Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Disadvantages of English as an international language
English is a language with a very wide vocabulary. This is also a disadvantage, 
as it is rich in colourful and idiomatic expressions which can often cause mis-
translations and incomprehension, as is exemplified in the following: ‘We’re 
in a bit of a spot. It’s a tall order. We’re pulling out all the stops, but bear with 
me.’ This would undoubtedly cause some confusion with foreigners who are 
not familiar with colloquial English. It does of course mean: ‘This is a difficult 
situation. You are asking a lot. We’re making a special effort, but be patient.’
In addition, spelling is sometimes confusing, with many exceptions to 
the rules. There is also frequent lack of correlation between spelling and 
pronunciation, for example, ‘rough’, ‘through’ and ‘thought’.
The very popularity of English has produced active resentment in other 
nations. This is particularly the case in France, where the former French 
President, Jacques Chirac, referred to the global spread of English as ‘a 
major risk to humanity’. This attitude has been extended with the deliberate 
attempt to prevent the eclipse of la langue diplomatique, so much so that the 
French government has been very concerned that English would become 
the de facto official language of the EU at the expense of French. The very 
linguistic diversity of the EU is in itself a problem as there are over 20 official 
languages and, as a result, a huge number of documents need to be trans-
lated at great cost into all the official languages. This is despite the fact that, 
according to the European Commission, over 40 per cent of EU citizens have 
a good working knowledge of English, more than the combined totals of the 
next four languages (French, German, Spanish and Italian). The expansion 
•
•
•
•

---

The International Use of English 67
of the EU has created an even larger group of people with English as their 
first choice of second language.
L’Académie Française was set up in 1635 by Louis XIII and Cardinal 
Richelieu to defend the French language against foreign influences and 
has been active ever since, in particular to prevent inroads being made by 
English. In 1994, Jacques Toubon, the then Minister of Culture, announced 
that the French government was seeking to protect the right of the French to 
be addressed in their own tongue. This was an additional move by the French 
to halt the increasing development of ‘franglais’, with the introduction of 
a law entitled ‘Maintenance of the Purity of the French Language’. English 
has itself borrowed many French words and expressions which are still used 
today, for example, ‘pièce de résistance’, ‘joie de vivre’, ‘tour de force’, ‘savoir 
faire’, ‘raison d’être’, ‘nom de plume’, ‘coup d’état’ and ‘carte blanche’. Some 
examples of English words that have been officially approved for use in the 
French language include ‘le manager’, ‘le marketing’, ‘le weekend’, ‘le self’ 
(self-service), ‘le dancing’, ‘la cover-girl’, ‘le sandwich’ and ‘le parking’.
There are also a number of imported English words (‘franglais’) which 
have an official French version that should be used by all native French 
speakers. Examples are as follows.