Quote:
Originally Posted by 1overcosc
Isn't French in Lebanon more or less dying off? I thought they pretty much all just speak Arabic with some ESL now.
|
It's certainly challenged by English big time but it's still got a lot of kick left in it. Quite a few more people speak it as a first or second language than English, it's a main teaching language in the majority of the country's schools and book and newspaper sales are higher for French than English publications.
French vs. English more or less follows the religious groups. Most of the Christian population has always been heavily oriented towards French and French religious orders (or organizations descended from them) actually run many of the Christian community's schools in the country. Often the main teaching language there is French. It's not just a second language.
The main exception being the Greek Orthodox religious group which had French historically but has turned away from it a bit more in recent years.
The Muslim population learned French historically because the French and their Christian allies dominated the country for a time, but they've also moved away from French.
It's not at all like French in Vietnam, if that's an example that people have in mind.