Gender-neutral GCSE French lessons trigger international row

[IwantToRetire]

British exam board to allow 16-year-olds to use newly coined hybrid pronouns in languages, despite terms not being recognised by countries

The guidance came out in 2024, but comes into force this year, with language exams taking place in June.

The exam board also states that it will recognise “the use of gender-neutral pronouns with feminine or masculine agreement” as well as “students’ use of gender-neutral nouns, whether indicated by adding punctuation, asterisks or using alternative spellings”.

These will be accepted by examiners “even though this usage may not always be recognised by some of the languages academies in certain countries”

Full article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/09/gender-neutral-gcse-french-lessons-international-row/

Also at https://archive.is/WAxAu

I’m embarrassed for Pearson and their pathetic activist led undermining of education.

I’m angry on behalf of the kids they are letting down with this nonsense.

There are nouns in French that have different meanings depending on their gender - tour being an example.

Le tour means turn, trip, circuit, ride, walk, etc. La tour means a tower or tower-like structure.

I recently changed trains in Paris and on that short (thirty minute) metro trip saw two people who I was fairly sure were transwomen - at least one of whom was French. (The other may have been a tourist.) So France is definitely experiencing the trans phenomenon.

But biology is not about feelz or ideology, it’s science. It’s DNA, and chromosomes, and facts. How can you teach biology as ‘gender neutral’??

Holy fuck.

What is the point in learning another language in a way that no one in France - the main speaker of French and where you are most likely to speak it speaks?

I know we are going to teach everyone about psuedo physics. This means you learn false physics so when you apply for a job in the real world, you are fucked because you can't actually do your job and everyone who has learnt accurate physics has a head start on you.

I mean, talk about Mickey Mouse subjects at a time when take up of foreign language in education is at a low due to online translation tools. You are actively helping to make teaching and learning the subject obsolete!

This whole ‘gender’ nonsense is now out of hand. I groaned on hearing that Harriet Harman is now the special envoy or whatever for women and girls because she actually believes men can become women. She has totally embraced the trans agenda.

So no doubt she will be actually an envoy for ‘gender’ equality focussing on men’s rights in women’s spaces.

In terms of the Pearson issue what use is learning a language and not using correct grammar? How or who sat around a table at Pearson and pushed this agenda?

The gender war is pandering to a cult like ideology and it should have no place in the classroom.

Translate into Spanish:

My brother is transgender and happy

¡Dios mío!

Any excuse to fumer

…shoujd you not make that fou/foule 🙄

It took me a long time to appreciate the French language, but it only works if you gain a feel for it. Trying to learn it by rules is about as futile as trying to learn English by rules. Native speakers know what sounds right and what sounds wrong, and don't have to decide whether it should be "the long green grass" or "the green long grass" by mentally running through an ordered list of type of adjective. Similarly a native French speaker knows that "la verte herbe" or "la herbe verte" sound wrong and "l'herbe verte" sounds right (I do hope my schoolboy French hasn't let me down there!).

Even in the most predictable languages, there are unwritten rules. I remember being taught "time, manner, place" in German, which was some use in written work, but utterly useless in conversation as you just don't have time to process the rule. In English, dialect forms often sound completely wrong until you become used to them, when they start to sound right, and you realise that "my lover" just means "mate" or "pet" or "me duck".

I tend to object most to language changes that are deliberate as opposed to natural language evolution. I'm still not keen on being called a "chair" rather than a "chairman" but I don't always notice anymore. But sometimes I have a stronger objection to culturally imposed language changes, when they have an effect on people's understanding. Any change to language can have an impact on meaning, for example the change in meaning of "wicked" in some cultures. Usually we manage to adapt and understand what is meant even when a word is used to mean the reverse of what we are used to. I'm not convinced that's true of pronoun use, and I strongly suspect that using gender identity pronouns instead of sex-based ones affects people's understanding on a subconscious level.

A further factor is the "uglification" of language, for example "obligated" for "obliged". I think l'Académie Française are particularly concerned with this aspect of language.

It would seem every institution has been touched by the trans ideology or queer theory.

Sadly the re engineering of society has happened. What always gets me with any of this trans/non binary/queer theory infiltrating life is did not one person sit around the table at Pearson in this case, and say ‘this is nonsense, we are here to teach French not indoctrination about trans/non binary/queer theory?’

not sure about French but German already has a way of using gendered language (not their regular grammar with Der, Die or Das) to make it more inclusive.

