Foreign languages and French culture, an impossible relationship?

The "unilingual" French culture, which favours the exclusive use of the French language dates back to the Enlightenment, to the universailty of ideas conveyed by the spread of French culture. French was once the international language of diplomacy and was univerally spoken, much like Engliash today. But we live in a changing world. This painful relegation of the French language makes us reconsider its relationship with other languages, both foreign and regional.

Language is a fundamental part of a culture, but it is only one element. We learn and discover the world through our mother tongue : each language brings its own vision of the world. But culture goes further than that, it is not reduced to its language, and often it outlasts the language.

But is it possible to learn a language without absorbing its culture?

There are two approaches to language learning: communicational and cultural. But it is wrong to say they are opposites. The problem in France is that we oscillate from one extreme to the other, never seeking to reconcile the two. For example, a cultural approach is favoured in the teaching of Spanish. It's all very well that pupils can express abstract literary ideas, but they have very little practical vocabulary. Inversely, the teaching of English has more often used the communicational approach.

At present, the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is trying to combine the two approaches in its methods of evaluating linguistic skill, however it omits the historical depths of "civilisation".

Extracted from this article: http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/langues-etrangeres-et-culture-francaise-l-impossible-relation_1314753.html

Translated by: Polyglottes Formations