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I thought "gauche" was a French word originally. For those of you unfamiliar with the word it means:

(gOsh)adj.
Lacking social polish; tactless.
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[French, awkward, lefthanded, from Old French, from gauchir, to turn aside, walk clumsily, of Germanic origin.]
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gauchely adv.
gaucheness n.

One might take it from this that the French, having invented this word, would be the most attuned to circumstances of its use. More to the point, you'd think that the French would know how not to be "gauche". But then again, when it comes to language snobbery I suppose not.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- France has grudgingly made room for English as the dominant language in the European Union. But French President Jacques Chirac was not ready to hear a Frenchman speak English at the EU summit -- he walked out instead.
When top business executive Ernest-Antoine Seilliere announced to the meeting of the EU's 25 government leaders that he would ''speak in English, the language of business,'' Chirac had heard enough.
Together with French Finance Minister Thierry Breton and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Chirac promptly quit the ballroom where European leaders were meeting and returned only after Frenchman Seilliere, the head of the UNICE business lobby, stopped speaking.

So Mr. Chirac walked out on his on compatriot, not due to the content but because the manner in which it was presented.

Gauche?
Mais Oui!