Teachers from France are stealing our jobs!

[iamcreole]

Bonjou, this title is ALL WRONG, because as a descedant of Louisiana Creoles unfortunately Creoles and Cajuns are no longer numerously speaking French, so there is no LARGE amount of Cajun nor Creole FRENCH SPEAKING teachers trying to work in Acadia, so unfortunately bringing them in from France is one of the last ways to bring FRENCH back in Acadia! I know it is not Louisiana French but some French is better than NO French....just saying :)

[affairescadiennes]

You've got your geography all wrong. Acadia is in New Brunswick.

[affairescadiennes]

...and you say it's "one of the last ways". What are the other ways?

[original503]

Elle est d'où?

Ell est française, n'et-ce pas?

[affairescadiennes]

@original503 Cambrai, France

[onlycajun]

She might be my french teacher if I take it in my junior year

[Augustiiine]

C'est formidable qu'une communauté aux Etats-Unis continue à faire vivre notre belle langue. Les Français de France admirent votre persévérance.

[journeespfc2008]

It's so nice to see that no one is commenting on the video. The video shows nothing hateful. It's actually a really nice video that provides students with a story to practice their listening comprehension.

It also shows that the teacher from France can understand Louisiana French because the Louisiana French speaker asks, "Qui t'après faire?" (What are you doing?) and the teacher, understanding the question, responds correctly.

So, like it or not, this is a great video. 5 stars!

[SARAHBBRIGHT]

You know people don't steal the jobs, the Americans give the French the jobs...they take them away from you, the Americans are the ones that do that... because the French can speak well and teach you better than Americans that are taught by people who don't know the language well...because the language changes...and because they really are the best teachers...

and the Americans have the right to give the jobs to whom they want to, and who has better qualifications...good luck learning French :).

[affairescadiennes]

I don't need luck learning French. I speak French fluently. J'ai pas besoin de la chance pour apprendre le français.  Je parle le français courrament.

[Jamesy12193]

OMG its mrs. smith!

[affairescadiennes]

Yes, it is! Do your homework! Study your French!

[texasinparis]

I'm glad there's still some people in Louisiana trying to keep alive this common culture that we have. France and Louisiana hand in hand to maintain this exceptionnal heritage ! :)

We really have some admiration for Cajun people, here in France, and the way you fought to keep this heritage. God bless Louisiana !

[texasinparis]

I don't see the point in calling that "stealing jobs". We're all cousins, our languages are similar. They're not the same, ok, but there ain't nobody in France wanting to force you people from Louisiana speak french from France. Cajun-French is an amazing evolution from French as spoken in the 18s century, just like French from France is an evolution from this same language.

[Spatcher]

@texasinparis But there are people in Louisiana forcing us to speak France's French, and since the Louisiana gov't is importing French teachers, it's stealing our jobs as Cajun French teachers in schools (not that I am one, just saying).

[affairescadiennes]

Not true, Spatcher. Any Louisiana citizen who is qualified to teach French in the public school system is required by law to get the job before the CODOFIL teacher even if the CODOFIL teacher has more experience.

[emergencyexit16]

what everyone is FORGETTING IS THAT CAJUN FRENCH WAS NOT THE ONLY FRENCH SPOKEN IN LOUISIANA...so..when one says le francais de la louisiane, that could mean a few things..

[affairescadiennes]

What you're forgetting is that when Louisiana was founded, the French language was not yet standardized. No one in Louisiana spoke the dialect of Paris. So, standard/metropolitan/Parisian (whatever) French is a foreign language in Louisiana. Go tell the people of Québec to speak French like a Parisian and see what kind of response you get!

[matju2]

standardisation happened at about the same time as foundation of Louisiana and Québec. For the most part it's standard French, with some regionalisms from west-coast and north-coast France thrown in. However the French Revolution had a lot of impact on the definition of the so-called "correct" accent in France, so eventually this formal accent drifted away from the comparatively stable Québec accent.

[drewry]

also I just wanted to remind people that there are many families that speak both plantation (which is more standard) and Cajun French. My mom's uncle spoke both plantation and Cajun French just as an example. So teaching one and not teaching the other doesn't make any sense.

[affairescadiennes]

I agree. At this stage, it's more important to teach the vernacular than to teach the standard. The standard isn't anywhere near endangerment. If you have a dying man and a healthy man, who are you going to give the medicine to? You'd obviously help whichever one is dying.

[drewry]

I don't really think you can go out and learn a language at school and expect people to be able to speak it. A language was meant as a means for communication. They don't need to be memorizing or taking tests on it. They need to be using it, they need to be communicating. There needs to be more cajun radio shows, tv shows, newspapers etc. The only way people will learn it is if they are in a situation where they are forced to learn it.

[Spatcher]

Exactly. There needs to be a radio show that where the DJs speak only in Cajun French, and where they don't play music, sort of like a news hour. The reason for a radio show is because Cajun French is an oral language, only recently has it become written, and most of the native speakers cant write it.

