Franco-Americans strive to keep French alive in Maine

A "No-French" law that passed in 1919 contributed to the diminishing of a once-thriving Franco-American language

[@wackyruss]

The same thing happened to the Cajun & Creole French speakers of Louisiana. So sad. Barely anyone speaks French in Louisiana anymore. So sad to see this was the case in Maine as well. :(

[@mirekpilsudski]

You guys are in a far better situation. You have 200,000 native speakers still. Cajun culture is strong and there at least cultural centers and institutions in Acadiana to help try to revive the language. There's virtually none of that here. It's starting to pop up now but it might be too late.

[@edmerc92]

@@mirekpilsudski Maine does have the advantage of bordering Québec and New Brunswick. Can French teachers be recruited from there?

[@mirekpilsudski]

@@edmerc92 Of course. The French govt has even volunteered to send people. Maine's govt and the federal govt just dont want to fund it.

[@nicolasdubus669]

@@mirekpilsudski I hope you'll succeed. I'm French but I know that your french culture is different than mine and as important. We let you down ... I'm so sorry for what happens but in the same time I'm glad that a sparkle of memory is still there. Beaucoup d'amour et de respect mon cousin

[@mirekpilsudski]

@@nicolasdubus669 you didnt let us down at all. Our own govt and our own society did. When the govt told us not to speak French we should have resisted. Most of our parents just accepted it. Thank you for the support. Hopefully we can come back strong.

[@HetaliaLover123]

Lots of my family lived in Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, however a lot of my family also lived in Maine for a very long time while it remained French. If my memory serves me right, a lot of them moved back to Canada after some time probably due to the loss of language and culture around the turn of the century. Watching this video, it's personally so strange to see an Acadian flag outside of the French Canadian Maritimes, however it's refreshing to see it still lives on in places my family used to call home.

[@nicolasdubus669]

Heureux de voir les cultures franco-américaines toujours vivante mais quelle tristesse de voir ce que vous avez subi. Je le savais intellectuellement mais le voir comme ça, ça fait mal émotionnellement et c'est important

[@callofthecthulhu4148]

Ils s'en prennaient aux enfants. C'est d'une lâcheté immonde. Comment ils pouvaient faire confiance aux institutions gouvernementaux après avoir subit autant de mépris ?

[@jamesidk1575]

j'ai besoin toujour a parler le Francais avec les tourists Canadiens donc le langue Francais au Maine n'est disparaitrait pas lmfao

[@ericwanderweg8525]

Here in CT there are huge communities of French people that came down from northern Maine to work in the factories and in construction. They still speak French freely

[@najerrys5061]

As a german American, I wish them luck. Our communities may have been decreased and discouraged over the years from America, but we strive everyday to bring it back. Viel Glück, französische Brüder

[@sananton2821]

Vier? Lmao keep trying

[@Reazzurro90]

Anything is possible! Italian is quickly disappearing too among Italian-Americans but there is a quiet revival occurring. Hebrew was essentially revived from the dead. We can all do this!

[@najerrys5061]

@sananton2822 mb bro typo :)

[@najerrys5061]

@@Reazzurro90 Really? I thought that Italian was all but dead, especially in New York and New Jersey 🤔

[@Reazzurro90]

@koschmx they know and the Italian government is actively trying to promote cooperation among Italian American groups and the government. The president of the Sons of Italy was just there and just returned yesterday from an official trip there.

[@Miniweet9167]

The « ban the French » movement was North-America wide except in Quebec where French was protected by the Catholic Church and also a 90% population. Most of Quebec was in English signage and Montreal was a pretty English town even though it was 65% French. It was part of the anti-catholic tendencies of the KKK and those militants were quite popular in Canada as well, but were more or less fused into the orangist British-empire advocacy groups. In Ontario for example, anti French laws were put in place and teachers and nuns used to barricade themselves in the French schools and would chase away police and government inspectors. Those laws were repealed in the 30s. The last French language school in Detroit closed in 1960 due to lack of students. Quebec passed a law to protect the French language only in 1976 in lieu of outright independence from Canada.

[@TheJosman]

Something similar happened in Brazil and Argentina with Italian descendants. There's more people of Italian ancestry in South America than in all of Italy but Spanish and Portuguese are almost universal. Only few towns in South Brazil speak Italian.

[@atlascove1810]

comme le disent les Irlandais dans leur langue, "Un peuple sans langue est un peuple sans âme".

[@inconnu4961]

LOL They dont have a language in Ireland? Ireland is a complicated example. How much of that manque du l'ame is due to JUST losing the language, and what portion is due to they were actively oppressed by Great Britain/UK for centuries? I think that plays a role too!

[@charlieread2097]

And yet the slow-boil eradication of Breton, Arpitan, Flemish, Alsatian German, Occitan, Basque and Corse carries on in France unabated.

[@johnwinthrop2702]

​@@inconnu4961if ireland doesn't have a language then how come all the street signs are in irish.

[@serbkebab2763]

It’s tokenism. The average Irishman on the street can only manage a few phrases in the Irish language despite being forced to learn it in school from a young age. The Irish language is dead.

