doukdouk

I wager that the French were less concerned with whatever happened in Russia, and much more with what happened in France:

>Most of the war's major battles occurred in France and the French countryside was heavily scarred in the fighting. Furthermore, in 1918 during the German retreat, German troops devastated France's most industrialized region in the north-east (Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin). Extensive looting took place as German forces removed whatever material they could use and destroyed the rest. Hundreds of mines were destroyed along with railways, bridges, and entire villages. Prime Minister of France Georges Clemenceau was determined, for these reasons, that any just peace required Germany to pay reparations for the damage it had caused. [0, emphasis mine]

Germany went above and beyond what was necessary for military purposes to cause damages to French industry. It is really not hard to see how "they destroyed our factory, they should pay to rebuild it" would have been a common train of thought.

If say, Japan had occupied part of the continental US in WWII and once it started to retreat its troops, it set California ablaze and reduced it to rubbles --- how many Americans would think "the Japanese should pay for the rebuilding of California" vs "Sure California was set ablaze, but don't you think making them pay back would be a little harsh on them?"? how many Californians?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_reparations#Backgr...

It is not:

> ISO gives this explanation of the name: "Because 'International Organization for Standardization' would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek isos, meaning equal. Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of our name is always ISO."[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for...

So carbon tax + redistribution towards the poorest (e.g. with the income of said carbon tax). This is not a problem that is technically complicated to solve.

Most of them are not in use, or quite a few are joke translations rather than something that makes sense.

I think this aspect is quite underestimated:

> They start to have "managers", not "chefs", etc.... they "recommand", they no longer order.

Swapping English words for French words allow the word-swapper to soften a lot of things.

Having a _chef_ puts the hierarchical aspect first and foremost. There is the _chef_, and there are the subordinates. You might have a _patron_, but then there's a whole baggage of social conflicts between employees and _patrons_. The _patron_ definitely is not part of your circle. But having, say a _boss_ or a _manager_ or _leader_ is much softer.

Speaking of which, how do you translate "management" or "to manage"? If you choose "gestion" you have strong bean-counting implications, and if you choose "commander" you have, again you get military/hierarchical connotations. But "management" is (or perhaps was) devoid of such connotations.

A _crédit revolving_ does not sound scary - no idea what revolving means, something to do with a gun perhaps? But a _crédit permanent_ is super scary - you are going to be indebted forever and ever!

It is though [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Strasbourg%E2%80%93Kehl_s...

For NATO/OTAN, its official languages are French and English. OTAN is not a translation - it is one of the two official names of the organization. Would be weird to specifically choose the English one.

More than French influence abroad, I think a lot of people do not like "poor English", for lack of a better term, replacing French in vernacular French. It seems to me that for most people, it's more about vernacular French becoming less fancy (random English words being sprinkled are a symptom, not the cause) than something specific about English, or French influence abroad.

Random examples:

- use of the word "digital" in the English meaning (number-related) when it already has a French meaning (finger-related, eg empreinte digitale - fingerprint) when there was alread a word for it - numérique.

- random English words to sound cool. The French Post Office launched an online-only bank called "Ma French Bank".

- English but with French words, i.e. using English sentences / idioms but in French. For instance, in French, you would say that something has or does not has meaning (ça n'a pas de sens !) but not that it makes or does not makes sense. Well, expect that now people took the English idiom and use it with French words - ça fait sens.

I think (but it is only my own opinion not backed by any kind of data) that there would be way less backlash if there was greater fluency and use of literate English rather than a poor use of globish.

People do not think watching a film in its original English version is bad.

But replacing _Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre_ by _Air France, France is in the air_ sounds super lame.

Ordinateur is a very common word though.

How often do English speakers use non-English-based acronyms?

I see USSR much more often CCCP, HIV more often than VIH...

Note that this is unusual in that it lasts four years, not three.

Standard curriculum is three years of bachelor's, then two years of master's.

In the prépa - engineering school track, it is two years of prépa, then three years of engineering school that gives out a master's in engineering.

Thus the first year of engineering school maps to a (third) last year of undergrad, the second to a first year of a master's and the last to the last year of a master's.

Is it specific to schools or is it common to have many rooms in buildings without windows?

It 's "not having windows in the US" part that is surprising, not the "having windows in Germany".

Surely energy input is the right metric. If I use a gallon of gas to power a life-saving ambulance or if I burn it just for fun, those two actions should have the same importance.

Do you have any of those photos? I find it hard to believe.

The "undergrad Year 1 at École Polytechnique" is really the junior year, since the freshman/sophomore years of university education would have be done in prépas. It is undergrad, and it would be their first year at the school, but it is quite misleading to call it "undergrad Year 1". Given that undergrad is three years in France, "undergrad Year 1 at École Polytechnique" means "last year of undergrad".

No, but being "anti cars" is still extremely controversial, see for instance the "Yellow Vests" in France.

Given that animal grieve and mourn their dead [0], cows have best friends [1], or many species of animals play [2], among many other things, assuming that cavemen lives is only "culinary" and "carnal" pleasure means humans not long ago ("cavemen") had internal lives far, far simpler than what many animal species experience.

[0] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/do-animals-exp...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/07/cows-b...

[2] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/games_animals_...

Can mathematics be a subject of scientific study? Should axioms and proofs be replaced by empirical evidence?