No

by Rosetta Taylor

Created on: January 10, 2012

If the language skills of a nation were to be measured by the percentage of its population who speak a foreign language, the answer in the case of France would certainly be that, yes indeed, they do have better language skills than many other countries. The foreign language skills of the French, and the native speakers of many other nations, are born out of a necessity to be able to communicate in English, which is, for now, the world’s foremost international language. However, there are many ways of measuring language skills, and the ability to speak English as a foreign language is only one of them.

Consider, for example, the relative complexity of each of the world’s languages, and the difficulties each one poses for its own native speakers. Imagine being a child learning to speak Xhosa, the African ‘click’ language, for example, or Estonian, with its fourteen noun cases putting Latin’s six into the shade. The citizens of either of these countries might well be considered to have greater language skills than the general population of France, simply because they have mastered their native tongue.

Generalization is, in any case, a dangerous practice. Clearly a French professor of linguistics is very likely to have better language skills than a German hotel porter or even a US nuclear physicist. However, either of these latter two may well have acquired the ability to speak or read many languages in the course of both work and leisure. It would be much more revealing to examine the education system of various countries to find out whether foreign languages as well as the grammar of the native language are a standard part of the school curriculum. A detailed investigation might reveal the age at which formal study of native language grammar and foreign languages typically begins, how many languages are offered and the number of weekly hours and school years usually devoted to them. Only then would it be possible to truly say whether the general population of a single nation, such as France, is likely to have greater language skills.

Anecdotal evidence or personal observations about language skills are usually confined to the expertise demonstrated by individuals or a small group, who are not representative of the general population. The French people one is likely to encounter traveling outside their own country, for example, will probably have taken the trouble to learn another language because, unlike native English speakers, they do not expect that foreigners will be able to speak their own language. So they may appear to have greater language skills than either a stay-at-home or a linguistically arrogant English speaker. However, a French person on home ground is a different kettle of fish altogether, possibly declining any knowledge of foreign tongues until the visitor makes at least some attempt to communicate in French.

In spite of the attempts of eugenicists and racists of previous centuries, it has never been scientifically proven that any ethnic group within the species homo sapiens has greater intellectual ability than any other. In any case, as a result both of France’s colonial history and the more recent mobility of the world’s peoples, the population of France is multi-racial and multi-ethnic. If it is not possible to say that any single nation or race has a claim to greater intelligence, how much more difficult will it be to say that the people of France, or any other country, have something as specific as better language skills?

Language skills are not innate but are acquired through education. Educational standards and curricula, particularly with regard to the teaching of language, can vary greatly from country to country. Skill in language can refer to proficiency in one’s native tongue as well as to the ability to communicate in one or more foreign languages. Linguistic expertise is more easily observed and measured in individuals rather than in national groups. For all of these reasons it is virtually impossible to make any assumptions about the relative language skills of the French when compared with other nations, and it is more prudent to say that, no, the French do not have better language skills than other countries.

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