MAIL ONLINE: A former Foreign Office minister has branded French a 'useless' modern language.
Chris Bryant, now a shadow Foreign Office minister, told the Commons other languages - such as Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic - were more important.
'Unless we have sufficient numbers of people who speak modern foreign languages - and not just the useless modern foreign languages like French ...,' the Labour MP said.
Amid Tory protests that this was 'insulting' to the French, Mr Bryant, who was minister for the EU before Labour lost power, said: 'I've said this to the French. I think they realise there are problems.'
He defended his remark, insisting that while French had been the 'most useful language to use because it was the diplomatic language', things had changed over the last 30 to 40 years and now 'it certainly isn't.'
He said the most significant languages to speak now, aside from English, were Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Tuesday, June 15, 2010
One could be forgiven for concluding that this man is a philistine! – Mark
