Allegiance, influence and language: the case of Francophonie and Vietnam

According to a recent report by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie the number of people who can speak French has reached 200 million and the 70 countries of the OIF (members, associates and observers) account for 11% of the world’s population and 12% of its revenue. Even if this number of Francophones is slightly inflated, the evaluation indicates that French remains an important lingua franca for a large part of the world. The French government has traditionally used this massive cultural and linguistic network as a means of exercising greater influence on world politics and has always made a great effort to promote the French language as part of this strategy. This paper examines the Francophone movement in Vietnam in 2007 and evaluates some of the initiatives and policies aimed at creating a base for Francophonie in South East Asia and promoting French/Francophone influence.