Yup, the french version give some good things to the future english one.
Without the french version for example, you wouldn't be able to play the future translation on a real PS2, as I'm the one who did all the tests and motivated Tryphon to fix the hack (which wasn't working at first on a real PS2, had to do more than 20 versions to get rid of all the crashs).
Not to mention Kyence can read french and now have a whole script translated is a language easier than japanese to double check her translations, which speed up things.
In fact, without the french version, you wouldn't probably have an english version in fact, as Tryphon is the hacker and wouldn't probably have done such a polished hack without a translation in his native language.
The patcher, that I suppose Kyence will also use, come from the french version.
About the english version, it might not be released before 2015 I think.
We have the french script translated since Juanuary 2014, and as you see, the translation is still not released, so if you count the time they'll need to finish the translation, proofread the scripts, test the game, fix errors, etc... it might take a few more months.
Not to mention that even if you can't read french, it might be easier for you, waiting for the english translation, to play the french version rather than the japanese version, as a lot of words are the same (or look the same) between english and french.
System => Système
Equip => Equiper
Status => Status
Attack => Attaque
Defense => Défense
Continue => Continuer
Consult => Consulter
Techniques => Techniques
Order => Ordre
Agility => Agilité
Reflexes => Réflexes
Experience => Expérience
Dynamite => Dynamite
Container => Conteneur
Ribbon => Ruban
Save => Sauvegarder (abbreviation : "Sauver")
Bank => Banque
Armor => Armure
Mantle => Manteau
(...)
About english translation news, last message of Kyence is here :
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3175&start=330#p55697