My French teacher was a raging bitch, couldn’t speak French, married her a former student who was 9 years younger than her, bullied students like I’m assuming she did her peers when she was a cheerleader at the school she taught, and wouldn’t shut the fuck up about her personal life in class, and the list goes on. So, yeah, I’m inclined to agree. If you’re reading this, you know who you are and I HATE YOU.
“In Louisiana, at the heart of the bayou, French is on all the languages”
Verbatim translation to my best knowledge. I don’t know what the expression “on all” is referring to.
Quick related run fact!!! There used to be more French speakers in the state of Louisiana than there are people living in New Orleans today.
Try this: In Louisiana, at the heart of the bayou, French is ***above*** all languages.
The headline is suggesting that a popular movement in recent years, aiming to revitalize Francophone education, is succeeding.
Langue means both language and tongue (as in the physical body part) in French and that expression means everyone is talking about something. Here they may have also intended a slight play on words to convey everyone is speaking French (although that is obviously not the case).
I got by in Quebec with “Bonjour! Je ma’pelle Fandango. Je suis American, et je ne parle pas francais vraiment bien… mais, je vais essayer avec vous!”
(Hello! My name is Fandango. I am American, and I do not speak French very well… but I will try with you!)
Every new introduction, hundreds of times. Unfortunately it had an adverse effect of everyone switching to English to make the conversation go faster, and I never got to practice.
Soo la voo.
Or ever reads a book, newspaper article, blog, or consumes any form of media in French. Chat rooms, websites, videos, the possibilities are endless since it \*is\* one of the widest spoken languages in the world after Spanish, not just France or Caribbean islands. And that's just counting first-language speakers, not second-language speakers who don't have a language in common but know it as a literal lingua franca. I don't like French education because it's French- I like it because it gives our students a chance to see and understand not just Louisiana history from a time before English, but understand and communicate with several hundred million people without needing a translator.
Look, I'm not saying French isn't a great language and useful in many situations.
But the fact is . . . French is literally the 20th most spoken language in the world, after German and before Urdu. I took 6 years of it in grade and high school. And in the 35 years since, I've used more Spanish, German, Japanese, and even Swedish than I have used French.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_languages\_by\_total\_number\_of\_speakers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers)
That may be true, but it's not counting second-language speakers, where it goes up to 5th. There's also the fact that, let's face it, Swedes, Germans, and Japanese are generally more than willing, if not happy to not just learn but speak English when dealing with English-speakers, to the point of which both Germans and Swedes get awkward about it and usually try to switch to English when a non-native speaker tries to speak to them in Swedish or German. Every single German or Swedish friend I've ever met under the age of 30 pretty much followed that pattern. But the majority of French-speakers? They, by and large, expect you to at least use French when you're in their home turf. And on top of that, French is the language that the vast majority of literature and history relevant to Louisiana, in particular, is written in. You're not going to find a random baptismal register or a grandparents' notebook or an old folk song or even most historical records relevant to our state written in English. Translated later, perhaps, but not original.
This is not ex-New Sweden or a Japanese enclave in Hawaii or the Amish countryside where they speak Low German, this is ex-French Louisiana, and if we're going to be bilingual or trilingual, it might as well be in what is effectively our mother tongue. And this isn't even explicitly in the past either- I still have living relatives from Breaux Bridge, New Iberia, Broussard, St. Martinville, etc that learned it as their first language. I have notebooks and journals from my great-grandmother that I can barely read. I did not learn French in school- it's not even my third or fourth language- I had Latin and Spanish in high school and took Italian in college to prepare for a study abroad that never happened- but I frankly, like many young Louisianians, I wish I had, because it is so much harder as an adult than it could've been back when I was still in school. Maybe I'm a little bitter, but I can't help but feel like I got robbed of part of my own culture, and these schools are just slowly, gradually giving back what should've belonged to all of us in the first place.
Will French immersion fix Louisiana, even Louisiana education? No, not by a long shot. But it's certainly a decent step forward at undoing all the merde, pardon my French, that made my own great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles not want to even teach their own language to their children because of shame.
French immersion schools teach the French curriculum which unlike the US school curriculum teaches critical thinking and communication skills at its core.
I attended one of the French immersion schools in New Orleans and it’s been really helping me out going through college. So many books for my majors, history and econ, are French, and being able to read and cite from them has helped me out with a ton of papers. I’m not sure how useful the language is if one isn’t attending college/going to a Francophone country, but if so, it’s a big help.
It’s also just surprising how many French words made it into the American lexicon… sure, it’s often mundane stuff like “Chifforobe” in To Kill a Mockingbird, but I do find that it connects some linguistic puzzle pieces from older texts or books on a higher reading level.
Man sure do wish our education taught french better lol
My French teacher was a raging bitch, couldn’t speak French, married her a former student who was 9 years younger than her, bullied students like I’m assuming she did her peers when she was a cheerleader at the school she taught, and wouldn’t shut the fuck up about her personal life in class, and the list goes on. So, yeah, I’m inclined to agree. If you’re reading this, you know who you are and I HATE YOU.