[@inari.28]

@@serbkebab2763go to a Gaeltacht and tell that to the first person you see, I'm sure they'll have some things to say about it

[@rickartdefoix1298]

Le Français devrait être préservé dans toute l'Amérique française. Dès la Louisiane et le Missouri au Maine, ça devrait être offert comme deuxième langue aux élèves. C'est un beau langage avec une riche grammaire et un tas de vocabulaire. Qui permet faire des complexes estructures très efficaces et utiles, pas seulement pour la poésie mais pour les nuances. Le français c'est la langue des nuances, c'est qui est très important dans la communication humaine. Et pas seulement, mais aussi dans le monde du Droit et ses lois. 🤗👍💙

[@VancouverInvestor]

Good for tourism too. I'd love to see French people be surprised when Americans can speak French in France.

[@LilBitDistributist]

Same with German Americans. Need to reclaim their roots

[@dfirth224]

@@LilBitDistributist The two largest white sub-groups in the US are Irish and German. Early Germans came after the 30 Years War.

[@rickartdefoix1298]

@@LilBitDistributist No, it ain't the same. There's a French America, but there's not a German America. America had Spanish territories, then there were French territories and then the rest, that was British. Germans came much later and they were immigrants which is very different. So, no German language was spoken nowhere. 🆗⁉️🤗

[@fredericjanelle]

Bravo, je suis d'accord avec ton message!

[@jeremywhite92]

You know, learning French isn't that hard. Send the kids up to Quebec for summer camp for a couple of summers, and they'll come back speaking fluent French.

[@hatecrewsix2]

As french we struggle to understand the québécois. The Canadians usually do an extra effort to pronounce the sentences when they stay in France. Grammar is fine they speak very well, the huge difference is the accent.

[@JoeyisDREADful]

​​​@@hatecrewsix2 I'm learning Québécois on purpose because why tf would I care what you understand? I hope if I ever go to France my accent is aggressively North American I'm not busting my ass to impress YOU I'm doing this to sing La Ziguezon Zinzon like my dad's side and have an accent like my maternal grandmother who I would sound like naturally if she hadn't been *systematically robbed* of passing on her native tongue NA Accent, especially on a younger person, means we are FIGHTING for this language why tf would we want to sound like ya'll who didn't have to? Edit: And this is exactly why young people think the efforts to revive it by the oldheads back East SUCK. The Cajun young folks trying to reclaim their heritage learn Louisiana French but our folks are checking shit with damn Parisians first and calling it "proper" and THAT is why the Maine and New England efforts are unpopular. I don't WANT to sound proper I want what was stolen from me and for français de Nouvelle-Angleterre that doesn't exist. I can't learn it. I can do my best to mimick my grandma on the limited amount she even remembers and learn Québécois but there's no where we can go to have someone teach us how we'd have phrased things or sounded if we'd learned it from our families the way we should have. We can learn Québécois, it's closest and that's what we're doing.

[@TheStraightGod]

​@@JoeyisDREADfulWhy so defensive they didn't talk about any accent being proper or worse just that as a french they had trouble understanding.

[@magnushmann]

@@JoeyisDREADful Hate to break it to you, but if you're from Maine and learning Quebecois french, it's just as much of a different dialect from what was spoken in Maine, as what is spoken in France is. Unless you find a native Maine French speaker to learn from, you're learning a foreign dialect.

[@JoeyisDREADful]

@@TheStraightGod Because "they have a strong accent in France" was stated like it's a criticism of "send em to Quebec" and this ish is exactly why the old heads back East are trying to teach classroom French instead of our French. Cajun kids reclaiming get to learn Louisiana French, there's 50 million heritage societies to preserve the difference and our folks are taking criticism from dudes like this guy as if anyone should give a shit.

[@chiencanadien]

this is so interesting and exactly what happened to my family. my grandparent's first languages were french and so was my mother's, but it was quickly beaten out of her, literally, by the schools in maine at the time. now my whole family is working to regain french as a second language. it's crazy how just in one generation an entire side of my family's heritage was washed down the drain. i'm working really hard to regain my french language and culture but it's so sad to know that i'll never be fully french the way my grandparents were, and my mother was, before they took it away from her.

[@bluemoon8498]

Bravo mon ami, come visit montreal Quebec we speak French and its close to Maine.

[@veritasardens6547]

Keep on working at improving your French, you will make your grandparents and their ancestors proud and while you are at it, screw what anglophone monolinguals think - from an Indian Francophile who speaks fluent French.

