economic and psychological forces at work. English is seen more and more widely as the language of world trade, of economic progress, of science and technology, the main window to the world and not just because of the Internet which, of course, it dominates.”

Despite (or perhaps because of) the “English boom” Weber cites, the French generally remain immensely proud of their language. For my host father, who speaks very good English in addition to the spattering of English expressions he mixes into his French, believes there is something indescribably irreplaceable about his native tongue. He thinks French’s intangible beauté and long-venerated literary legacy will ensure its survival as a global language. Judging from the 29 countries that have French as an official language, it seems as though my host father is right: even in the face of English’s expansive growth, French still exudes a certain je ne sais quoi that will ensure its continue prominence.