French vs. English

France has a reputation for fighting doggedly against the increasing dominance of the English language and now it's getting some support in its battle from a surprising camp.

The southern German state of Baden-Württemberg has ordered that students attending the 67 high-schools in the Upper Rhine area -- a broad strip running along the Rhine River from Karlsruhe to Lörrach -- have to learn French as their first foreign language.

All new pupils starting grade five will have five hours of French a week and will have to continue with the language until 10th grade. Germany has a three-tiered secondary school system, and the ruling only applies to the elite track.

State Education Minister Helmut Rau said French was necessary for the further development of the region on both sides of the border.

"People in this area work together, live together and meet with each other," said Rau. "But this relationship can be improved, which is why we need the language skills. France is our biggest trading partner within Europe and is also a good partner in cultural affairs."

Freedom of choice

But not everyone agrees with Rau. The state Parent's Council is outraged by the decision and has lodged an injunction with the state administrative court to stop it.

The council's president, Christiane Staab, stressed that parents are not against learning French -- they just want the freedom to choose which language their children learn first.

Under the reforms, however, students in the rest of the state won't be choosing their first foreign language either. They'll have to take English.

The language reform was hotly debated in state parliament last week, where the opposition lost a motion to block the order.

"I don't think it is a very good signal for France if we have a revolution along the Rhine Valley from parents who don't want that their children learn French," said Renate Raststätter from the Green party. She represents Karlsruhe, where several of the affected schools are located.

French second to English

It's not that French isn't popular in Baden-Württemberg -- on the contrary, more than 80 percent of 11th-graders are enrolled in the subject. But most of these elect to study French as their second or third foreign language.

As a first language choice, French has constantly lost ground to English in the past decade. And that's how it should be, said Christiane Staab.

"Many people here say we have the technology area in Karlsruhe," Staab said. "We have an elite university, one of the two in Germany, and there the children not only have to speak English, but also live in English."

Many of the high school students in Karlsruhe would agree. "English is the language the world speaks," said one student. "In my whole life I have never needed French, and I live near the border," added another.

Reverse commute

Education Minister Rau says that Germans living in the Upper Rhine region need French to improve their chances in the employment market. But here at the border crossing near Karlsruhe, most of the traffic is only flowing in one direction -- from France into Germany.

According to the state Bureau of Statistics, some 28,000 people make the daily commute from the French region of Alsace to Baden-Württemberg for work. Only 300 Germans drive in the other direction. Perhaps Alsace should consider making German compulsory at high school.