Yes I speak rugby

Well, actually I don’t - speak rugby that is. I’ve only been to one rugby match in my entire life, and it’s not a sport I would usually sit down and watch on TV.

But “Yes I Speak Rugby” or rather “Oui, je parle Rugby” is a campaign with the potential of being of use to many visitors to France, rugby fans or not.

The main goal of the “Oui, je parle Rugby” campaign is to promote the French language to the many rugby fans expected to attend the Rugby World Cup 2007, which kicks off in France on Friday, 7 September.

The campaign was launched as a joint effort by the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs, TV5 Monde, RFI and the Paris Alliance Française and amongst the campaign tools is the “French survival kit“.

The survival kit is very much geared towards the Rugby World Cup, but also includes a long list of useful phrases in English, French and Spanish that could be of use to non-French (or indeed non-English or non-Spanish) speaking travellers.

Of course a list of phrases can be of very limited use if you’ve never heard or spoken French before. In fact if I had been in charge of the campaign, I would have concentrated on downloadable mp3-versions of the phrases.

But at the risk of providing free advertising to a certain UK retailer - every little helps! The “French survival kit” can be downloaded at the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs website.

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