[Spatcher]

Continued:

On KRVS on Sundays the DJs speak Cajun French, but their shows are just music. They do speak Cajun but its mostly to just introduce the songs and say things like "merci pour etre avec mon ce dimanche matin"

[emergencyexit16]

I agree with you guys about learning louisiana french (although there are different dialects) BUT AT THE RATE THE LANGUAGE IS DISAPPEARING, I WILL SETTLE FOR STANDARD FRENCH..at least if children know standard french, they later can go back and learn cajun/creole expressions and what not..moreover, there simply aren't enough fluent cajun speakers to teach...and cajun french still really hasn't be standardized which makes it hard to teach in classrooms..

[affairescadiennes]

You obviously know nothing (or very little) about Cajun French. If it's really "hard to teach in the classrooms" then I guess LSU and ULL must find it really difficult to keep their Cajun French classes going. Give me a break. You don't need a "standard" to teach a language. You just need dedicated people. Where there's a will, there's a way and unfortunately Louisiana has no will.

[emergencyexit16]

well..dude I am from Louisiana...and I think we are saying the same thing...my point was there are very few people who ARE TRAINED to teach CAJUN FRENCH..very few people speak it..and most of them don't really know grammatical rules..they just speak it..furthermore, I was referring to teaching elementar and middle school levels WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE IS EASIEST..I have met a lot of people who are learning cajun french at lsu and ull and I wouldn't say that they speak FLUENTLY..

[emergencyexit16]

continued...dude..we want the same thing..so don't feel like you have to attack me..and yes..I would be happy just to have standard metropolitan french..it's not my first choice, but at this point.WE MAY HAVE TO SETTLE FOR A LITTLE WHILE..

[Spatcher]

If you settle for a little while with Standard French, then tous les vieux qui parlent le cadien, ça va mourir pendant que t'es apres "settling", et pour nous-autres qui veut apprendre la langue, on va pas l'avoir...

[emergencyexit16]

well...yeah..but I really don't see why both couldn't be taught simultaneously...it's not that complicated...like I said..if we don't find some kind of compromise, NO FRENCH OF ANY SORT WILL BE LEARNED..

[affairescadiennes]

No French of any sort is being learned right now anyway. It's just being memorized for standardized tests because the students have no real use for foreign French in a non-foreign country. If it really worked, Louisiana would have a large number of French-speaking children, but I have a hard time finding these children myself. It's no wonder I'm the only YouTuber with videos in Cajun French. Louisiana's youth is incapable of creating these videos themselves. They'd rather do it in English.

[emergencyexit16]

I definitely agree with you on that...in general, in the united states, people don't put enough effort into learning a language...I really don't think french is a major concern to the big wigs of louisiana education...(although louisianans being able to speak french would heavily draw more tourists, I believe)

[CadjinGisclair]

Again, at this point, WE MUST NOT SETTLE!

[emergencyexit16]

and one more thing...standard french has a lot in common with plantation society french...cajun french showed up after that...that's why I pointed out the different dialects..so to teach standard french to people of cane river wouldn't be such a drastic change...as you know, cajun french is really different from what the french colonizers spoke..

[affairescadiennes]

The current situation in our schools makes me think of the shrimper who won a million dollars in the lottery. Someone asked him if he was going to retire and travel all around the world. "No," he said, "I like the bayous and I like my job. I think I'll just keep shrimping until the million dollars is all gone." If nothing changes regarding the teaching of French in Louisiana, we're just going to keep teaching French to a million kids until there's no one left in Louisiana who speaks French.

[Marseillon]

Oulà... pas de panique... Certes vous êtes fiers de votre français de Louisiane, mais faut pas oublier que votre langue est originaire du français métropolitain (de France). Faut pas complètement renier ceci... au fond, on est un peu cousins, comme nos amis Québécois, eux aussi habitants d'Amérique du Nord. Mais je vous comprend quand même un peu, et c'est normal que vous vouliez garder vos particularités. Aller, "j'sus" content d'avoir laissé un petit mot, au plaisir...

[drewry]

c'est tout a fait pareil avec les regions de france qui essaient de preserver leurs dialectes

[Panzeux]

Ej pensais que c'etait des acadiens du NB qui allait enseigner le francais cajun en louisiane? Ma cousine a ete enseigner le francais la bas mais je pensais qu'a l'enseignait en acadien. I guess que j'etais wrong. :(

[CadjinGisclair]

On aime pas CODOFIL icitte dans la Paroisse de la Fourche. Ils enseigne le mauvais Français à nos enfants. Mon, J'vas enseigner à mes enfants le Français de la Louisiane.

[franzd03]

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?? Just asking.

[Spatcher]

It's a bad thing, c'est une mauvaise chose ça. As Rev. Daigle said, "how can we preserve our culture without its heart and soul, or Cajun language?"

[CadjinGisclair]

He also said this:

"The futile effort being made now to force..[a foreign] French language upon the people of Louisiana is not only a violation of Louisiana law but an unpardonable insult to the Cajun people as well as a total disregard of history."

-Rev. Jules Daigle

[kakarnak]

francais de france.... noonoononon

[turtlesthehomo]

AAAAHHHHH!!!! Mrs. Smith

NOOoo!!!!!