[@danachos]

"It takes one generation to lose a language; it takes three generations to bring it back"

[@frenchtranslator]

Bravo, tu as déjà fait l'essentiel : réaliser que c'est important et commencer à (ré) apprendre la langue. Ça ne se fait pas du jour au lendemain, mais tu as déjà fait le plus difficile. Continue comme ça, c'est super. :-)

[@GiarcraiGO]

Im fortune enough to say I haven't heard of my family suffering in these ways. My grandparents left Quebec for work in Niagara region, southern Ontario. Despite the heavy french diaspora, the population is largely anglicized. My whole life Ive learned its popular and cool to dislike "the french". Sadly and partly, from my own father who didn't learn the language from his parents and discouraged my mom from teaching me. Ive been estranged from my dad for unrelated reasons, but perhaps this draws me to become more connected to the something that gives me a sense of belonging. This thought and the nostalgia I feel hearing people speak french and how it reminds me of my grandmama talking with my mom when I was a boy, have been my motivation. Using apps on my phone, Ive practiced almost every day in the last year (missed maybe 10 days) and seen serious progress. I'm planning to move to Quebec by early 2025. I implore the diaspora to consider doing the same.

[@litogor]

Shameful!!! Especially when you know that the English language could not be used without the French language because almost 50% of English words come from the French language ....

[@MrPillowStudios]

Not true. only 29% of words come from French. Additionally, 90% of those words are unsused or have germanic equivelents.

[@charlessmith424]

So you're saying he is right just not 100% right. Cool

[@ahsanurr4219]

Long Live France and the French people!! I love their own language from India

[@thato596]

50 % ? no . That is not true

[@MrRonantho]

it'between 30 to 40 pourcent,it still huge@@MrPillowStudios

[@lesenfantsterribles6898]

Magnific language

[@user-bo6xk8ws7e]

I am french et je veux dire un grand merci à toutes celles et ceux qui continuent à faire vivre la.langue française partout dans le monde ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@neilwoodward8217]

During a few years in the 70s I lived and worked in central Maine. One time I walked into a local restaurant and was floored to hear a woman admonish her young son: “Sit down and ferme ta bouche! Mange ton hamburger first!”

[@genesis2936]

In California for example, defunding and dropping Spanish from the education system, guaranteed one civil rights lawsuit after another.

[@hiphipjorge5755]

Did California not have the same assimilation policy as Texas and New Mexico? In those states, Spanish speakers were punished in schools and forced to speak only in English up until the 70s at least.

[@myerwerl]

Eh its fine. The spanish speaking are mexicans anyways.

[@OpinionesDeJACCsOpinions]

​@@hiphipjorge5755 New Mexico? What are you referring to?

[@OpinionesDeJACCsOpinions]

​@@myerwerl 🤨

[@jKLa]

@@OpinionesDeJACCsOpinions New Mexico is a US State located between the states of Texas and Arizona. It was previously the Mexican territory of Nuevo Mexico, and home to the majority of all US spanish speakers before the 20th century. Spanish or Mexican descended people have always been a very large part of New Mexico's population unlike any other US state. The vast majority of New Mexico Hispanics are not immigrants but are largely from families that have lived there for generations.

[@Mangoomads]

My family is one of those Francoamericans in Maine, learning French and going to teach French to my daughters in their memory!!

[@celtiberian07]

I have Franco - American roots from St Louis area . From what I heard that part of the family came maybe a generation after the revaluation. Not sure how long they keep up speaking French maybe 100 maybe 150 years but lost it

[@missourimongoose8858]

There are still a few missouri french speakers around cape in southeast missouri, most of them live in the old mining town, there is a group of musicians who travel around Southern missouri singing paw paw French songs

[@bluemoon8498]

Dam usa conquered my country quebec. America was owned by the French before 1763.

[@Simslord15]

Correction, HALF of America was owned by the French. Most of the 13 colonies were not owned by the french

[@FirstnameSurname738]

Britain conquered Quebec, not America

[@nickelflipper]

Notre heure viendra ! Vive les frères franco-américains !

[@geegeelast7597]

Oh you can definitely trust the KKK’s hate is multi faceted. So while they were harassing the French speakers, they were also targeting the Black population. Particularly if they were French speakers. This is what happened in portions of French speaking Louisiana.

[@mayorjoshua]

Yeah, I don't know why they had to make it sound as if anti-black racism and xenophobia towards any non-Anglos were mutually exclusive for the KKK...

[@mrowniii]

Yep, they did the same in Canada. Burnt schools and catholic churches, prohibited french teaching, hung our leaders. At some point Canada had more orangist lodges than UK. now they call us racist because we take steps to protect our language and culture. They will never get rid of us! Vive le Québec libre!

[@alioshax7797]

Worse, most french speakers were catholics.

[@patavinity1262]

Not to mention Jews, Irish, Catholics, etc

[@aliceberethart]

They targeted Finnish people too.

[@abrahamisaacmuciusiii9192]

Vive Le France! Long Live French people!

[@bluemoon8498]

Vive La France. You almost had it.👍 For some reason France uses the feminine article "La" before it instead of the masculine one "Le". France is also a french female first name. La also sounds better with the word France. French language is complicated. Dont give up👍

[@ahsanurr4219]

I love French people from India!!

[@BH-yk5cn]

If you say your trying to hold onto French culture in France your considered far-right.

