In
the fugue of tongues on New York’s streets, French has never been a
dominant voice. And as surging numbers of Asian and Latino immigrants
continue to tip the balance of foreign languages toward Chinese and
Spanish, the idea of learning French, to some, may seem kind of quaint,
even anachronistic.Yet
in the city’s public school system, the French dual-language program,
in which half the classes are in French and the other half in English,
is booming.
Now more than half a century ago after my Latin and Greek I spent four years learning French. One had to since we were taught by the French Christian Brothers. But has French been of any use? Well I had to translate several papers for my Doctorate, but that was harder than I thought since several were from the early 1900s and they were a bit arcane. Then I spent a great amount of time in France and as long as I was not in Paris things went well. In Paris my non-Parisian accent was instantly noticed and the Parisians switched to English so as to let me know of their dissatisfaction.
Now the two main languages seem to be Mandarin and Spanish. Frankly any New Yorker should just pick up Spanish as a second language on the subway alone, the signs are all in Spanish and half the conversations are as well. It is almost by osmosis that one gets to feel comfortable with it.
Recently I remarked that my grandchildren are learning Mandarin whereas I learned Russian back in the 50s and 60s. My Mandarin speaking listener immediately asked if I was a "spy". "No", I replied and continued to explain that in that period much of the technical literature in my area was in Russian. In fact if I recall I may have been one of the last MIT PhDs to have to have some modicum of language proficiency, mine, for what it was worth, was Russian.
So what is the worth of French? Almost everyone knows English, and English can be mangled totally and still be a manageable means of communications. Just speak to any New York Cab Driver, almost all of whom have some other language as their native tongue. English has so much flexibility, assuming you do further mangle it with an accent as with the Brits, and it can be understood.
I cannot say about Mandarin, but Russian is also manageable, and Italian, well, just learn to stress all vowels and wave your hands and you too are from some part of Italy, love the language.
But French, one cannot make a mistake in syntax, form, or any part of the language, it grates the ear and mind. French has unalterable structure and is devoid of slang. You must say what you intend the way it is supposed to be said, and moreover you must remember the syllable to be stressed. So what its the value of French? Well you can read some of the worlds greatest novels, philosophers, political thinkers, poets, and the like, they are wonderful in French. In Normandy and Savoy they will listen to your attempts to pronounce it properly and are forgiving. But abandon all hope of ye who enter Paris!
So what is the best languages to teach in New York? It seems that Latin and Greek have seen better days. But Spanish and Mandarin can be fund on any street corner. The key to learning a language is the ability to integrate it to one's visual response. Russian finally made it when I could walk around Moscow and not translate words, just look at the Cyrillic collection and recognize apples, milk, bread, etc. New York presents that in Mandarin and Spanish, unfortunately not much if any French!
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