Le français québécois: Lâche pas la patate!

[Purangi]

Je suis très heureux de découvrir ton carnet et les grands efforts que tu mets à étudier le français québécois. En tant que Québécois d'origine, j'ai grandi dans un environnement 100 % franco et j'ai toujours été très loin des tensions montréalaises, mais ton histoire me parle beaucoup quand même. Il y a tellement de malentendus autour des langues, et combien d'occasions perdues ou manquées. Dans tous les cas, je suis persuadé que chaque personne qui fait l'effort d'apprendre les deux langues officielles ouvre un coffre aux trésors. On y gagne des nuances pour mieux interpréter le monde et le pays, et c'est une richesse qui perdurera toute la vie.

Lâche pas la pâtate, indeed !

Ou comme dirait Radio-Canada : ne laisse pas tomber la pomme de terre !

[PeterMollenburg]

"The expulsion of the Acadians," also known as "The Great Upheaval," was a very dark and shameful time in our history. The cruelty was beyond measure. Of those who made it to safety in the southern US states, it seems as though most weren't able to maintain their unique culture and thus became part of the great melting pot. As you say, you probably have to go into the Bayou to find native French speakers. It's very sad.

And according to The Story of French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, the cultural/linguitic persecution continued (or started again later) when children were forced to speak English in Louisiana schools in which monolingual English speaking teachers were sought after and hired to essentially wipe out the French language.

[CaroleR]

Je suis très heureux de découvrir ton carnet et les grands efforts que tu mets à étudier le français québécois. En tant que Québécois d'origine, j'ai grandi dans un environnement 100 % franco et j'ai toujours été très loin des tensions montréalaises, mais ton histoire me parle beaucoup quand même. Il y a tellement de malentendus autour des langues, et combien d'occasions perdues ou manquées. Dans tous les cas, je suis persuadé que chaque personne qui fait l'effort d'apprendre les deux langues officielles ouvre un coffre aux trésors. On y gagne des nuances pour mieux interpréter le monde et le pays, et c'est une richesse qui perdurera toute la vie.

Merci Purangi pour ton amiables paroles.

Eh bien, j'essaie de mettre les grands efforts à étudier la belle langue québécoise. En fait, je suis tombée amoureuse de la langue, si je peux dire ça. Tristement, je suis très, très loin d'être bilingue, même de parler couramment, évidemment! Mais, je persiste. Je ne vais pas jamais lâcher la patate.

Lâche pas la pâtate, indeed !

Ou comme dirait Radio-Canada : ne laisse pas tomber la pomme de terre !

Haha! Pas de patates pour eux!

Oops, modifié pour faire quelques corrections

[CaroleR]

"The expulsion of the Acadians," also known as "The Great Upheaval," was a very dark and shameful time in our history. The cruelty was beyond measure. Of those who made it to safety in the southern US states, it seems as though most weren't able to maintain their unique culture and thus became part of the great melting pot. As you say, you probably have to go into the Bayou to find native French speakers. It's very sad.

And according to The Story of French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, the cultural/linguitic persecution continued (or started again later) when children were forced to speak English in Louisiana schools in which monolingual English speaking teachers were sought after and hired to essentially wipe out the French language.

Thanks for the reference. I'll have to read that book! I didn't know that had happened to the Acadians. The English protestant school system in Quebec somehow missed teaching that. Quel surprise. No wonder there are so few French speakers left in Louisiana! This is similar to what happened to indigenous children in Canada. These kids were actually taken from their families and forced into boarding schools and their language and culture taken away from them. It's beyond enraging.

[PeterMollenburg]

"The expulsion of the Acadians," also known as "The Great Upheaval," was a very dark and shameful time in our history. The cruelty was beyond measure. Of those who made it to safety in the southern US states, it seems as though most weren't able to maintain their unique culture and thus became part of the great melting pot. As you say, you probably have to go into the Bayou to find native French speakers. It's very sad.

And according to The Story of French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, the cultural/linguitic persecution continued (or started again later) when children were forced to speak English in Louisiana schools in which monolingual English speaking teachers were sought after and hired to essentially wipe out the French language.

Thanks for the reference. I'll have to read that book! I didn't know that had happened to the Acadians. The English protestant school system in Quebec somehow missed teaching that. Quel surprise. No wonder there are so few French speakers left in Louisiana! This is similar to what happened to indigenous children in Canada. These kids were actually taken from their families and forced into boarding schools and their language and culture taken away from them. It's beyond enraging.

I just discovered, for Spanish enthusiasts, that Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow have also written a book called The Story of Spanish:

Just how did a dialect spoken by a handful of shepherds in Northern Spain become the world's second most spoken language, the official language of twenty-one countries on two continents, and the unofficial second language of the United States?

.

Jean-Benoit Nadeau also wrote (in French) Les Français aussi ont un accent, which I think would be of particular interest to you, CaroleR:

Voici, en vingt-deux chapitres hilarants et lumineux, le récit des découvertes et des coups de gueule d'un Québécois en France : comment il va devenir le soixante-septième miraculé de Lourdes, prouver mathématiquement l'existence de José Bové, percer le mystère de la crotte de chien à Paris, célébrer Halloween à la normande, changer de millénaire par trois fois... Bien qu'originaire de l'Amérique des grands froids, lui n'est pas venu restaurer une maison en Provence. Il avait mieux à faire. Sa mission impossible : découvrir si les Français résistent à la mondialisation. Aussi porte-t-il sur leur pays le regard d'un anthropologue débarquant chez les Yanomanis de l'Amazonie inférieure. À cette différence près que la France n'est pas l'Amazonie et que l'auteur n'est pas un journaliste comme les autres.