[@speedwagon1824]

Wrong

[@DjangoFatt]

Wild that the Klan pulled up on them didn't see that coming 😭💀 Doing everything they could to keep it Anglo and Protestant

[@parceritocolo2281]

As a spanish speaker i always speak my native languaje to my kids and they speak it fluently depends on parents to keep it alive in their households

[@inconnu4961]

Congrats on that! But you live in a different era where we embrace diversity and dont care a whit about national unity. In the 1800's (Victorian era) through post WW2, there was a consolidation of empires, where having a unified language and culture was preferred, for national cohesiveness.

[@Zane-It]

If I ever have children I want to make sure they are fluent in Spanish and French. As a parent who was successful in passing on a 2L language help me and others learn how to do the same. What are some tips and tricks?

[@GenericYoutubeGuy]

@@inconnu4961what we the people really want is for everyone to speak our language and accept our constitution and combine their culture with ours rather than keep a separate one.

[@dntskdnttll]

@@inconnu4961He lives in such an era BECAUSE IT WAS FOUGHT FOR. By people brave enough to push against conformism for its own pointless sake.

[@missourimongoose8858]

That was the problem, those parents were persecuted for speaking there native language so they decided not to teach there kids

[@J0HN_D03]

QUELLE HONTE... quand je pense qu'aujourd'hui, l'espagnol remplace l'anglais PARTOUT! Beaucoup d'Américains nous critiquent au quotidien, mais ils feraient mieux de se regarder dans le miroir!!! Si nous faisions cela en France, ils se vengeraient... 🤬

[@lingo4048]

It's normal to suppress minority languages. The French state has violently suppressed all regional languages, starting with Occitan.

[@vilayoudama6235]

Le français renaîtra dans le Maine lorsque les descendants des francophones se rendront compte que le français progresse à nouveau dans le monde, surtout en Afrique.

[@Minijust23]

🙏🏻

[@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474]

Interesting. My mother and her mother went to school here in NH where all classes in the moring were taught only in French. Afternoon classes were in English.

[@Bravart81]

USA should teach French instead of Spanish at school

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I don't mind both.

[@Minijust23]

Remove ENGLISH ALSO

[@brunomathon2279]

Je vous souhaite de pouvoir vous reconnecter au français.

[@n01-o7y]

Y'a t'il des américains francophones ici parce que moi je suis belge francophones et j aimerai savoir comment c'est d'etre francophones aux États-Unis.

[@bigpynk]

Ouais, moi. C'est difficile parce que beaucoup de gens parlent espagnol et que c'est plus populaire. En Louisiane, certains commencent à réapprendre. Les écoles d'immersion en français sont de plus en plus courantes. Mais bien sûr, les anglophones sont vraiment ignorants et nous traitent différemment.

[@lesfrancos]

La grammaire française est difficile à apprendre pour les anglophones. C'est facile s'il apprennent l'espagnol. Les américains ne respectent pas la langue française parce qu'ils ont une vision négative de la France. Être franco-américain aux États-Unis, c'est plus garder vivantes les traditions et les expériences que parler français parisien. Nous avons notre propre identité culturelle, qu'elle soit visible ou non.

[@sergiobaauw]

The same policy towards minority languages was applied by the French government to eradicate minority languages in France, such as Breton, Basque, Occitan, Catalan etc. Many states saw (and see) linguistic diversity as a thread to national unity.

[@yohanapereira1629]

I heard about that

[@alioshax7797]

Absolutely. In fact these policies were applied (and are still applied) in most building nation-states from the XIXth century until today. Doesn't mean it is right, though. Basque and Breton are allowed and have schools in their language today, even though their statuts as "official" languages is still debated.

[@frankleespeaking9519]

Good point

[@lucd2320]

The funny thing about Breton, is that it leads another regional language, the "Gallo", to disappear, which was historically spoken in eastern Brittany (Ile-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique, and the eastern parts of Morbihan and Côte-d'Armor); it's not a Celtic language, but a Romance language. Nowadays, people know about Breton being in danger but assume it should be used in the whole Brittany (many tourists noticeboards are written in French and Breton for example).

[@genmontgomeree9888]

Same goes for Belgium, eventhough it has never been the maternal tongue of the majority of its citizens. Besides the quite well known examples of Flanders/the Flemish (who have always been the majority) the Walloons in the south also had to change their dialects for French. But since Walloon dialects were closer to French, they were open to do it. They also preferred France over the Netherlands and during the Belgian revolution there was a big group of frenchspeaking aristocracy and clergy that wanted Belgium not to be independent but incorporated to France. The majority of the Walloon underclass probably was also more favourable towards France, but they were easily bribed into whatever position since politics was something they cared less about than making ends meet. I'm reading a book on the Belgian revolution, my country, and honestly I can only comclude that Belgium has legitimacy problem and probably forever will have one except for its existence being the current status quo.

[@MrPillowStudios]

I am so glad they didin't ban them all from the whole state. California would have done so.

[@johngore7744]

As a bilingual English Quebecois born and raised in Montreal by parents with British parents , this is really interesting. In Quebec French is protected to the point where English only signage is illegal in fact the English has to be smaller than the French. C’est completement le contrare de vous autres. Cheers from L’ile Perrot,Quebec.

