This BBC news article talks about a the “Annual Prix de la Carpette Anglaise”, an award given to a person or company “who has given the best display of “fawning servility”‘. This means something like language betrayal: It distinguishes people who replace French language by English one. I didn’t know this award but it’s a funny one.
I think most English people don’t understand this struggle that some French people conduct to protect their language. But in the long run it makes sense. I remember 20-25 years ago, when Sony released the first Walkman. And there was, at that time, no words in French language to describe this new device. French Academicians created the word “baladeur” to describe this new device. And today in French we use “Baladeur mp3″ to describe a mp3 player. I think it’s important to keep different languages. Diversity is wealth also for languages. For intance, the word “Kitsch” will always means a lot more in german language than in English or French.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | New lingua franca upsets French