Many years ago some people decided that the St.Pierre’s, Dupuis’, Morneau’s, and Pelletier’s shouldn’t speak French anymore. They decided it wasn’t useful, it wasn’t pretty… They declared it was the linguistic stamp of the undereducated and it was a verbal confirmation that in the years past there has been a lot of catholicism, even more children, and not enough of that darn “Anglais.” Now as I look into the eyes of the strongest elders in my family I see the lives of those names above playing through their minds as I took back that language. Imagine being a certified, Anglophone, French teacher at 22 in the state of Maine, when 2 generations ago my grandmother wrote carefully in her English class “Hello, my name is Mary-Ann,” her first real taste of English after 6 years living in the United States. I am going to talk about that. I am going to talk about linguistic dominance. I am going to talk about xenophobia against (Franco) Americans. I am going to talk about pride. I am going to talk about family, and I am going to talk about how I stole French back.
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