[@Imsemble]

On a quand même des écoles et plein d'autres institutions anglophones. La communauté anglophone a aussi des droits historiques et son exempts de la plupart des lois linguistiques. Justement, si on a ces lois, c'est pour pas finir comme le Maine, la Louisiane, le Manitoba et l'Ontario qui ont tous interdit l'éducation en français et assimilé la quasi-totalité de leur population francophone.

[@johngore7744]

@@Imsemble moi Je suis en accorde avec Les loi que protégée la langue Francais. J’ai toujours au Quebec parce que j’adore le Quebec. Les pluspart descAnglo qui est encore ici est completement bilangue. Je trouvé la loi des Anglo historic est bizarre anyway. Au Quebec C’est Francais. Enfin. Je suis ne a Montreal en 1961 est a ce temps C’est toujours injust pour Les Francais Je suis en accord avec tous Les regles pour protege la langue et la culture Quebecois. Je fier de vient d’ici un place unique et special au Amerique du Nord. Pardons mon Francais mal ecrite. Je suis Queblokecois. Ha ha. Salut de L’ile Perrot. Quebec.

[@Schlabbeflicker]

The French did the same thing to all regional languages, and much more harshly than in America. Today, regional languages lake Occitan, Breton, Basque, and Alsatian are in the decline. Hopefully the French learn from their own suppression abroad and restore the rights of minority language-speakers.

[@LesangdesdieuX]

Don't justify oppression with other oppression That's the fachist way, it's stupid and never works out in the end

[@BenjaminMini-hg6kk]

It is more complicated that what you seem to imply : « the french » is not one indivisible block of people, and french republicans forced on the suppression on regional languages at the end of nineteenth century to assure the unity of the republic ; any region where another language was spoken could be a potential reservoir of dissidence. Troubled times of republican parisians fighting against royalist or indifferent countryside people. I ´m french btw if you wonder.

[@Schlabbeflicker]

@@BenjaminMini-hg6kk I agree. Canada would be more unified if the Quebecois were assimilated to speak English, as France has already done with its minority-speakers.

[@enver2480]

@@Schlabbeflicker Not sure the independantist movements are verry popular in Quebec nowadays...

[@Balrog2005]

@@Schlabbeflicker They are not ''minorities'' they are french who spoke local dialects of languages or some real stong indentity regions like Britanny, racism is much more important in the decision to ban french in North America, because they were seen as nont enough WASP, wich is ridiculous but that's another story ... a part from that in many of those place french and the local dialects or languages cohabited since the beginning, and only was really dominant since the schools were unified in a national system in the late 19th century French... but even today there is no ''ban'' all the contrary, since the 80s there is much more lax norms, dual language is used in public indications and in some scholls etc... much more complicated that the ''french did the same''...

[@cubanipad]

My great grandmother lived in a town in Maine (that I now live south of) and most people there spoke mainly french! It actually sounded much different kind of.

[@inconnu4961]

Which town? I was visiting Maine for the St Jean Baptiste festival pre-covid, and hardly anyone I ran into spoke French.

[@cubanipad]

Madawaska, on Canadian border.@@inconnu4961

[@vcab6875]

Same thing happened to German language beginning with WWI.

[@minombre5555]

Partout dans les pays anglophones le français représente tout ce qui est chic et culturel. C’est étrange que les ploucs anglophones de ces villages aux États-Unis fassent tout pour interdire le français tandis que les riches envoient leurs enfants en France pour apprendre la même langue.

[@NOCHEMAL]

It’s Almost like the elite have a different set of standards and rules for themselves than they do for the masses.

[@spartan0x75]

"Americanized" somehow means English speaking? This truly drives me mad. Our multi-linguistic culture was way more American than being only anglophone. Besides French, Italian, Slavic languages, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and so many others, I'm still shocked by how we basically wiped out our German-speaking communities. German was once the second most spoken language in the US, but now it's near impossible to find. Honestly, sometimes I feel like we put too much emphasis on Spanish nowadays. Not saying we shouldn't have Spanish, but there should be effort in reviving our rich linguistic culture as well and not just about celebrating the new trend. They are all important and these cultures and languages are what make America America.

[@allanprimeau7864]

The land of the Free 😅

[@toyoashihara6242]

Everyone want to be a victim nowadays. Your culture is not necessarily the one of your ancestors 150 years ago.

[@pierceparker]

I wonder what happened if a child spoke German - was that an issue back then?

[@MassachusettsTrainVideos1136]

They lynched Germans and burned their property

[@sakurakou2009]

​@@MassachusettsTrainVideos1136as anyone should if they nazis

[@hello855]

You would definitely not want to speak German in America during WWII.

[@hemiolaguy]

@@hello855 Or World War I.

[@gentlebabarian]

Americans: i wish i was bi-lingual! Also, Americans: you can not speak your own language! You need to learn English!

[@AlexanderTolkachev-dw4ig]

Oh, America, land of the free... where people are not allowed to speak their own language

[@Pailncclt]

did you watch the video? 😂

[@AlexanderTolkachev-dw4ig]

@@Pailncclt Yes, and learned about 1919 law that forbade people in the US to speak their own language.

