Language Regulation

Is the foreign language you are studying regulated? Many countries have bodies which officially govern their national language.

The most famous of these is probably the Académie Française, the French language moderator whose role is “to work, with all possible care and diligence, to give our language definite rules and to make it pure, eloquent, and capable of dealing with art and science.” However don’t try to tell French Canadians that they have to follow the Académie’s rules- in Quebec the Office Québécois de la Langue Française holds forth on how the language should be spoken.

French is not the only language to have multiple standardization bodies. Portugal’s Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Lisbon Science Academy, Class of Letters) is trumped in Brazil by the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters). The National Language Authority governs Urdu in Pakistan, while the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language makes the rules in India. The bad blood between mainland China and Taiwan is carried into linguistic governance- the People’s Republic of China has the State Language and Letters Committee and the Republic of China (Taiwan) has the National Languages Committee.

However, aside from these few cases, international collaboration seems to be the rule in language regulation. The Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung (Council for German Orthography) is composed of 18 councilors from Germany, 9 from Austria, 9 from Switzerland, and 1 each from the South Tyrol in Italy, the German-speaking community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. The Odbor za standardizaciju srpskog jezika (Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language) was founded in 1997 as a collaborative effort between institutions in Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republika Srpska (one of the two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (National Swahili Council) of Tanzania regulates the Swahili language and works in partnership with the Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (National Association of Kiswahili) in Kenya. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature includes members from Iran, Tajikstan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan while the Academy of the Arabic Language has an even broader reach, uniting councilors from Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Iraq, Tunisia, Sudan, Israel, and Somalia.

Governance of the Spanish language, meanwhile, is a truly global effort involving 22 countries and one territory. The Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (Association of Spanish Language Academies) is, as the name suggests, a council which unites regulatory institutions from across the Spanish-speaking world. Founded in 1951 in Mexico, the Association brought in the historic Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy) and has welcomed such newcomers as the United States’ Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (North American Academy of the Spanish Language), founded in 1973 in New York.

However, despite being home to a linguistic council for Spanish, the United States has no regulatory body for the English language. In fact English is not a regulated language in any country in the world. English speakers rely on dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster’s and Oxford English, high-quality publications, and the speech of the Queen of England as sources of “proper” language, but even these sources are up for disputation. The English language is governed directly and democratically by its hundreds of millions of speakers, and it seems to be doing just fine.

The Bilingual U.S. – French Maine

Maine is by far the most expansive of the Northern New England states, plunging far past the 45^th parallel into the French speaking territories of Quebec and New Brunswick; however a great part of this northern territory is privately owned by logging companies and completely disinhabited. The vast majority of Mainers live “Down East”, in cities like Portland and Lewiston, the latter of which has a French-Canadian heritage very similar to that of Manchester, New Hampshire.

At the farthest northern reaches of Maine lies Aroostook County, separated from the coast-hugging, populated area of Maine, and henceforth the rest of the United States, by hundreds of miles of forest and mountains. Here the St. John River divides “The County” from Madawaska County in New Brunswick like a sort of Rio Grande of the North, although two centuries ago the river was not a border but the central lifeline of the briefly-lived, never-recognized République du Madawaska. After a brief skirmish known as the Aroostook or the “Pork and Beans” War, the United States and the United Kingdom signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 and separated the Brayons on the north and south banks of the river.

Brayon is the term which the residents of the Upper St. John Valley use to culturally identify themselves, thus distinguishing themselves from Acadians and Quebecois, the other francophone populations of the area. The brayons living in New Brunswick continue to use French; in Edmundston, the largest town in the Valley, 93% of the population use French as their mother tongue (as of 2006). Numbers from 1993 show that the situation was similar in the towns of Fort Kent, Van Buren, and Madawaska on the Maine side of the river- 88% of residents were French speakers.

However the fate of French on the north and south banks of the St. John is quite different. Until 1960, a Maine state law forbid the use of any language but English in public school education, and French was of course not allowed in politics. Without any opportunities to use French in institutional settings (outside of the Church) even complete isolation from the rest of the United States and close cohabitation with the French-speaking Canadians wasn’t enough to keep the language alive on the south bank of the river. The five-year period from 1987 to 1991 saw a 18% drop in the use of French as their mother tongue among Maine school children in the Valley.

