Mxsmanic wrote:

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) writes:

It's a skewed perspective with no basis in the reality of the world
today.

You're entitled to your opinion.

There are cases where non-German native executives would rather you
speak to them in German than English too.

For these executives, French was not their native language.

Same with the non-German native executives.


Extremely popular is meaningless. In the US, for example, which is the
most populous English speaking country in the world, high school
students are now learning Spanish at a rate almost 4 times that of
French.

Spanish has more practical value than French in the U.S., and it's easier to
learn, at least at lower levels and in terms of pronunciation.

In the UK too, learning French as a second language is seen as
less important than it used to be.

But they are still learning mostly French, aren't they?

Less than before, which reflects a European wide trend, where French at
higher level is 28% compared to German at 20%. That's the point. In any
case, you suggested that native english speakers learned French- the US
alone blows that 'statistic' out of the water. In Australia too,
Japanese has surpassed French as the most widely studied language.


--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Pres. Blair- May, 2007