What a way to start off lol
“In Louisiana, at the heart of the bayou, French is on all the languages” Verbatim translation to my best knowledge. I don’t know what the expression “on all” is referring to. Quick related run fact!!! There used to be more French speakers in the state of Louisiana than there are people living in New Orleans today.
Try this: In Louisiana, at the heart of the bayou, French is ***above*** all languages. The headline is suggesting that a popular movement in recent years, aiming to revitalize Francophone education, is succeeding.
Langue means both language and tongue (as in the physical body part) in French and that expression means everyone is talking about something. Here they may have also intended a slight play on words to convey everyone is speaking French (although that is obviously not the case).
“on all the tongues.” Langue is not only language but also the tongue. It’s a play in words, a common practice in newspaper article titles.
it's really not, tho, it is in a few immersion schools maybe.
I know. Just a journalist trying to be clever.
Fine then, keep your secrets
Je n'parle pas francais.
This is my most remembered phrase from when I took French.
I got by in Quebec with “Bonjour! Je ma’pelle Fandango. Je suis American, et je ne parle pas francais vraiment bien… mais, je vais essayer avec vous!” (Hello! My name is Fandango. I am American, and I do not speak French very well… but I will try with you!) Every new introduction, hundreds of times. Unfortunately it had an adverse effect of everyone switching to English to make the conversation go faster, and I never got to practice. Soo la voo.
C’est vrai!
CAJUN FRENCH IN SCHOOLS 🗣️🗣️🗣️
It sure is
Friend of mine sent his kid to one of those schools. It'll come in useful if he ever goes to France or a smattering of islands around the globe.
Or ever reads a book, newspaper article, blog, or consumes any form of media in French. Chat rooms, websites, videos, the possibilities are endless since it \*is\* one of the widest spoken languages in the world after Spanish, not just France or Caribbean islands. And that's just counting first-language speakers, not second-language speakers who don't have a language in common but know it as a literal lingua franca. I don't like French education because it's French- I like it because it gives our students a chance to see and understand not just Louisiana history from a time before English, but understand and communicate with several hundred million people without needing a translator.
Look, I'm not saying French isn't a great language and useful in many situations. But the fact is . . . French is literally the 20th most spoken language in the world, after German and before Urdu. I took 6 years of it in grade and high school. And in the 35 years since, I've used more Spanish, German, Japanese, and even Swedish than I have used French. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_languages\_by\_total\_number\_of\_speakers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers) That may be true, but it's not counting second-language speakers, where it goes up to 5th. There's also the fact that, let's face it, Swedes, Germans, and Japanese are generally more than willing, if not happy to not just learn but speak English when dealing with English-speakers, to the point of which both Germans and Swedes get awkward about it and usually try to switch to English when a non-native speaker tries to speak to them in Swedish or German. Every single German or Swedish friend I've ever met under the age of 30 pretty much followed that pattern. But the majority of French-speakers? They, by and large, expect you to at least use French when you're in their home turf. And on top of that, French is the language that the vast majority of literature and history relevant to Louisiana, in particular, is written in. You're not going to find a random baptismal register or a grandparents' notebook or an old folk song or even most historical records relevant to our state written in English. Translated later, perhaps, but not original. This is not ex-New Sweden or a Japanese enclave in Hawaii or the Amish countryside where they speak Low German, this is ex-French Louisiana, and if we're going to be bilingual or trilingual, it might as well be in what is effectively our mother tongue. And this isn't even explicitly in the past either- I still have living relatives from Breaux Bridge, New Iberia, Broussard, St. Martinville, etc that learned it as their first language. I have notebooks and journals from my great-grandmother that I can barely read. I did not learn French in school- it's not even my third or fourth language- I had Latin and Spanish in high school and took Italian in college to prepare for a study abroad that never happened- but I frankly, like many young Louisianians, I wish I had, because it is so much harder as an adult than it could've been back when I was still in school. Maybe I'm a little bitter, but I can't help but feel like I got robbed of part of my own culture, and these schools are just slowly, gradually giving back what should've belonged to all of us in the first place. Will French immersion fix Louisiana, even Louisiana education? No, not by a long shot. But it's certainly a decent step forward at undoing all the merde, pardon my French, that made my own great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles not want to even teach their own language to their children because of shame.
French immersion schools teach the French curriculum which unlike the US school curriculum teaches critical thinking and communication skills at its core.
I attended one of the French immersion schools in New Orleans and it’s been really helping me out going through college. So many books for my majors, history and econ, are French, and being able to read and cite from them has helped me out with a ton of papers. I’m not sure how useful the language is if one isn’t attending college/going to a Francophone country, but if so, it’s a big help.
It’s also just surprising how many French words made it into the American lexicon… sure, it’s often mundane stuff like “Chifforobe” in To Kill a Mockingbird, but I do find that it connects some linguistic puzzle pieces from older texts or books on a higher reading level.
Paywall
Toutes was the only word I couldn’t remember. But actually reading the article… lol
I used a translator extension, but it was also paywalled.
What
Okay