[@jonathanwilliams1065]

We celebrate so many immigrant communities but what about those who were here before America was born and whose culture is being forgotten?!

[@Aritul]

I had no idea that Maine had so many French descendants.

[@inconnu4961]

Tons! 1 million French_Canadians left Quebec for New England to work in the mills and escape poverty in Quebec.

[@Aritul]

@@inconnu4961 Thank you for that piece of information. I learn something new every day.

[@paulhumbert1190]

The word Maine comes from a region in France.

[@myradioon]

@@inconnu4961 Famous American writer Jack Kerouac is from French Canadian ancestry and grew up in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts speaking only French in the home.

[@RamPMonyPers]

C'est bien triste, tout ca! Ils ont perdu une partie de leur heritage.

[@sylvainb2366]

C'est la majeure partie de leur héritage qu'ils ont perdu.

[@tupperlake100]

Lots of French Canadians came to northern New York during the period when there was extensive lumbering. My school was full of people of French Canadian heritage. But I never encountered any hostile actions toward any ethnic group. We also had quite a few citizens from the middle east. French was spoken by adults but not as much by the younger people. My mother did not teach me French. She used it as a "secret" language when speaking to other adults.

[@savoirancien4093]

Le Canada essaie de faire la même chose au Québec.

[@carterdalby9011]

At the expense of everywhere else in Canada

[@johngore7744]

C’est pas vrai ca. Moi , Je suis un Queblokecois (anglophone) qui adore le Francais et le Quebec j’avez 63 ne a Montreal . Makes Myrna think a L’ile Perrot. Le Canada avez beaucoup plus respect pour Les Francophones que Les Americains. Le Quebec toujours a la droit de la langue la culture et la religion. Et depuis les annes 60s la langue Francais et totallement protege. En effect le Premier Ministre du Canada est oblige d’être capable de parle le Francais. C’est la loi. Tu peut pas dire le meme pour Etats a Unis. Merci pour votr patience avec mon Francais. D’un Quebecois a un autre paix 😎

[@johngore7744]

Makes Myrna think ????? Je essayer de dire. ‘J’habite maitenant a L’ile Perrot’

[@philipb2134]

Fun fact: New Brunswick is the only E/F officially bilingual province in Canada.

[@ahsanurr4219]

Vive la France et les français!!! Love from Bangladesh

[@OpinionesDeJACCsOpinions]

Bangladesh? Wow!

[@yannrousseau5437]

Où est l'Inde ?

[@TonyGuyda]

Forbidding the teaching of an international language: does not one realize French is the language of diplomacy -- in other words It's needed to help AMERICA!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

How I see it.

[@JackieLarose]

That’s sad

[@siphebunu]

🇺🇲USA 😮 France 🇫🇷

[@Evemeister12]

Its close enough to quebec, so should be easy. Plus you have french creole in louisiana and among haitian immigrants.

[@Troy-nc5br]

When you leave your town in Maine and travel through out the USA say Boston maybe South Dakota possibly Nort Carolina do you find many French speakers or is it English

[@scottrgood]

English.

[@myradioon]

In parts of big cities (Boston, NYC) there are neighborhoods of Haitian immigrants where mainly French is spoken and signs are in French. But you mostly hear English and Spanish.

[@diegogalvan1810]

I’ve lived in the Midwest, south, and Northeast, French is practically non existent here. You’ll never find anyone speaking it unless you’re in a major city like NYC, even then, it’s not common at all. English and Spanish are widely spoken

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

​@@diegogalvan1810Spanish took over for much of America, heard it a lot in public spaces.

[@diegogalvan1810]

@@ChristopherSobieniak I think it wildly depends on the region, the entire southwest is basically hispanic at this point, Florida especially in the south, major cities like Chicago, NYC, and LA have HUGE amounts of hispanics and Spanish is heard every other corner, but in places like the Midwest it’s a lot more uncommon to hear. Bottom line is you’re rarely hearing French, if at all. Only times I’ve ever had to speak it in this side of the hemisphere is either in Canada or the occasional French tourist

[@BrendanRiley]

If you go just a few meters across the bridge from Madawaska to Edmundston, the town is completely French.

[@williamjameslehy1341]

One of the surprises when I did Ancestry was that I have a significant amount of Quebecois/Acadian on both sides, alongside the expected New England Yankee and Irish. The Francophone peoples of Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces have played a significant but often unremarked upon role in the peopling of New England.

[@sunnyvasic]

I am from Buffalo but my Dad is from Montreal and many people even in upstate NY are from french decent and still speak french in the Adirondacks and the 1000 islands...few of my friends from high school still speak french in the household.I'ts very common

[@allisonjuno7654]

damn this hits hard as a french canadian mainer who feels like they lost a culture

[@bengazzara1324]

Here in Canada French and English languages are learned in schools and it offers a lot more opportunities for students in their life.

[@humphreywilson1125]

Land of the free!

[@inerttech2570]

Vivre libre ou mourir/Live Free or Die: New Hampshire

[@asmith2406]

French is a dying language.

