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Week 33, 2004
THE REGULARS: Summary
A) Song of
the week: ON HOLIDAY
B) Le texte plus abordable
de la semaine/Kidzworld: The Queen Mum [Feu la Reine Mère]
C) CNN/Global Office: Jim Camp's
top negotiating tips [Astuces pour aider les Américains à
négocier avec les étrangers.]
D) The New York Times/The Ethicist: ON
HOLIDAY
E) Slate/Dear
Prudence: ON HOLIDAY
F) Washington
Post/Miss Manners: ON HOLIDAY
G) Audio feature: ON HOLIDAY
THIS WEEK'S TEXTS: Summary
1) The Boston Globe: France gives critical look at its falling influence [La crise de confiance de la France va jusqu'à se faire honte à fréquenter Starbucks.]
2) The Economist: After Babel, a new common tongue [La position de la langue anglaise dans l'Union européenne élargie.
THE REGULARS
A) Song of the week: ON HOLIDAY!
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B) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Kidzworld:
The Queen Mum [Feu la Reine Mère]
http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1979.htm
History - The Queen Mum
August 4, 1900 - March 30, 2002
I'm sure you all know that the Queen Mum passed away in 2002 but maybe you don't know why she is so beloved by England and the rest of the world. Take a look at who the Queen Mum really was and what she did in her 101 years.
The Queen Mum - Before She Was Queen
She was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon in Scotland on August
4, 1900, and was the ninth of ten kids in her family. She was a commoner,
which means she had no royal blood at all. When she was only 14, World
War I broke out and Elizabeth was forced to quit school and go back home
to nurse the wounded soldiers.
The Queen Mum - Marriage to a Prince
It took three marriage proposals
The Queen Mother
The Queen Mum
but Elizabeth finally agreed to marry Prince Albert on April 26, 1923.
They then became the Duke and Duchess of York. Elizabeth and Albert had
two children, Elizabeth (who is the Queen of England today) and Margaret.
In December of 1936, Albert's dad, King George V, died. Albert's brother
Edward was supposed to become king, but declined the position of king
so he could marry the woman he loved (who was a divorced American - a
big no-no in royal circles at the time). That meant that Prince Albert
(who chose to be known as King George VI) became the king on May 12, 1937
and Elizabeth became his queen.
Her Time As Queen
King George VI was a shy public figure who had a stutter. It was his wife
that captured the public's eye and who helped him through his 15 years
as king. When World War
Queen Elizabeth I
Queen Mum and Prince Charles
II was declared in 1940, Elizabeth stuck by her husband's side, even when
Buckingham Palace was bombed. She was urged to flee to Canada with her
two daughters, but she refused to leave her subjects and her husband.
The Queen Mum's Role
In 1952, King George VI died, making Elizabeth a widow when she was only
52. Her daughter Elizabeth was quickly crowned queen at the age of 26.
Despite having just lost her husband, Elizabeth was quick to support her
daughter, making public appearances with her and tending to the young
queen's children. It wasn't long before the press adopted the catch phrase
"the Queen Mum" to describe Elizabeth Sr. She was never the
subject of ridicule in the tabloids, unlike so many other members of the
royal family. And just like the attention the young princes seem to get
today, flocks of people would turn out to catch a glimpse of her in public.
She was a strong woman who seemed to glow with love and kindness. She
was a grandmother figure to the world, and she played the part better
than anyone else ever could.
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C) CNN/Global Office: Jim Camp's top negotiating
tips [Astuces pour aider les Américains à négocier
avec les étrangers.]
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/07/29/jim.camp/index.html
Jim Camp's top negotiating tips
American author and negotiating coach Jim Camp recommends that Americans who deal with overseas people who express an anti-U.S. feeling, should apply the following 10 rules to business deals.
1. You don't need foreign policies. Negotiate an outcome that is beneficial for your side, as will your respected opponent. Bring this to the table. Period.
2. Don't waste your time on cross-cultural training. All human beings understand respectful behavior, intelligent questions, and genuine interest. You already speak the same "language".
3. Don't react. The key to decision-based negotiating, as opposed to emotion-based negotiating, is emotional neutrality. If your opponent hates or mistrusts you from the start, let him.
