I think the long French quote is okay because this is a primarily cultural matter, and if it evokes interest in Edith Piaf, well, there are other resources one can find through Google. The quote would not be as good in translation.

I used a short French quote in the “spationaute” post, but not being able to read it doesn’t take that much away from the post. The last time I used a long quote from Le Monde, I put it up in both languages. Being confronted with language in which you have little or incomeplete knowledge is simply a part of life here.

That’s my policy, but I don’t speak for the rest of the blog. I’ll see if I can rig a Babelfish link for each post. It should be doable. Don’t hold your breath for good machine translation - trust me on that.

Nimen yao fan’er wo yong Hanyu ma?

France, for all its manifest merits, has worked hard to earn a reputation for arrogance in linguistic matters, a reputation that is likely to persist long after any change in tactics.

I’m with Edward on the importance on making an effort. I make mine in German, Polish and, to a much lesser extent, Hungarian. C’est bon?

I remember reading some small book that claimed that Europe — which is not the same as the EU — would have done a lot better had the British won the French in their medieval wars. I tend to agree, if only in part.

Automated traslation is still in its infancy, still it can be quite usefull, after all a journal like El Peri?dico has a simultaneous edition in both Spanish and Catalan, everyday. And that includes their web.

DSW

I can’t help wondering whether the quote cited by Edward would have provoked such snarkiness if it had been written in, say, Dutch or Italian (or, for that matter, Latvian or Maltese).

http://translation2.paralink.com/

(Of course machine translation is very imperfect, and this is a rather difficult text, but still). The point I was trying to make is that we in the EU are a community, and a community needs tolerance and respect, something which I sometimes feel lacking in some of the comments made about the French. They have a beautiful language. Even someone as German as Nietzsche spent a good deal of time regretting the fact he couldn’t write in French.

We need English to communicate, but we native English speakers should try to appreciate the fact that we have it easy, and everyone else is making an effort. The issue I suppose I am raising is whether this is a blog for English speakers about Europe, or a real attempt at a European blog. It’s an issue which came up in a previous post from Scott about Brussels. I personally hope it is the latter, and in this case we need little linguistic ‘flexibility’.

In fact, you don’t have to be able to understand a language to appreciate it. Marsillio Ficino got interested in Greek philosophy a long time before he knew any Greek. He stillhad the Plato manuscripts on his desk, and used to pick them up from time to time. It made him feel good.

Having said all this, the French case is - as usual - a rather special one since their politicians - in the name of the Republic - all too often impose the French language at the expense of France’s own minority languages.

BTW just to let everyone in on the act. Antoni Jaume posted in Catalan, one of Europe’s many ’stateless languages’. He is complaining about the ’speaking and nobody understanding’ bit. This seems to be saying that five sixths of humanity don’t exist. As I said, English may need to be the language of the community, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ALL make a bit of an effort.

(Theoretically speaking, of course; as a practical measure, I certainly understand not wanting to translate for a blog posting.)

Antoni, is that Catalan?

DSW

Still, I do agree that a translation would have been nice.