[@pele11201]

It would be a dying language if it depended on the French/Belgians/Swiss/Luxembourgers for survival. Luckily, Francophone Africa is keeping it alive and well with the addition of our special spices and peppers! Mdr/Lol!! 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

[@normanduke8855]

That's my 2nd cousin in the orange shirt. Hi, Lisa! ( ton cousin Bob)

[@LuisRamirez-vv4dk]

Even the Engish accent sounds Canadian.

[@callibor3119]

That’s crazy. People were forced to speak English as borders of the US were forming between America and Canada. That’s sickening to me how I have not known about this kind of history in America. That is generational trauma that America has swept under the rug. There is a specific moment in America with a specific group of people that wants to keep the broad suffering and generational trauma under wraps. This is the time to speak more than just one language now that we have enough understanding of the English language today than when America was just a few dozen states and a bunch of territories.

[@jKLa]

To this day white Americans in areas of strong French Acadian descent in Maine as well as in Louisiana also have relitively low socioeconomic status and higher rates of social problems, incarceration etc. as well compared to whites in nearby areas. The affects of this generational trauma are definitely not over even if many including many who live them are unaware of their sources.

[@bac-kb3fj]

What would happen if this same attitude were done to Spanish children?

[@livefreeordie7386]

same thing happened and it is still happening to Kurds in "Turkey"

[@sibelius66]

As french, I can say u that we like Us people much as that it is said. Sorry for my bad english . We have common values, common history, and US know that France has leadership in Europe. Nous dominons les anglais et les allemands sur les plans militaire, nucléaire, maritime, géopolitique (par ex les accords en indo- pacifique), alimentaire, énergétique, démographique, culturel, industrie innovante (avec notre french tech), diplomatique, linguistique, touristique. Donc appuyez-vous sur nous français et vive l'amitié franco-américaine !

[@inconnu4961]

Vous Sprechen (parlez; mdr/lol)en anglais tres bien! merci. Some people know that, but I still dont think many Americans do. We are anglophiles, so we assume UK is the leader in everything. Those of us who are Francophiles have a more balance view: Les Gauls sont supreme! LOL Ouis, vive amitie entre les etats-Unis et notre grand frere, La France!

[@sibelius66]

@@inconnu4961 the UK cant assure leadership and you know the reasons, but anyway, I understand your point of view and respect it at all.

[@inerttech2570]

Moui... on est pas au top de notre forme non plus... On est meme pas foutu de mettre en service un sister ship au CDG

[@jorgeomarjaimesviafara6061]

France leader in Europe? 😁😄😅😂😆🤣 England >>>>> France Germany >>>>> France Canadá >>>>>> France United States >>>>>> France Australia >>>>>> France New Zealand >>>>>>> France Japan >>>>>>> France South Corea >>>>>>> France Israel >>>>>>> France South Africa >>>>>>> France Sweeden >>>>> France Norway >>>>>> France Italy >>>>>> France Ireland >>>>>> France Greece >>>>>> France India >>>>>> France Singapur >>>>>> France China >>>>> France

[@greatwave1]

What does it take to revive a language and a culture? When it is realised far too late, what was lost!

[@arnoparisfra7866]

I am so sorry. We French should have never forgotten our overseas cousins😢

[@pele11201]

It’s because of this “manque de conscience” that Spanish has over taken French as the most taught European foreign language in American public schools!! Quelle dommage 😢.

[@charlessmith424]

The Klan really did so much hard work to keep this nation homogeneous.

[@angeliquebacker8522]

Right? This nation has truly been overtaken by hate filled waspy Christian fundamentalist supremacist fascists.

[@nicolasdubus669]

Are you approving ???

[@OpinionesDeJACCsOpinions]

“hard work“?🤨

[@hello855]

"work"

[@daodejing81]

Fuck the klan

[@o4saken1]

The sins of our ancestors :(

[@FujikkoJP]

*French language shouldn’t be teach in American school at all.*

[@Jean_Chaine]

Ok yang

[@Rescue162]

Wow. I would think that one's desire to speak in a non-English language in the USA would be covered by the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech).

[@sherismith1070]

I didn't know this. This is so sad. I'm from the Michaud family in Kamouraska, Quebec, which is right along the St. Lawrence.

[@seancurran2054]

Kamouraska is so pretty! I loved visiting

[@vadimarsenie9182]

why is she wearing a mask in an empty parking lot while speaking to camera?

[@chrispalazis6501]

And this just solidifies why you can’t trust the school system.

[@lesfrancos]

nous aurons à nouveau la capacité de parler notre langue.

[@NothingMatterz]

Pay me and I’ll come to Maine and study French

[@johngore7744]

As a Montrealer I’m sure a lot of Quebecois(e) would love to get paid to go to ‘Le Maine’ and teach French.

[@balak1]

Je me demande si il y a aussi des fils de francophones qui ont travaillé contre leur langue et pour l'assimilation, par excès de zèle.

[@sylvainb2366]

Il y avait probablement des fils de Huguenots parmi les membres du KKK. Le principal coupable de cela est donc Louis XIV

[@ahmedbenissa5982]

American democracy

[@mgdu46]

Spanish accent of the lady who spoke French ….