4. Don't try to make your opponent like you. If you spend even one moment worrying about whether he or she likes you, approves of you, or wants to be friends, you are on your way to blowing the deal. Keep all emotions out of the room. This is business.
5. Don't offer a compromise at the start. Once you do this, you signal to your opponent that you're ready to give something up in order to get to an agreement. Trying to make both sides happy is an emotion-based decision-the basic flaw with win-win negotiating.
6. Don't think about closing the deal. Despite everything you learned in business school, hoping or planning for the outcome is a deal killer. Stay grounded in the present moment and what your opponent says and does next.
7. The greater his emotion, the greater your opportunity. If your opponent speaks through accusations or veiled insults, you are in a perfect position to demonstrate reason, calmness, and mastery of the issues. If you have a superiority complex, you become an ideal opponent. Let them feel in control; stay focused on your position and expertise.
8. Talk little; ask questions and listen. Pose interrogative-led questions (who, what, when, where, ! why, how) to get him to reveal hidden agendas and positions. Take notes; observe; keep your mouth shut.
9. Respect is always earned. In systematic decision-based negotiating, every decision is based on information disclosed right at the table. Once he sees that you are listening and asking insightful questions, he will regard you as an individual, not as an ugly American.
10. Stay focused on your mission and purpose. In
every successful negotiation, set your M&P in your opponent's world,
not in your own. Focus on how you can help him realize that offering XYZ
to you will be beneficial to him.
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D) The New York Times/The Ethicist: ON HOLIDAY
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E) Slate/Dear
Prudence: ON HOLIDAY
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F) Washington Post/Miss Manners: ON HOLIDAY
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G) Audio feature/WNYC On the Media: ON HOLIDAY
THIS WEEK'S TEXTS
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1) The Boston Globe: France gives critical look
at its falling influence [La crise de confiance de la France va jusqu'à
se faire honte à fréquenter Starbucks.]
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/08/03/france_gives_critical_look_at_its_falling_influence/
France gives critical look at its falling influence
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff | August 3, 2004
PARIS -- Since at least the 19th century, the French have heard much talk about their decline. Of course, the French have never believed it. "Pas du tout! (Not at all!)" they might exclaim with a trademark shrug of the shoulders.
But these days, judging by several best-selling books in France and the tone of a self-effacing discourse on national radio and television and in newspapers, the country has begun to again broach the subject of its own decline. The discussion touches on the loss of influence in the spheres of politics, economics, art, film, diplomacy, and even language.
Even topics once considered sacred are now on the
table: Candid appraisals among French specialists indicate that the country's
wines are slipping in comparison to what the French have always derisively
termed New World vintages from such places as California and Australia.
This broad recognition of a collective sense of falling has occurred under
the harsh light of a country exposing its own contradictions and self-deceptions.
There is agreement these days that a national rigidity and an aversion
to risk have stunted France's development.
Nicolas Baverez, a Paris lawyer, was a largely unknown classical historian until last year when his first book, a treatise titled "The Decline of France," surprised the publishing industry by becoming a bestseller. A year later, it is still selling strong in paperback, as are several other books with similar titles like "France in Free Fall" or "French Arrogance." Baverez says France is struggling with "its sense of itself." "There is a huge gap between the elite and aging political class and the society it represents, a huge gap between the rhetorical exertion of power and the real means of military and economic power," he said in an interview in his office. But for Baverez, this sensation of falling is most strongly felt in the economy. "The French economy is static relative to those around it, especially Spain and Ireland and the UK," he said. "The GDP in these countries is growing, unemployment is steadily diminishing. But France is stuck at the same levels."
Danielle Brunon, who lives in Paris, is an observer of French culture. Half American and half French, she founded a firm that helps French businesses interpret and gain access to American markets. "The French are stuck, and there is a collective discussion about this on a lot of levels," she said. "The French are aware that they need to find a new energy. They take satisfaction in believing that the American model is wrong, or at least flawed, and that their new energy may be to define themselves against America."
