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[riontel]

Nothing irritates the French cultural elite so much as the fact that, because of American economic hegemony after the Second World War, English became the dominant world language. The lingua franca, as it is called, as if to add insult to injury. It is a source of constant pain to the educated French that, but for a couple of unlucky results in the battles of the late eighteenth century, the United States would have been known as L'Etats-Unis, McDonald's would be selling Grands Macs and Rock 'n' Roll would be known as Rocher et Petit Pain. It is an understandable gripe for which Quebec and New Caledonia are no consolation at all.

Ben Elton, "This Other Eden"