Your reading of the advertisement was made with your prisms. That being said, language is a tool that should be a vehicle for a culture that I hope will remain Quebecois and French-speaking, but I note that the anglicisms (Americanisms, should we say) that you use are only the reflection of the dominant culture and I called it “the American steamroller”. I hope I’m not here to see the Louisianization of our culture.
Well done Mirabelle! Well said, I agree with you, me a baby boomer who thinks that the government is on the wrong target. It is enough to see reports on Quebeckers making careers elsewhere who, even after 10 years of exile, still express themselves in impeccable French without an accent in an English-speaking environment for the majority of them. Your Quebec takes on a multicultural face that in no way takes away the precedence of French. On the contrary, it is a wealth to switch from one language to another for some, or simply to use a few Anglicisms. It is not a few English expressions in a conversation that determine the decline of French, one should not exaggerate all the same.
It is characteristic of youth to believe itself more intelligent than those who preceded it. Today, about ten English words (very different from Anglicisms) have become part of their vocabulary, eradicating at the same time their French equivalents, which will soon be forgotten. Tomorrow it will be fifty, and the day after tomorrow, a hundred or more English words. Their children will believe themselves as better than their parents and will gradually erase what remains of the language of their ancestors. Whether it takes 10, 50, or 100 years, the result will be the same, and it will be the three or four little English words that Mrs. Liens believes are safe that will have done the job.
Anglicisms, when we claim to speak good French, are like gangrene: one day or another, it will eat away at us to such an extent that we will no longer recognize our language. But to read the words of the student who wrote the letter in La Presse, it does not seem very serious. Error ! Don’t do like our cousins ​​in France who swap their language for Anglicisms. What a linguistic disgrace! However, this young woman shows us that she knows how to handle our language well in writing. What great wealth! There is hope !
In my view, the simple purpose of this ad is to create awareness. This comment (and all the others!) clearly demonstrates that this one has been achieved. Indifference would have been a failure.
The recent Quebec government advertisement using certain Anglicisms in a documentary tone hit the nail on the head. Young people, who increasingly use this kind of language, felt a little humiliated and even embarrassed that they were being caricatured in this way. Their supposedly cool language being taken over by the government flaunts all the ridiculousness and superficiality of this style. In fact, it’s not chill anymore.
Investing to educate and promote French is much more important than empty advertising messages that give the government a good conscience. Moreover, language is a fluid, permeable, dynamic means of communication that evolves with its time and its users. One could direct its evolution, but not direct or constrain it.
Mrs. Leins, you are wrong. It starts with a word or two and ends with several words in the same sentence, like in Acadie where my mother was born. Acadians have to fight every day to keep their French, and Franco-Canadians are also struggling to keep their language. Assimilation is a sneaky adversary that gives no quarter. It seeps like a drop of water through a crack.
I am a francophone boomer, parent of young women aged 18 and 19. First, to tell you that I loved the ad evoking animal documentaries and featuring the peregrine falcon. A little humor in this murky world is good. Next, to tell you that my daughters use these terms regularly and that I don’t mind. But I insist that they write their French flawlessly and that they can have a lively conversation, without Anglicism. Yes, the protection of French is an everyday fight and it starts at home. But culture is a living and dynamic thing. What would we be without our joual and without Elvis Gratton?
