Yeah, somehow I'm not surprised.

Fair enough, but the point here was that the French language has evolved to a point where the passé simple is no longer necessary to express those nuances. Some authors do still make that old distinction and feel that it does have its own connotation and nuance still, but in the spoken language that's just not the case anymore.

It's not that I'm opposed to the passé simple or want it to disappear, per se, it's just I'm offended by your implication that one has to use it to write good literature nowadays, or that people who don't use it lack culture.

Eight million is the more conservative and proven number now? I've always heard six. Not that it really matters.

I agree that there's nothing wrong with the words, but otoh I can't blame the Germans if those words have certain connotations for them. Part of getting familiar with a culture is learning which words or concepts or historical topics are particularly sensitive, and how one can unintentionally cause offense by bringing those up. Being aware of such sensitivities and intentionally ignoring them seems like a good way to piss a lot of people off. But there may be cases, it's true, when that is a price you're willing to pay because you have some overriding purpose.

I don't think that last sentence really follows from the rest. Or rather, it does perhaps follow that they'd be less willing to put much effort into learning the language, but since most of them would already know some French before even going to France, they don't need to do as much effort. I can hardly claim to be an expert on France or the multicultural society in France, but it's just never seemed to me that a lack of decent French among the immigrants was any serious issue there. It's perfectly possible to do all those other things you name and generally refuse to integrate, while still speaking tolerable French.

I didn't even know that was the original title of the Remarque. I tried reading Der Zauberberg once, albeit in translation, but I never got very far. I'm not what one would call well-read in German, I fear.

Yeah. Would be nice to have that here too.

Good idea. Though then the question becomes which of the functions you want it to have - modern speakers using "thou" use it as the polite variant, but I seem to recall that originally it was actually the other way around and it was "you" that was the polite one.