6 ms·

Can anyone tell me why French institutions are so inept at translating their sites into English. It must be on purpose, a big f-u to non native French speakers.

by kbenzle 11y ago

jedmeyers 11y ago
C'est exactement ce qui se passe.
eyeJam 11y ago
For a long time French people were mostly unconcerned with learning English. Maybe it's like that in other European countries too, I don't know, but I have lots of French friends so I know its true for them. The French have a lot of pride in their own language, although most of the ones I know wish they were <<bilingue>> (speak English).
- 0x4a42 11y ago
  "Maybe it's like that in other European countries too" No, it's not. In most of the nothern or eastern european countries peoples are easily learning and speaking english and other languages. The frenchs are just the french exception. :)
  - yodsanklai 11y ago
    what about the italian, spanish, portugese exceptions?
gargarplex 11y ago
The French are big with preserving their language. They once fined GE 600K€ for not translating some manuals into French.
- 0x4a42 11y ago
  Well, I'm not aware about this special case you are refering to, but this is a different problem than preserving the french language. What you are talking about is that when you are selling a product or a service in France, you must provide user manuals and support in the national language (french). So it's just a law which purpose is to guarantee that the customers will be able to have the best experience with what companies are selling them. I guess that would not be possible in some countries like US where there's no official national language.
  - gargarplex 11y ago
    I don't think I exactly explained correctly. This article does a better job: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/opinion/france-gives-in-to-the-hashtag.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/opinion/france-gives-in-to...
vidoc 11y ago
Perhaps because France happens to have exactly one official language: French.
yodsanklai 11y ago
> It must be on purpose, a big f-u to non native French speakers. I hate this stupid stereotype that French people don't want to learn/use English because they're too proud to do so. I've heard this countless times. Truth is English isn't an easy language to master for native French speakers. It's similar for Italians or Spaniards for instance. And conversely, nobody expect americans or brits to be fluent in a foreign language. As for institutions websites, I agree with you it's a shame they don't offer an English version more systematically. I just checked and it seems "impots.gouv.fr" (tax website) doesn't have an English translation (research and educational institutions always have one though). I don't know why it is not the case. Maybe there's some truth in what you're saying. Some people may think it's not worth the cost since foreigners willing to live and work there should learn the language eventually. I disagree with this type of nationalistic ideology, but again, it's certainly not unique to France. In any case, I think things are improving. For instance, more and more universities have English curricula nowadays.
- scrollaway 11y ago
  I'm French. I've lived in France, the UK, Sweden and a bunch of other places in Europe. English is dead easy to learn; people just don't care, it's in the culture. Nobody can speak English back in france. It's pathetic. Often when I go through Paris' airports, I speak english just to see how badly people still speak it, and just how much effort they'll go through to still speak french despite having someone who has shown no sign of speaking your language in front of you. For some, it's pride. For most, it's lack of education. For all, it's a sad, sad situation. And the degree to which it happens is absolutely unique to France - I have never seen such dislike of foreign languages in any other country - and my full time job is in localization engineering. I've been in Stockholm for about a year now and I've had trouble finding swedes that do not speak English. The turkish immigrant at the local pizzeria? Even his English is better than a majority of french people's skills in any foreign language, and he's the worst speaker I've met so far here. On top of fluent Swedish and Turkish. Greece? Spain? Romania? Even Germany! Most people speak English, and often a third language. This is unique to France and it's not something we can be proud of.
  - 11y ago

Can anyone tell me why French institutions are so inept at translating their sites into English. It must be on purpose, a big f-u to non native French speakers.

by kbenzle 11y ago

Can anyone tell me why French institutions are so inept at translating their sites into English. It must be on purpose, a big f-u to non native French speakers.

jedmeyers 11y ago

C'est exactement ce qui se passe.

eyeJam 11y ago

For a long time French people were mostly unconcerned with learning English. Maybe it's like that in other European countries too, I don't know, but I have lots of French friends so I know its true for them. The French have a lot of pride in their own language, although most of the ones I know wish they were <<bilingue>> (speak English).

0x4a42 11y ago
"Maybe it's like that in other European countries too" No, it's not. In most of the nothern or eastern european countries peoples are easily learning and speaking english and other languages. The frenchs are just the french exception. :)
- yodsanklai 11y ago
  what about the italian, spanish, portugese exceptions?

gargarplex 11y ago

The French are big with preserving their language. They once fined GE 600K€ for not translating some manuals into French.

0x4a42 11y ago
Well, I'm not aware about this special case you are refering to, but this is a different problem than preserving the french language. What you are talking about is that when you are selling a product or a service in France, you must provide user manuals and support in the national language (french). So it's just a law which purpose is to guarantee that the customers will be able to have the best experience with what companies are selling them. I guess that would not be possible in some countries like US where there's no official national language.
- gargarplex 11y ago
  I don't think I exactly explained correctly. This article does a better job: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/opinion/france-gives-in-to-the-hashtag.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/opinion/france-gives-in-to...

vidoc 11y ago

Perhaps because France happens to have exactly one official language: French.

yodsanklai 11y ago

> It must be on purpose, a big f-u to non native French speakers. I hate this stupid stereotype that French people don't want to learn/use English because they're too proud to do so. I've heard this countless times. Truth is English isn't an easy language to master for native French speakers. It's similar for Italians or Spaniards for instance. And conversely, nobody expect americans or brits to be fluent in a foreign language. As for institutions websites, I agree with you it's a shame they don't offer an English version more systematically. I just checked and it seems "impots.gouv.fr" (tax website) doesn't have an English translation (research and educational institutions always have one though). I don't know why it is not the case. Maybe there's some truth in what you're saying. Some people may think it's not worth the cost since foreigners willing to live and work there should learn the language eventually. I disagree with this type of nationalistic ideology, but again, it's certainly not unique to France. In any case, I think things are improving. For instance, more and more universities have English curricula nowadays.

scrollaway 11y ago
I'm French. I've lived in France, the UK, Sweden and a bunch of other places in Europe. English is dead easy to learn; people just don't care, it's in the culture. Nobody can speak English back in france. It's pathetic. Often when I go through Paris' airports, I speak english just to see how badly people still speak it, and just how much effort they'll go through to still speak french despite having someone who has shown no sign of speaking your language in front of you. For some, it's pride. For most, it's lack of education. For all, it's a sad, sad situation. And the degree to which it happens is absolutely unique to France - I have never seen such dislike of foreign languages in any other country - and my full time job is in localization engineering. I've been in Stockholm for about a year now and I've had trouble finding swedes that do not speak English. The turkish immigrant at the local pizzeria? Even his English is better than a majority of french people's skills in any foreign language, and he's the worst speaker I've met so far here. On top of fluent Swedish and Turkish. Greece? Spain? Romania? Even Germany! Most people speak English, and often a third language. This is unique to France and it's not something we can be proud of.
- 11y ago