If that new energy is in play, it was not evident in the basement of a building along the Champs Elysees, with its grand fin de sicle architecture, where a McDonald's franchise packs them in every day at lunchtime. France is the fast-food chain's best-performing European subsidiary in terms of operating income per outlet and is in the global vanguard of designing restaurants and launching products, the company reported to the Financial Times this year. There are more than 1,200 McDonald's outlets in France, with the country representing 10 percent of all new openings worldwide. The customers under the golden arches on the Champs Elysees on a recent day were mostly in their 20s and 30s. Many said that they came because they had no time for a traditional, long French lunch and that there were few other choices for a quick bite.
Such reasoning is seen by many French as an erosion of the treasured and time-honored lunch break, yet another source of anxiety for those who feel French culture collapsing under the weight of globalization. Alexander Felicite, 24, who works in retail marketing for luxury handbags, said he comes because he has little time in a busy day to stop for a long lunch, but he had more than enough time to reflect on the discussion of France's decline. "I would say it is not that France is in decline; it is that it has stagnated during a rise of globalization," he said. "There is a feeling that all of the action culturally and economically and politically is happening around us, but not within France. "I don't think the French like that feeling," he said, gobbling his fries and asking, "Is it true you call them 'freedom fries' now?"
The most frustrating aspect appears to be the waning influence of the French language. The French obsess about this and seem offended that the de facto official language in the European Union is clearly English. A European Commission report found that 83 percent of its officials and staff speak English and only 24 percent speak French. The French have reacted defensively. In May, the National Assembly issued a resolution on preserving the use of French in EU institutions, urging the body to pump millions of dollars into French lessons for officials and staff. "They seek to protect their language, and a protected language, a museum language, is a dead language," Baverez said. He said this "defensive approach" in preserving the language reflects a core problem in France, its rigidity and adherence to the status quo.
He added that France is reacting similarly to the ascendancy of American culture and its indomitable spirit of free enterprise -- from the Internet to Wal-Mart. "France recognizes that it never adapted to the forces of the New World, and so its reaction is to stand in opposition to the embodiment of the new change, which is McDonald's and Starbucks and Hollywood and the dominance of the English language," he said.
In Paris, where the clich image is that of a literary set gathering over Pernod to loathe globalization and its American antecedents, one of the most depressing signs of cultural defeat to many is the presence of Starbucks. The coffee chain has opened three stores in Paris and has ambitious plans for a dozen or so more. The grand old cafs full of smoke and heated discussion may have attracted writers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Voltaire, but Starbucks has the Frappuccino and the well-packaged compact disc music that sets the mood in each store with all the precision of a climate-control device.
At the new Paris Starbucks near the Opera metro stop, French people approached for an interview seemed ashamed on some deep level to be there, or at a minimum felt the need to explain themselves. "This is the first time I have been here," said Sandrine Regard, 36, who was lingering over a grande caf latte on her way to a job interview. When asked whether she felt France was somehow in decline, she replied: "Absolutely not. I don't accept that."
Others were more reflective. Julian Husson, 35, said, "We would have to admit we are a long way from the Belle Epoch," the period of high artistic and cultural achievement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "We feel like we have come to a close. "France is searching these days, and I think it knows that it can shine and exert itself within Europe," he said. "It doesn't want to look to America. In fact, it wants to look away from America. That way, I think, France believes it will lose that feeling like it is falling."
^RETURN TO TOP^
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2) The Economist: After Babel, a new common tongue [La position de la
langue anglaise dans l'Union européenne élargie.]
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3064790
The European Union: After Babel, a new common tongue
Aug 5th 2004 | RIGA
It turns out to be English
IN THE 17th century, educated people across central Europe could still communicate with each other in Latin. By the mid-19th century, the handiest language for a traveller through Mitteleuropa was the German spoken by the Habsburg monarchs who reigned over Hungarians, Czechs and many others. A little more than 100 years later, the dominant tongue was Russian.
Now the region's new language of choice for the 21st century is percolating
upwards through the education system, and downwards from the business
and political elite. It will be English, studied by three out of four
secondary-school pupils from the Baltic to the Balkans.