Bilingual schools like the L’Acadien du Haut St. Jean school have occasionally sprung up in the Valley, but they don’t seem to last very long. Bilingual education in the Frenchville-St. Agatha school district (MSAD # 33) is limited to “services [for English Language Learners] in the Dual Language Instruction/Two-Way Immersion Program.” In other words, the school helps French speakers adjust to a lifetime of using English in all community functions rather than helping them perfect their mother tongue. This treatment of the language maintains its perceived inferiority to English, with consequences on its survival. As Prof. Joseph Price of Texas Tech University concludes in his PhD thesis study of bilingualism in Madawaska, Maine, “although there are still many individuals with ability in French, the differences between younger and older speakers…suggest that local French will be lost unless further action is taken to reverse the progress of French language loss among young bilinguals in the community.”

Without a serious bilingual education program which teaches French speakers of the St. John Valley that their mother tongue is the language of Hugo, Voltaire, and Proust, the language of Montesquieu, whose thought so greatly influenced the American revolution, and the language of millions of people in Europe, Africa and Canada, the French of the American Brayons will never develop its full potential. One can only hope that an Montesquieuian “Enlightenment” in bilingual education will sooner or later give the American residents of the Republique du Madawaska this opportunity.

The Bilingual U.S. – French New Hampshire

The two tiny, rural, long and narrow states of Vermont and New Hampshire may often be confused; but closer inspection reveals striking differences between the two neighbors.

Politically Vermont is liberal while New Hampshire has moved from the right to the center; the Green Mountains are primarily composed of green schist while the White Mountains are dominated by granite. Vermont is narrow in the south and expands towards to the north while New Hampshire does the opposite. This geographic detail reflects an important demographic difference: the population centers of the states are diametrically opposed. Burlington, VT, is in the north, 73 miles south of Montreal, while Manchester, NH is in the southern part of the state, only 53 miles north of Boston.

This difference in population distribution leads New Hampshire to “look towards” the much more populous state of Massachusetts in the same way that Vermont is linked to Quebec. It is therefore surprising to discover that Manchester has a rich Franco-American culture which has weathered the past century better than that of Burlington.

Manchester, much like its namesake in Northern England, is an industrial city which flourished along a river (the Merrimack in New Hampshire and the Irwell, the Irk, and the Medlock in England) during the 19^th Century. Of the 900,000 French-Canadians who left Quebec in the period from 1840 to 1930, many came to Manchester to work in its factories. By 1900 60% of the textile workers in New Hampshire were French-Canadian.

These French-Canadian immigrants were children of La Survivance- the battle for cultural survival initiated by the 60,000 French immigrants left in Canada in 1760 when the French withdrew from the territory and left it in the hand of the English. Dominated by the English, the Quebecois sought strength in unity, closing their community to influences from the outside in order to maintain their language, religion, and way of life.

So it should come as no surprise that the French-Canadian immigrants in Manchester formed a tightly-knit, somewhat isolated community in their new place of residence. The West Side was a world unto itself for the Franco-American community; it contained the French-speaking parishes of Saint Augustin and Ste. Marie, L’Association Catholique de Jeunesse Franco-Américaine- a sort of French Y.M.C.A.- and the nation’s first credit union, La Caisse Populaire, Sainte-Marie.

A trip to the West Side no longer feels like a trip into Quebec. La Caisse Populaire, although still in operation, is now known as St. Mary’s Bank and recently removed the French language option from their ATMs. Ste. Marie Parish no longer offers masses in French, and L’Association Catholiqueno longer exists. On the other hand, the children of many of the French-Canadian immigrants have remained and pulses of Franco-American culture are to be found everywhere.

On Kelley Street on the West Side Chez Vachon is still serving many of the foods (such as poutine) that the French-American factory workers of the past century would probably have enjoyed after a hard day’s work. Over on the East Side, Mass is now offered in French at the Parish of Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue. Roger Lacerte broadcasts his French-language talk show “Chez Nous” on Manchester’s WFEA 1370 AM every Sunday from 9 AM to 12 PM and manages La Libraire Populaire, a bookstore completely dedicated to French literature. Finally, the somewhat exclusive Association Catholique has been replaced by the Franco-American Centre which regularly offers French cultural events open to everybody.

