Posted by Kent MacLeod on October 27, 2004 at 8:25 pm AST

When I went to school "they" never put enough emphasis on French. In Junior High my french class consisted of finding the French words in a word find. I mean come on. I learned all my French in elementary school. And we sang during most of the class. I loved school then. But only recess. I do miss French things. Like what the people are saying french movies, or even the french channels. French fries don't count. What about French toast. Nope that doesn't count either. Other French things that are included are Celin Dion, my French teachers, my wife and her sister and other such french things. I have to go.

Posted by Lisa MacLeod on October 27, 2004 at 8:46 pm AST
n/a

Rod, speaking on behalf of the bilingual population of Canada, and all french speakers of the world, your new post absolutely blew me away! I think that because of my personal experiences, being immersed in the french language through my education and employment, I take the importance and value of the french language for granted. On a very similar, yet completely opposite note, I too am also naive about the whole "bilingual" situation in Canada. You assumed that French-Canadians speak french "recreationally", and I assumed that English speaking people would eventually just "pick up" the French language after enough time. This is a HUGE misconception/miscommunication. Being a new student in the BEd program, I really had my doubts whether or not I really wanted to become a French teacher, however your post made me realise how crucial it is to keep the spirit of French alive and strong within our very own communities!

Posted by Anonymous on October 28, 2004 at 10:57 pm AST

Rodney: As someone who recently came off 8 months of full time French language training, I can tell you that learning French is almost essential if you want to get a decent-level job in the federal government. It is also a huge asset in the retail and tourism sectors. It is indeed a shame that French was not emphasised more in school. This has changed somewhat now, with both core and late immersion programs. I cannot understand why someone would not put their child in one of these, as not doing so really limits their career paths later in life, starting with higher paying summer jobs at the National Park, in the Cavendish tourism industry, and at the DVA. I spend one noon hour a week in a French conversation class with other Federal and Provincial employees, and am insanely jealous of the (younger) attendees who attended French immersion since grade one, and have attained a level of fluency that I will never be able to appoach.

For many years speaking French was discouraged in the Summerside area (and probably elsewhere on PEI), and many of the French-speaking Acadian population not only stopped speaking their language, but even anglicized their names (Poirier became Perry, Aucoin turned into Wedge, Richard became Richards, etc.) in order to fit in and raise their lot in life. It is encouraging to see a resurgence of Acadian culture and language, with their own schools and cultural centres.

When the DVA moved to Charlottetown in the early 80\\\'s, many Francophones moved down, but soon moved back, as there was no opportunity to speak their language, and little opportunity to retain their culture. Today, the Charlottetown francophones have a French school and cultural centre, with a theatre, library, gym and meeting rooms. Better late than never!

As you have discovered, Canada has an officially bilingual province (New Brunswick), and an officially French province (Quebec). There are also large Francophone populations in Manitoba (St. Boniface), northern Ontario, Nova Scotia (Cheticamp), Newfoundland (Port au Port), PEI (Souris, Rustico, Summerside/Miscouche, Evangeline Region, Tignish, Charlottetown). In my travels, I\\\'ve also had the opportunity to visit places such as Hawkesbury Ontario (on the Quebec border), where almost everyone speaks both languages perfectly. It would be ideal if everyone could speak both language effortlessly like they do there.

From my experience, much of the base you picked up in High School (and in my case, university) will come back to you when you take up French again, and will help you greatly in your studies. I would suggest that taking a trip to Quebec, Paris, or some French-speaking tropical island and immersing yourself in the language (and culture) would be the best way to learn. Skip the grammar and writing classes and go directly to the conversation. That\\\'s how we learned to speak as children, and I think that is the best way to learn a language.

If you\\\'d like to self-study, I recommend the PBS TV series French in Action, which has 52 half-hour episodes which you can view anytime you want via the Internet.
Visit http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html. You will have to register with an American city name and postal code (e.g. Beverly Hills, 90210) to use it. It\'s a little dated (1987) but is quite entertaining. To improve your vocabulary, I also recommend the Franklin BFQ-450 Electronic French-English dictionary http://www.franklin.com/estore/details.aspx?ID=BFQ-450&nettrackerid=hlBFQ-450 ($61 at Staples), which includes the entire LaRousse dictionary, verb conjugations, some grammar lessons, and common phrases. Much faster to look things up than an old-fashioned dictionary.

Posted by PAUL MAC on October 29, 2004 at 3:18 am AST

"Viva Le Francias"