English language causes problems for French businesses

Anthony Butcher · 24-11-2004, 04:40 AM

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...371665,00.html

Quote:

FRANCE’S rearguard struggle against the English language moved to the courts yesterday when technicians at a division of the General Electric company claimed that they were illegally being forced to use English.

The employees at General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS) told the Versailles county court that the multinational company’s policy of using English-only manuals and promoting English in the workplace breached France’s “Toubon” law.

Named after the Minister of Culture of the time and widely ignored since, this 1994 law requires foreign expressions to be translated INTO phpbb_French in the workplace, on commercial products and in advertising.

mkpdavies · 24-11-2004, 05:05 AM

So they want GE to pay out a load of money to translate all their manuals INTO phpbb_every language in the world, as to not upset the poor little lambs in France. If I were GE I would move all operations over to the UK, who will happily use manuals written in American

Mind I am surprised a global company such as GE don't have multi-language manuals. If you work of an American company, then you have to expect to speak in English when dealing with them. Don't take the job if you can't speak the lingo or don't want to.

I have seen jobs for French companies that require the employee to be able to speak French, so I just accept I am not qualified and look elsewhere. Get over it France.

24-11-2004, 05:05 AM	#2 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 30,615	So they want GE to pay out a load of money to translate all their manuals INTO phpbb_every language in the world, as to not upset the poor little lambs in France. If I were GE I would move all operations over to the UK, who will happily use manuals written in American Mind I am surprised a global company such as GE don't have multi-language manuals. If you work of an American company, then you have to expect to speak in English when dealing with them. Don't take the job if you can't speak the lingo or don't want to. I have seen jobs for French companies that require the employee to be able to speak French, so I just accept I am not qualified and look elsewhere. Get over it France. __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

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