The city of Manchester is still growing and changing. With the construction of new headquarters, St. Mary’s Bank is taking an active role in the restoration of the West Side’s urban vitality, which was greatly damaged in the 1960’s by central city planners. Some Manchester Franco-Americans, like Robert Perreault, author of the 2010 book “Franco-American Life and Culture in Manchester, New Hampshire: Vivre La Différence”, are very keen on keeping their culture and language alive. Perreault and his wife Claudette, who grew up speaking French at home and perfected it in bilingual parochial schools, taught their son to speak French, and are now teaching their granddaughter. At least for the moment, the little girl won’t have many opportunities to use the language in her community, but the future always holds the possibility for change.

The Bilingual U.S. – French Vermont

The French language is one of the primary languages in North America. It is the official language of the Canadian Province of Quebec and shares this distinction with English in the Province of New Brunswick.

The Northern New England states bordering these provinces- Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine- all have some French in their heritage as a result of contact with their northern neighbors, albeit in three very different ways. This is the first of a three-part series which explores the history of the French language in Northern New England. Today’s post focuses on the smallest of the states- Vermont.

The first European explorers to discover Vermont were in fact French: Jacques Cartier is thought to have set foot in Vermont in 1535 while Samuel de Champlain visited the area he named les Verts Monts (The Green Mountains) in 1609 and would thereafter give his name to the state’s important lake.  The construction of Fort Sainte Anne on Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain- the first European settlement in Vermont- signaled France’s claim to the area.

Southern Vermont, meanwhile, saw settlement from the neighboring British colonies of New York and Massachusetts. The area remained a disputed territory until the 1763 Treaty of Paris following the French and Indian War ceded control to the British, who decided to allow settlement only in Southern Vermont, leaving Northern Vermont to the Indians. A cultural distinction between North and South remains to this day.

Vermont, whose population center, Burlington, lies only 45 miles from the Canadian border, is simply the closest state to Quebec, and so early Canadian immigrants often stopped their journey here. Between 1840 and 1930 900,000 French-Canadians immigrated to the United States. In 1860, 44% (16,580 people) of the immigrants from Quebec to the six New England states had chosen to remain in Vermont, although industrialization later caused immigrants to prefer the factory towns of Southern New England over the agricultural jobs generally found in Vermont.

Factory jobs were to be found, however, at the textile mills of Winooski, a village just outside of Burlington. In 1867 the total population of Winooski was 1,745, of whom 855 were French-Americans. The parish of St. Francis Xavier was founded in 1868 in Winooski to serve this population- masses were in French and education at the parochial school was bilingual.

As for many immigrant groups, religion was an important identifier for French-Canadians in Vermont and was the only institutional context in which they could use their native tongue. In 1891 the diocese of Burlington had a French-speaking priest for every 1,600 francophone parishioners- the best ratio in New England, and really no surprise considering that of the 45,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Burlington in 1890, at least 33,000 were of French-Canadian origin. However the upper echelons of the church hierarchy were not very sympathetic to its French parishioners. Said the Bishop of Burlington in 1908: “As to the prominence and influence of French-Canadians, the claim that they possess either, is misleading. Good people and devoted, yes. But they havenot (sic) the education or the other qualities for prominence and influence, either in Church or state.”

The Good Bishop also made a prediction about the fate of the French language in Vermont: “in a very few years there shall be little or not (sic) French spoken in Vermont, unless in…Winooski…because they have French schools.” The words of the Bishop were prophetic- in Vermont, 24% of residents declare that they are of French or French-Canadian heritage, making this the largest ethnic group in the state; and yet the French language is nowhere to be heard, even in Winooski, where as recently as 1990 55% of residents claimed French-Canadian heritage. This perhaps coincides with the demise of bilingual education- the St. Francis Xavier school still exists, but offers instruction only in English.