Frankly? I'm am ok with it because otherwise you get the ridiculous situations of a room full of women and one man and the group is always addressed as though they are all men. There has been a move to use gender inclusive language which does shorten things. So instead of someone giving a presentation saying male-colleagues and female-collegues, they say "KollegInnen" which covers both sexes. In speaking it is customary to give a tiny break where the comes.

Naturally there are naysayers, and then you get people like me who say "Kolleginnen" - my boss said "you should make a break to make it inclusive" but my reply of "i was using the female form, men should feel included" was fine by everyone.

There is a huge pushback against the gender-inclusive language though. And many companies have revised style guides to go back to the old ways. The most recent example of pushback against the pushback was a local voluntary fire brigade who revised their procedures manual using gender-inclusive language, and the local mayor told them they had to change it. So they used the feminine form throught and said "men should feel included".

But. This comes with the long long long baggage of feminists trying to get round the fact that German tends to use male gendered language "and women and other genders are included". So it is a little more complicated than just getting rid of new-fangled gender inclusive bollocks.

and yes, due to SelfID and other laws, you can be male, female or diverse here.

I'm still not keen on being called a "chair" rather than a "chairman" but I don't always notice anymore.

with respect, that is because you are a man. If you had grown up with 2nd wave feminism as a woman, you would have had to be called chairman because that was how it was done. And it really bloody grates. Chair is fine.

That's why I'm "meh" about how it is done in Germany (and i am ok with Pearson letting the applicants "gendern" if they do it how it is done here in Germany). We have fought a long and hard struggle NOT to be addressed as "you blokes - yes you women should feel included in that" and i am not about to let that go.

No, I'm using alternative spellings to cover all eventualities!

Obviously I don't, and can't, know how I would have felt if I had been a woman. I do know women who don't like being called an inanimate object ... but my point on chair/chairman/chairwoman is that it's possible to get used to changes in language. Of course the problem with "chairwoman" was that it sounded too much like the rather derogatory "charwoman". Language is endlessly fascinating and changes can have subtle, or not so subtle, consequences. And sometimes logical changes just sound ridiculous. Personhole covers don't seem to have caught on yet.

Whereas access hole covers has.

@AngryHerring in the situation you mention, my go-to option is to address the room as if it were a women only group (ie the equivalent of Kolleginnen, although the French collègues is gender neutral so bad example), and men can just suck it up if they feel excluded for once. There is even a name for that ("accord majoritaire ", majority fit). I started using "toutes et tous" now and then a few years back, although I'm wary of the fact that women now risk feeling excluded if people only use "tous", which wasn't the case before (I never did, at least!)

But toutes et tous are actual words, unlike tous.tes. A big difference is that most of the time in German the feminine form adds a suffix to the masculine word (Father+in = Fahrerin) whereas in French the feminine suffix replaces the masculine one (conducteur / conductrice) making it much more wordsalady.

Interesting. I've not come across that before, and without context I wouldn't have been sure what was meant.

Whoa!
I am just getting used to words being shortened
restaurant to resto
refrigerateur to frigo
television to tele
promotion to promo

(sorry my keyboard can’t do the accents)

yes, i find it a lot easier in German - and i so rarely use French except in a private capacity that it doesn't really crop up.

I remember working with a really lovely bunch of Germans and one old dinosaur of a bloke. And He rejected any attempt for us to use inclusive language. Eventually after he had addressed us in the male form as a group once too often, the women just ignored everything he said unless he directly spoke to us. And in the end the bosses introduced "gendered language so we are all making sure everyone loads/unloads the dishwasher and not just the men". Was pretty hilarious.

😂

I enjoy trolling in Spanish by always using feminine plurals for mixed groups of people. But unfortunately my French isn’t good enough. It’s quite hard to do it consistently and as a foreigner relies on you getting gendered endings correct consistently in other situations so that people actually notice the difference.

Which is where this French thing will have zero impact whatsoever with British GCSE students… I imagine even the most gender woo teenagers are struggling enough to remember the basics, let alone add in a new gender, which is what “gender neutral” is in the end.

According to the TRAs DNA does change over time when you take hormones.

as well as “students’ use of gender-neutral nouns

So one could fudge the gender of 'table' as long as there is an asterisk?

I predict much asterisking and inventive use of neutral articles.

Lae chat est dans lae jardin

Phew! so much easier!