How much French still exists in New England?
About Me
I was updating my information, and I wrote this for "About Me" and decided this made a better blog post.
I am the 3rd+ generation Franco-American: my aging mémère and her brothers and sisters can speak French, but don't; my father's first language was French, but he lost it in elementary school; and I never learned more than Frère Jacques, "comme-ci comme-ça" and "beaucoup" as a child.
During High School I began to realize that things like tortière and gorton were not universal, but particular to my family.
During college, as most do, I began to hunt for general expressions of my personal identity -- niche sub-cultures, groups/clubs, etc.
It wasn't until after college, on my honeymoon to Bar Harbor, that I had the dawning realization that those non-universal customs of my family I noticed in High School ... were universal to Franco-American heritage -- I had a heritage!
Since that revelation, I have sought to make up for time lost nurturing this natural aspect of my identity: I joined the Franco-American Centre, ACA and the American-Canadian Genealogical Society in Manchester, began taking French night classes and started reading the histories of Acadia and Québec that hadn't been handed down to me.
These efforts have been culminating this year as quit my job, and moved with my incredibly supportive and enthuastic wife to Québec City for a six month stay that will hopefully allows us to make the final jump to French-speakers.
For my future, I've created a company with which I hope to fuse my technical skills and entreprenurial passion with my growing sense of duty to play a part in ensuring that the French in New England isn't simply preserved, but alive and safe for -my- children's children!
Where I studied in Québec City: Bouchereau Lingua International
My Company Yankois Media
My Blog about NH & Québec: Hall's Stream of Consciousness
A French-language story I'm writing: De plusieurs, un
I am the 3rd+ generation Franco-American: my aging mémère and her brothers and sisters can speak French, but don't; my father's first language was French, but he lost it in elementary school; and I never learned more than Frère Jacques, "comme-ci comme-ça" and "beaucoup" as a child.
During High School I began to realize that things like tortière and gorton were not universal, but particular to my family.
During college, as most do, I began to hunt for general expressions of my personal identity -- niche sub-cultures, groups/clubs, etc.
It wasn't until after college, on my honeymoon to Bar Harbor, that I had the dawning realization that those non-universal customs of my family I noticed in High School ... were universal to Franco-American heritage -- I had a heritage!
Since that revelation, I have sought to make up for time lost nurturing this natural aspect of my identity: I joined the Franco-American Centre, ACA and the American-Canadian Genealogical Society in Manchester, began taking French night classes and started reading the histories of Acadia and Québec that hadn't been handed down to me.
These efforts have been culminating this year as quit my job, and moved with my incredibly supportive and enthuastic wife to Québec City for a six month stay that will hopefully allows us to make the final jump to French-speakers.
For my future, I've created a company with which I hope to fuse my technical skills and entreprenurial passion with my growing sense of duty to play a part in ensuring that the French in New England isn't simply preserved, but alive and safe for -my- children's children!
Where I studied in Québec City: Bouchereau Lingua International
My Company Yankois Media
My Blog about NH & Québec: Hall's Stream of Consciousness
A French-language story I'm writing: De plusieurs, un
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