The result of decades of growth in Vermont is that despite its historical importance to the state and its people, French is a language which is to be learned and spoken only at home; however the recent strengthening of the Canadian dollar with respect to U.S. currency may catalyze some change in this situation. Last year the City Council of Burlington passed a resolution encouraging the use of both French and English on everything from highway signs to restaurant menus.

In Northern Vermont the history of French is still being written. Increasing tourism, business, and political relations with Quebec may restore institutional dignity to the French language. In the land where the “rivers flow north”, lakes, radio programs, and entire towns cross the border; an increased level of bilingualism is the last piece of the puzzle.

The Essay: Don’t Let the Best Be the Enemy of the Good

In the story of João and Ana the characters demonstrate two very different approaches to learning a foreign language.  João is driven by a quest for perfection but is hesitant to use his French in its nascent, flawed state; Ana, on the other hand, seems to care only about communicating and uses French as she knows how, as mangled as it may be. During the course of their time in Paris, Ana experiences a great deal of growth while João remains paralyzed by his insecurities. Ironically, the character who accepted her imperfections (knowingly or not) ultimately arrived at a much greater command of the language. The story illustrates a curious paradox- an obsession with perfection can be the enemy of real progress!

Anyone who has lived abroad while learning a foreign language can probably identify with either João or Ana, or both. It is nearly impossible not to make mistakes in grammar, syntax or pronunciation while learning a new language and while it is obviously important to correct our mistakes, no betterment can be achieved without speaking and practice. To master a foreign language we must strive for excellence while at the same time accepting our own imperfections and trying to speak. We may think that we are making fools of ourselves, but the real fool is the language learner who is too timid to try.

Postponing an action until the “perfect” moment arrives is something that we all have done at one moment of another. Most of us have also had the experience of finding that the longer we wait the more difficult things become. “It’s been 3 months since I’ve called Grandma, I absolutely have to call her but I’ll wait until tomorrow, it’s too late now… It’s too early in the morning, maybe she’s still sleeping, I’ll call her after work… I only have half-an-hour now, maybe I should call on the weekend, when I have more time… She likes to watch TV on Saturday evenings, I wouldn’t want to interrupt…” Before long 3 months have become 4 and the situation just gets worse and worse. Probably the perfect moment that we are waiting for will never come and if we are smart we realize that an imperfect action is better than no action at all.

A songwriter will usually have at least some small part of the melody or the lyrics which he is not completely satisfied with but which he must accept for the greater good of the song as a whole. An engineer designs a bridge as best as she can but knows that there is always some situation- as extreme as it may be- in which it will fail to function. A painter is forced at some point to step back from his work and say “it’s not perfect but I like it” or he risks spending the rest of his life covering the same canvas with ever thickening layers of paint. The song, the bridge, and the painting would never be sang, crossed, and admired by the greater public if their artists were not willing at some point to let some small imperfections go.

What actions are we putting off for eternity while we wait for the right moment? What projects are we hiding in the workshop, unsatisfied with their imperfection? Waiting for perfection, how much good work are we forsaking? The adventure of learning and growth starts with the first step, and no amount of immobile preparation can make the first step so long as to make up for all of the progress that we could have made while we were waiting.

The Story: Don’t Let the Best Be the Enemy of the Good

João sat on the side of the dormitory party, quietly observing the others, students from France and all over the world who, like him, had come to Paris to study. João had arrived here only a few weeks before from his home in Rio de Janeiro and had already fallen in love with the City of Lights.  Tonight, however, as in almost every other situation here, the normally talkative boy found himself resigned to silence. Even after years of French classes, João didn’t feel confident enough to speak with the natives. He needed time to formulate his sentences correctly, often couldn’t remember the precise vocabulary word he wanted, and above all, was embarrassed by his pronunciation.

João spent most of the party listening to the others speak. One girl in particular caught his attention, not for the usual reasons that girls catch a boy’s attention, but because she spoke boisterously throughout the entire evening. Like, João, she had just arrived from abroad — from Madrid, he gathered. Any casual observer would have instantly identified her as Spanish by her marked accent and  mangled syntax.

João wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or amused by the girl.  Some of the French people at the party couldn’t hide their amusement, mimicking her with loud guffaws. He was happy to have restricted his conversation to the few things that he knew how to say well; he surely wouldn’t have wanted to be the butt of French jokes for the way he spoke! He would just have to wait for his French to greatly improve before he could converse with people here in the same way that he could converse with people back home.

But as the months went by, João grew quieter and quieter. He had mastered a nearly perfect French pronunciation of some key phrases that he used every day- he felt very confident ordering his morning café au lait and croissant- but he rarely found the courage to say more than what was absolutely necessary and spent most of his day in silence.

One day, while he was riding his bike home from long hours in the library, a car flew out of a side street with no warning and struck João to the ground. Though dazed by the blow, he jumped quickly  to his feet. Staring at the driver through the windshield, he found himself speechless. After a few seconds of silence, the man tore off, leaving João briefly dumbfounded in the middle of the street until the squeal of screaming tires announced the abrupt stop of the car. A young girl was standing in front of the car, laying into the driver in a torrent of angry and fluent French.  Within minutes, the driver was at João’s side, begging for forgiveness. When it was all over, João had obtained not only a heartfelt apology, but a ride to the hospital and insurance information to pay for medical costs and bike repairs.

João received something else from the bike accident: an important lesson. The girl, his savior, was Ana, the fellow student from Madrid whose French he had so disdained at the beginning of the year. He was sure that none of the people along the street who had heard her give the irresponsible driver a piece of her mind had laughed at her. In fact, the driver looked as if he had seen a ghost after her sermon. Ana, for however sloppy her grammar and pronunciation had been, had obviously made great strides in her French during her time in Paris through constant trial and error while João had let his fear of making mistakes inhibit his progress. On his way back from the hospital, João thought of a quote from Winston Churchill that he had read in a book earlier that day: “The maxim ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelled ‘paralysis’.”

Reasons to Learn French

Reasons to Learn French

Learning French isn’t just about speaking another language; it’s also about discovering a rich and diverse culture. According to Language Today, there are roughly 75 million native French speakers and another 190 million people who speak French as a second language, which makes French the fifth most popular language in the world.

When you learn French, you’ll have access not only to the cultural legacy of France, but also to that of many other countries with large French-speaking populations including Haiti, Madagascar, Canada, and Switzerland. Additionally, French is an important language both for international business relations and for international diplomacy, and French fluency can provide you with a distinct advantage in an increasingly competitive job market.

Experience French Culture Here and Abroad

While Paris boasts an impressive collection of museums, world-famous restaurants, and stunning monuments, you don’t have to hop a plane to experience French culture and utilize your new-found language skills. From reading the menu in a French restaurant to watching a foreign film without the distractions of subtitles, French language skills will grant you access to a vast array of new and exciting cultural experiences in your own state or city. French cinema includes some of the most highly regarded foreign films ever produced, and French language films remain a vital part of the international film scene. Additionally, works of classic French literature in their original language are readily available from US-based online booksellers, and an increasingly large amount of classic French literature is available in popular eBook formats.

Of course, knowing French also gives you the opportunity to intimately experience a foreign culture when you do travel abroad. As a French speaker, you’ll be able to go off the beaten path on your next trip, experiencing France and other French-speaking countries in ways unavailable to tourists who have to work through an interpreter.

The Language of International Business and Diplomacy

French is one of the most common languages utilized in diplomacy and in European business settings. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and, along with English, is one of the two working languages at the UN Secretariat. French is also one of the official languages of the European Union.

While French language knowledge is advantageous in any profession that involves international business relations, it also opens up several unique careers. French language translators do invaluable work in publishing, public relations, government, tourism, and a host of other fields, and many speakers of French as a second language find work teaching English in French-speaking countries. Whether you are looking to grow your skill set in your current career or are trying to prepare yourself for a new one, French language knowledge will increase your appeal to employers.

People learn French for a variety of reasons: they want to broaden their cultural horizons, they want to gain a competitive advantage in their field, they want to be able to communicate with relatives or friends in their native language, or they simply want to experience the self-enrichment that comes alongside learning a new language. Whatever your motivation, I’m confident that you’ll find French language study to be a rewarding experience; chances are you’ll find benefits to your language knowledge that you’d never even expected.