« The Little Things in Life | Main | Language comparison »
October 28, 2008
Francophonie retreats - Rwanda officially turns to English
In another blow to the language of love, the Rwandan government has decided to change instruction in schools from French to English.All government employees are now required to learn English, and everyone here from lawmakers to taxi drivers to students to businesspeople seems to believe that the usefulness of French, introduced by Belgian colonizers, is coming to an end.
"When you look at the French-speaking countries -- it's really just France, and a small part of Belgium and a small part of Switzerland," Theoneste Mutsindashyaka, Rwanda's state minister for education, said in English. "Most countries worldwide, they speak English. Even in China, they speak English. Even Belgium, if you go to the Flemish areas, they speak English, not French."
. . .
As a minor bonus, Mutsindashyaka -- who is in charge of rolling out the English-language curriculum for 2.6 million students and 50,000 teachers -- said he was happily surprised to find that English textbooks are far cheaper than French ones. A fourth-grade English math book costs 70 cents, for instance, compared with $4 for the French version.
Economies of scale, I guess.
Further: I thought I'd google around on the issue and found this blog: The Worldwide Decline of French, whose tagline describes it thus: "This is the only web log to specialize in the declining use of the French language, both globally and within France itself. We use recent and less recent web articles, blog entries and books written in French, English, German and other languages to document the failure of costly Francophonie policies in- and outside France."
Here's the Unfrench Frenchman on Rwanda.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 28, 2008 3:28 PM
Comments
The French will be going completely bananas over this. The issue of whether or not Rwanda is Francophone has very strong political and cultural undercurrents, both in France and within Rwanda itself.
I hope the move is popular at the grassroots level because if it isn't it could (intentionally or not) bring some ethnic tension with it. Traditionally the Tutsi tend to be far more likely to be English speakers than the Hutu.
Posted by: Anthony at October 28, 2008 7:21 PM
Hi,
Check out my blog on this topic: Rwanda Ditches French. I very much doubt the decision has grassroots support, or that the plan will necessarily work. Rwanda has bigger problems than French, and is a pretty poor country to be trying to create an entirely new educational system --which is what the plan amounts to.
Also, the French won't go bananas over this. Other members of the Francophonie might (although I attended the last Francophonie Summit and was surprised to hear very little discussion of the issue). The French will probably be indifferent, as they are, are, on the whole, not too interested in French speakers outside of France.
Posted by: julie Barlow at October 29, 2008 5:23 PM
"The French will probably be indifferent, as they are, are, on the whole, not too interested in French speakers outside of France."
Wrong, Julie. The French are quite indifferent to those people's cultures and countries, yet a lot of French, especially among the upper class, very much want those people they despise to speak French and are really angry when English displaces French in parts of the world they would never want to go to.
This is absurd, I know, but such is culture nationalism.
"I very much doubt the decision has grassroots support"
I am sure you cannot believe that the Rwandans are angry at the French. Why would they be? Genocide is not a big deal in Africa. Mitterrand can't be wrong, can he?
Posted by: Unfrench Frenchman at December 30, 2008 11:26 PM