[@pele11201]

Actually that’s a Quebec accent!

[@JonDoeNeace]

No offense but for me I felt like romanticizing one type of ethnic White heritage over another was kinda out of line. Historically we have documentation showing that there was such a thing as racial preference among employers ("No Blacks, No Irish") but there's also those showing "No Blacks, No Irish, Immigrants: French & German preference." So this whole social concept of one type of White ancestry being some kinda superior to another type of White ancestry isn't for me, which is why yea I have French heritage but I don't think there's anything different about it to any other type of White immigrant heritage.

[@joelvanderkelen804]

Strange. Maine was a county in France. The Plantagenêt originated in Maine, France. "Maine-et-Loire" is a French "Département" since 1790.

[@patrickdemarcevol]

We have the same over here where I live in France by the Mediterranean border with Spain. Catalunya was part of the big Aragon realm overlapping the Pyrenee mountains and including the Baleares islands, even Sicily and Sardinya, down to Valencia. with it's own language (Catalan) and the French part got split from it by Louis the IVth and the king of Spain. So the Catalan language was still spoken in what is called North Catalunya (in France) for a three centuries but kids in the 20th century weren't allowed to speak it in schools and it slowly disappeared. Some oldies still speak Catalan in the mountain villages close to the border. Of course in Southern Catalunya with Barcelona as the capital, it is the official language, Spanish being tought as a second language.

[@gofishglobal7919]

I speak French, love the language and love the French culture. However, I also know what speaking French (and Spanish) does for (and to) me with regards to how I feel about French and Spanish-speaking cultures. It makes me feel united to them. It makes me have more compassion towards them. I can understand them, both, linguistically and at much deeper levels...spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, culturally. It makes feel like one of them, and, it makes me feel as though I am one with them. It makes me love them. I am them. As a practicing Catholic, I am well-prepared in many ways to love anyone. Languages take it to another levfl. These are all things to which I (and all Christians) should aspire. But, ironically, that presents some problems, too, towards which I believe I should err on the side of love...for my soul's sake...and for theirs as well. Loving everyone is a good thing. But, when borders start to become erased and only one group of people take charge at the top of the world, all of those who do not rule stand the chance of being enslaved and or abused by those who run the world. Multiple countries, and the respect for those countries, seem to provide at least some protection for the citizens of those countries.

[@seandelaney9160]

Lewiston's Franco Center hosts a fun French-language conversation group at least every other week. Most of the attendees are from Quebecois families, but there is also a Congolese community there, and other francophiles too. At least a dozen people attended the two meetings I did, making a great practice oppty for every level.

[@chrisofbangkok]

The funny part is that the actual english langage is way more French and Latin than Anglo-Saxon. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioavY2yvZdt9brMsi=ZOqG7quEw1-NRp-X

[@TheGaztela]

El español debería ser la segunda lengua oficial de EEUU , al menos en las viejas provincias españolas : California, Nevada, Nuevo Mexico, Florida, Arizona …y alguno más

[@pele11201]

Esto no puede ocurrir porque los EEUU no tiene una lengua oficial!! 😂😂😂😂

[@timothycote236]

This also spread to the prairie states. Those laws prohibiting speaking in ones native language. Our families went from Quebec, to North Dakota faced the same issues. Children were not allowed to speak their native tongue. So, the language was not passed down. So sad. Some went to Maine also.

[@madewithrealdiamonds]

interesting. maybe they'll also try to hold and revive native american languages, previously widespread in ME.

[@gauchoparaguayo]

Fascists did the same thing in the basque country. To repress a people

[@r.v.4241]

Same thing happened and still is happening here in France with regional languages and dialects.

[@allanprimeau7864]

They should have left Maine en masse and return to New Brunswick.

[@AndréGuérin-l7m]

France loves you guys ! Learn again french ! God bless you

[@derrickberken6615]

All cultures and identities evolve and go away at some point, it is the way of nature

[@Miami799]

It's not racism, it is discrimination. This country has money for everyone and everything except for those who actually need it and are Americans.

[@jKLa]

Back then it often bordered on racism however as it wasn't just cultural discrimination but for a long time the Acadians were really seen as fundamentally inferior (Cajuns were also commenly suspected of being mixed with hidden black Ancestry in Louisiana) by many on a deeper level.

[@inconnu4961]

@@jKLa the French in north america had this habit of taking autochtonne wives (First Nations), so in the minds of the English, mixing 'good' English blood with anything else was a moral crime! LOL

[@jKLa]

@@inconnu4961 yes, I am aware of that history. It was quite a thing one apon a time.

[@10deTrefl3]

Extrêmement bizarre de voir les Americains de notre époque parler ce français. Je ne savais pas que la Communauté francophone et cet heritage avaient survécu 😢 (meme si dans la douleur). C'est très touchant. 🇫🇷 🍁 🇺🇸 (comment from a European french speaker)

[@gauloiscalifornien]

According to Macron this is our best allie 😀.