Most central European countries have just joined, or are waiting to join,
the European Union, and their accession is already reinforcing the dominance
of English as a language for the EU as a whole. In central Europe, as
in much of the world, knowledge of English has become a basic skill of
modern life comparable with the ability to drive a car or use a personal
computer.
What has happened to the other main languages? A majority of central Europeans have eschewed Russian as firmly as they have rejected the communist ideology which was once articulated in that tongue. Russian remains the second-most-studied foreign language in the Baltic countries, where there are large minorities of native Russian speakers and a thriving Russophone culture with them. But in Poland and Slovakia it has fallen to third place, and in Hungarian and Czech schools it is scarcely studied at all. That said, Russian still serves as a common language among older central Europeans schooled in communist times—including, ironically, the politicians whose generation helped drive out communism. Their arrival in the European Parliament has brought the sound of Russian small-talk into its corridors and tea-rooms.
The limited enthusiasm for German in central Europe has been much more surprising. Even in the communist era, it was taught at least as widely as English, being the language of a “fraternal” country, East Germany. In the post-communist era, Germany has been central Europe's biggest export market, and a huge investor in the region. Yet only in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia does the proportion of secondary-school pupils studying German come anywhere close to the proportion studying English; and nowhere in the region is German the top choice.
German has languished partly because Germany has been shy about promoting its language and culture in a region ravaged by Hitler's war. No such shyness has affected France. Its cultural diplomacy in the region has been vigorous and generous. Handsome French cultural centres ornament the capitals of the region: the newest of them will open in Riga, the Latvian capital, in October. But admiration for France's culture does not translate into widespread use of its language. Only in Romania—whose own vernacular is of Latin origin—does it exceed English in popularity.
The choice of English has been made easier by the demands of foreign investors. The first to move east were the most international European companies, which tended to use English as their international working language regardless of their base. The biggest foreign direct investor within central Europe for most of the past decade, Siemens AG of Germany, an engineering and telecoms firm, made English its main “corporate language” in 1998. “German companies are very pragmatic,” confirms Bernhard Welschke, head of European policy at the Federation of German Industry. They value a single language for business, he says, even if it is not their own.
If there is one German sector which begs to differ, it may be the entertainment industry, whose exports are limited by the international preference for English-language products. About 200m music CDs are sold each year within Germany, for example; but the country's most successful international act, Rammstein, a heavy-metal group, has sold only 6m CDs outside Germany in its ten-year history. “We are being left behind,” complains Björn Akstinat, director of the German Music Export Office, an industry association. He believes central Europe could be a growth market for German culture, and that the German government should try harder in its cultural diplomacy. Even now some non-Teutonic bands sing in German, says Mr Akstinat, pointing to Ich Troje, which represented Poland in last year's Eurovision song contest.
The rise of English as a lingua franca will not necessarily do much to
diminish arguments over national languages within or between countries,
in places like the Balkans or the Baltic states. Such arguments tend to
be about the division of political power between rival communities, rather
than about language as such. It may, on the other hand, have a big impact
on the institutions of the European Union, and even on European integration.
The EU recognises an official language for every country, and translates
all main public documents into all 20 of those languages. But civil servants
and committees within the EU's institutions use three main working languages:
English, French and German. French has long been fighting a losing battle
against English for “market share” among the three, with German
far behind. The arrival of more countries favouring English will threaten
to render French almost as marginal as German.
Among the Balts, Russian resists
An increased use of English within the EU institutions will mean an increased use of it in the ministries of member states, where officials spend much of their time working on EU-related matters. Jean-François Deniau, of the Académie Française, a linguistic watchdog, told Le Figaro newspaper that English had conquered even the treasury directorate of the French finance ministry, which he called “the heart, the bastion, the stronghold of French power”. It now circulates drafts of new regulations in English “because they will be discussed in English in Brussels”.
One big question now is whether the generalised use of English as a first or second language will accelerate the political integration of the EU. The spread of English will lower the language barrier which has, arguably, obstructed pan-European political debate. It will open the way to the formation of pan-European public opinion, and to politicians with pan-European appeal. But there have been empires, like the Soviet one, which had common languages and still fell apart. A language can help a good political system work better, but it cannot rescue a bad one.