The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports that English has become Europe's second language - that is, the main "foreign" language taught throughout those parts of Europe where it is not the first language. The article concludes with the following sensible notion, which will drive the French crazy:
Last month, Pascal Smet, a Flemish-speaking Belgian politician outraged his country's French speaking community by calling for English to become Europe's "common language".
"I note that the engine of European integration is sputtering. One reason is that we do not speak the same tongue, hence my plea for a common European language," he said. "It seems logical to me that this is English, which is already the lingua franca of international economics and politics. French is not spoken anywhere in the world while English is now increasingly becoming a global language."Smet exaggerates slightly; there are substantial parts of sub-Saharan Africa which speak French in addition to the tribal languages. On the other hand, he forgets to add that virtually all scientific journals are written in English, regardless of where printed.
