Quoting Martin_Zuidervliet:

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So if I understand correctly the main reason many French contributors have left is their inability to write English and not to read it.

Quoting Giga Wizard:

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I would not believe that for a second. Mostly that they had to document their contribution. They did understand enough English to find DVD-Profiler, install it and use it.

*scratches head*

You are dutch and belgian and thus neighbours/close to the french. You should know how they feel about their own language and the usage of other languages (does "ordinateur" ring a bell?).

(English)
Froissart: The French Take Courtray
Bruges
The Low Countries in the Middle Ages
(French)
Français-Allemands : que reste-t-il de nos désamours ?

Quoting Martin_Zuidervliet:

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Mais oui monsieur, un ordinateur est une machine informatique.

Germany’s Hesitance Slows Technology Cooperation With France (Super Ordinateur)

Quoting surfeur51:

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For contributions, they had not to document first contributions. This has been new since last June. Problems come from that.

Many people asked in the past how to install  dvdprofiler, and english speaking users explained that on french forums where they had advertised this software.

To use it, no problem, there is a very good translation 

I don't hear our Québécois friends complaining?

Quoting surfeur51:

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Quoting Giga Wizard:

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...Mostly that they had to document their contribution.
They did understand enough English to find DVD-Profiler, install it and use it.

For contributions, they had not to document first contributions. This has been new since last June. Problems come from that.

Many people asked in the past how to install  dvdprofiler, and english speaking users explained that on french forums where they had advertised this software.

To use it, no problem, there is a very good translation 

If there's a problem with being able to understand what needs to be documented in the first contributions, it seems to me it would be quite easy to translate the English rules into French.  If there is a good translation to USE Profiler, why not write a good translation to document first contributions?

If there's a problem with having to write the NOTES in English, why not run them through one of the Internet translators.  Granted, the results of use of those translators aren't always ideal -- and often end up sounding funny -- it would be workable.

Unless, as others have expressed above, it's just a French thing about using English.  But to quote Giga:

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I don't hear our Québécois friends complaining?

Or don't they count as French-speaking?

Quoting Giga Wizard:

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Quoting surfeur51:

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For contributions, they had not to document first contributions. This has been new since last June. Problems come from that.

Many people asked in the past how to install  dvdprofiler, and english speaking users explained that on french forums where they had advertised this software.

To use it, no problem, there is a very good translation 

I don't hear our Québécois friends complaining?

We are exposed at a very young age to english language, we began to learn it at 9 years old (fourth years of primary school). So, usually we don't have too much difficulty to understand it (mastered it is a different thing, our language is hard enough to learn). When you are a little isolated population in a 300 millions english speaking peoples sea, you don't really have a choice you must understand the language.

My oppinion with that is that it's a loss of time to continue to speak french, but it's certainly not a popular opinion here (even more where I live)

I think it's an excellent suggestion, w0m6at! 

Whether contributions are getting approved or declined is becoming more and more dependent on contribution NOTES rather than just on the contents of contributions themselves. And that's where non-native English speakers (or people not proficient in English) are at a clear disadvantage. Being able to precisely document where you got certain data from in language the screeners can understand has become critical for getting your contributions approved. I know there are good reasons for it, but an (unintentional, I'm sure) side effect is that it's becoming more and more difficult for those less comfortable expressing themselves in English to contribute.

In recent months, I've come across several contributors from non-English speaking countries who had difficulty understanding why their contributions were getting declined. Usually it turned out the data they contributed were correct, but they lacked the level of mastery of English to write contribution notes that would make their contributions acceptable to the screeners. When instructed how to write contribution notes, they were happy to see the same contributions getting accepted by the screeners.

I'm sure the few "foreign" users that were "brave" enough to turn to the forums for answers represent just a tip of the proverbial iceberg. In effect, I do see surfeur's point here, and I do believe a side effect of the increased emphasis on contribution notes is that "foreigners" who are not that proficient in English are discouraged from contributing.

It would seem that what we need is not just translations of the program and the Contribution Rules, but also some form of guidance in languages other than English on how to write contribution notes.

Quoting pauls42:

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The problem with this is that it is possible to cut / paste phrases without understanding them. So for instance they could take cast from IMDB and then paste in the phrase "Cast and Crew taken from DVD" since they have been told that is what should be included. And would not realise they were doing anything wrong.

Its more important that they document what they have done (translated into English) than they include some stock phrases written for them.

My suggestion wasn't to say "Here's some stock phrases, please use them randomly to get approvals", but to have something like

Astcay akentay omfray vdday : Cast taken from DVD

The user would know what they are copying because there would be a version in their mother tongue as a reference.  I was by no means suggesting "Select items from this list and your contribution will be approved.", but rather a list of standard phrases that most people are likely to use anyway.