[Tlc] L-return of french

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Best,
justin

2007-1120 - dpa - Laos hosts francophone ministerial meeting

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1374943.php/Laos_hosts_francophone_ministerial_meeting

>From Monsters and Critics.com

Europe News
Laos hosts francophone ministerial meeting
By DPA
Nov 20, 2007, 5:43 GMT

Bangkok - Communist Laos, a former French colony, played host
Tuesday at the opening of the 23rd francophone ministerial
meeting, drawing delegates from 68 French-speaking countries
to Vientiane.

'For the past three decades, the francophone organization has
been dedicated to the cause of peace and mutual cooperation in
the world,' said Lao President Choummali Saignason in his
opening speech at the two-day meeting.

The main task of the meeting, which has attracted delegates
from 55 French-speaking countries and 13 observer states of
the International Francophonie Organization, is to prepare for
the group's summit next year in Quebec, Canada.

Radio Vientiane, in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok, said
Laos would use the conference to promote French as a
'friendship language in the world.'

French is still widely spoken among the Lao senior communist
leadership, many of whom are in the 70s and 80s and studied in
France in their youth. The landlocked country became a French
colony in 1893 and stayed under colonial control until 1954.

Today, Lao youth and government officials are more inclined to
study English, which has become the main international
language for diplomacy and business in South-East Asia.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
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University of California, Riverside
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justinm at ucr.edu