Justice
How France Tries to Keep English Out of Public Life
France has a long history of using official institutions to protect the French language from outside influence. Still, English keeps working its way in.
Twenty-five years after France passed a law that mandates the exclusive use of French in most public contexts, the nation’s culture minister says the language must be energetically defended from English phrases that keep slipping in to daily life.
On Twitter and in radio interviews last week, French Minister of Culture Franck Riester complained that the French language is habitually “mistreated” and that his country must fight for its preservation. “Our daily lives would be so different without this simple demand—say things in French!,” he tweeted (in French) in honor of the 1994 Toubon law, which requires French to be used in official documents, broadcasts, advertisements, and elsewhere.