Country profile - France by Felipe Martins Matos
“To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions,
Let’s march, let’s march!
So that the impure blood
Should water the furrows of our fields.”
This motto could metaphorically be used to urge the uprising people of Syria, the Spanish who occupied every central square of their country on the May 15th, the thousands of Egyptians who fought against their dictator or any other revolution lead by the people against any sort of injustice. This is the chorus of the La Marsellaise, the French anthem which, more than any other, express its people's way of thinking.
On the August 9th, the day I started my journey to the European second largest economy, the streets were getting uneasy in England because of the riots. And, whereas the whole world, at least the newspapers, were pointing out the violence and damage caused by those people, all the French I talked to mentioned how selfish those people were being. No doubt, they were selfish, but to think of that while they were trying to destroy and let a whole country down, made me realize that the French had something to teach me.
First of all, think of all the rights you have in your country nowadays: to express yourself, to vote, to protest or entitlements. They were all idealized by people who thought of their country’s well-being prior to theirs. I’m not saying that France is the quintessence, but their ability and willingness to literally fight, since the French Revolution in 1779, for their rights has to be acknowledged and respected by the world.
That’s what made them a great country in the century after that Revolution and, thus, made their language and culture the most wanted in the world. Just out of curiosity, if we were living back in the 19th century, we would have to be studying French, instead of English, as a global language. And, instead of the USA, that would be the place drawing the brains from around the world.
Nevertheless, the following century wasn’t good for the French, having to share such an important role with the UK and, afterwards, losing it for the USA was hard to digest. Then, in order to prove the world wrong, they tried to preserve their own culture and language, by enclosing themselves and rejecting any kind of foreign trend. And, in response, the world called them arrogant, rude, unwilling and stinky!
Well, currently, France is a country open to whoever wants to visit them and all those stories of mistreated English-speakers seemed outdated. Maybe that’s why it is the most visited country in the world, with almost seventy seven million tourists last year.
Everybody should try France, at least, once, their eventful cities and warm Mediterranean waters can arouse passion in everybody! And don’t worry about them cutting your head off in order to “water the furrows of their fields” if you speak English with them, that’s in the past and they will receive you with open arms.