Enforcing French

At the risk of commenting on something about which I know little, I have to say that it strikes me as absurd and perhaps a bit sad the way that French, language and culture of, have degraded to the point that they need to be enforced by fiat.

This first struck me when I did some work in Canada some years ago because you can get into some serious trouble in parts of Canada if you don't provide French versions of everything.

Here's the question -- isn't the fact that they feel they have to have laws to strictly enforce the use of French a confession that it has so little appeal that it can't stand on its own?

Those things that have to be enforced by such laws are, it seems to me, on the way out -- and no one around is smart enough to come up with a better solution than saying "if you don't play my way, I'm gonna hit you!"

Later, I got the impression that similar laws exist in France. And I just read an article in the Post about riots in the streets in France over a suggestion that employers ought to be given a little more freedom to decide who they hire and to whom they provide lavish benefits.

I love Paris. I like the French language. I love the museums in Paris. I just wonder why someone seems to be so uncertain of the value of the French culture that they must enforce it by law.

Given human nature, I am quite certain that such enforcement will only serve to hasten the deterioration and loss of French culture the laws ostensibly intend to preserve.

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