One reviewer on amazon.fr wrote:

Etant québécois expatrié en France, j'ai trouvé le livre de cet auteur très drôle car il décrit des situations que bien des québécois vivront en France. Le livre est divisé en chapitres correspondant à des expériences provenant de son étude de la nation française. A recommander avant-tout à des québécois...

[There's no incentives financial or otherwise for me to promote this/these author(s), I'm not affiliated in any way]

[CaroleR]

I just discovered, for Spanish enthusiasts, that Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow have also written a book called The Story of Spanish:

Just how did a dialect spoken by a handful of shepherds in Northern Spain become the world's second most spoken language, the official language of twenty-one countries on two continents, and the unofficial second language of the United States?

No, no, no, do not tempt me into learning Spanish. Although, now I'm curious about those shepherds.

Jean-Benoit Nadeau also wrote (in French) Les Français aussi ont un accent, which I think would be of particular interest to you, CaroleR:

Voici, en vingt-deux chapitres hilarants et lumineux, le récit des découvertes et des coups de gueule d'un Québécois en France : comment il va devenir le soixante-septième miraculé de Lourdes, prouver mathématiquement l'existence de José Bové, percer le mystère de la crotte de chien à Paris, célébrer Halloween à la normande, changer de millénaire par trois fois... Bien qu'originaire de l'Amérique des grands froids, lui n'est pas venu restaurer une maison en Provence. Il avait mieux à faire. Sa mission impossible : découvrir si les Français résistent à la mondialisation. Aussi porte-t-il sur leur pays le regard d'un anthropologue débarquant chez les Yanomanis de l'Amazonie inférieure. À cette différence près que la France n'est pas l'Amazonie et que l'auteur n'est pas un journaliste comme les autres.

One reviewer on amazon.fr wrote:

Etant québécois expatrié en France, j'ai trouvé le livre de cet auteur très drôle car il décrit des situations que bien des québécois vivront en France. Le livre est divisé en chapitres correspondant à des expériences provenant de son étude de la nation française. A recommander avant-tout à des québécois...

That IS of interest to me, but it sounds like I'd have to know a lot about France to understand the references. I have heard mention of "la crotte de chien à Paris," though. Unfortunately my library doesn't have that book, but they do have The Story of French which I've put on my "for later" list. They also have La grande aventure de la langue française: de Charlemagne au Cirque du soleil, by Nadeau and Barlow. Adding that one to the list as well. The Cirque is based in Montreal, so it will be interesting to see what they have to say about it. Thanks for the book references!

[Lawyer&Mom]

"The expulsion of the Acadians," also known as "The Great Upheaval," was a very dark and shameful time in our history. The cruelty was beyond measure. Of those who made it to safety in the southern US states, it seems as though most weren't able to maintain their unique culture and thus became part of the great melting pot. As you say, you probably have to go into the Bayou to find native French speakers. It's very sad.

My step-dad is Cajun. He was raised in CA, but his family came from a small town in Louisiana. His dad still spoke French, but my step-dad only learned French as an adult. The family is still Catholic, although not everyone still practices. All in all they retained their cultural identity about as well as most immigrant groups in the United States. (Language follows the three-generations rule, religion can last longer, but secularization is real.)

[CaroleR]

"The expulsion of the Acadians," also known as "The Great Upheaval," was a very dark and shameful time in our history. The cruelty was beyond measure. Of those who made it to safety in the southern US states, it seems as though most weren't able to maintain their unique culture and thus became part of the great melting pot. As you say, you probably have to go into the Bayou to find native French speakers. It's very sad.

My step-dad is Cajun. He was raised in CA, but his family came from a small town in Louisiana. His dad still spoke French, but my step-dad only learned French as an adult. The family is still Catholic, although not everyone still practices. All in all they retained their cultural identity about as well as most immigrant groups in the United States. (Language follows the three-generations rule, religion can last longer, but secularization is real.)

Have you picked your step-dad's brain for stories about what his ancestors experienced and how his father was able to maintain his French? (Sorry, the genealogist in me tends to be nosy.) It's interesting how some immigrant groups are able to retain their culture and language longer, such as in a Chinatown or a Little Italy. Hopefully they thrive and don't just become tourist attractions. But, generally, I'd say that the three-generations rule applies here as well.

The Church has lost much of its strength in Quebec since "The Quiet Revolution." When I was young, the school boards were divided between Catholic and Protestant. My dad had a friend who was Huguenot, but most francophones there are probably still Catholic. Whether they practice or not, I can't say.

[Lawyer&Mom]

My step-grandad was born in 1918 in Lafourche Parish. He and his whole family spoke Cajun French. My step-dad says that was still normal for his dad’s generation, and that the decline really happened in his generation. (His dad never taught him any French, there was no need for it in California.) As of 2000, nearly 20% of Lafourche Parish still spoke French at home, by 2010 it was down to 15%. That’s still pretty impressive!

(When I called my step-dad to ask, he was cleaning up after making gumbo for a Halloween party… Cajun culture in action!)

[Amandine]

My love of Cajun/zydeco music was actually my initial reason for starting to learn French many years ago. I went to Lafayette in 2015 for the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles which was amazing. What Lawyer&Mom says about her step-dads generation would make sense because based on what I've read it was a lot of Cajun men returning home from WW2 with a much stronger sense of "being American" than they had before and a stronger desire for their children to be assimilated that caused a big decline. Despite the homogenisation of culture, its still one of the only places in the USA you can still have a "regional hit" in the local musical forms which I really love.