The Importance of Language Preservation

As some of you may know, my first language is French, and I'm extremely proud of that. The first few years of my life were solely in French, I went to a French elementary and high school. That means every single class was in French (except English, of course). While in school, we were always reprimended for speaking English, and we all hated that. We just wanted to do whatever we wanted!
Though I learned English almost from birth alongside French, French is still the language I consider my first.

via
Franco-Manitoban Flag

You see, French is a minority where I'm from. To me, it never truly felt like a minority until about the age of 16, when I started spending more time with English-speakers, and working in an English-speaking environment. I never really had to struggle to find French. I lived in the French neighborhood, went to a French schools and both sides of my family speak French. There was an unlimited ressource of books, movies, TV shows, all in French, at my disposal.

Many English speakers in Canada don't see the importance of our second official language, and simply say "well, you can speak English, so why do you insist on getting French services too?" Which means many, many services offered in the French language have been cut. The latest example is the Radio-Canada (CBC) station in Winnipeg is being moved to the English headquarters of the city. Though the station still exists and will continue to function as normal, it's the idea behind the move that bothers many of us. The station has been there since 1946 and has never needed to move before, being right in the centre of its French community. Now, because of all the budget cuts, it will need to be relocated and therefore a little drowned in a sea of English-speakers. Though it's not the end of the world, I still find it a little sad...
This is just one of many cuts made throughout the country, making the French-speakers dwindle in numbers.

After my friend shared an article on Facebook about this, it sparked a lot of debates in the common section. It was really frustrating and quite frankly, completely insulting to read what some people had to say. Most of the comments were along the lines of:
"So what? It's not even closing so get over it."
"There aren't even that many French-speakers, so it's actually a waste of our tax-payers money to fund these services."
"If they can all speak English anyway, why are they being so dramatic about this? Just take the English services and move on with your lives."

Sigh.

Unless you speak another language, whichever language is may be, you will never truly be able to understand why we are so viciously trying to keep our language alive. You say "it's just a means of communication, and right now, English is the most common means of communication here." Maybe in your world, this is true, but it's not everyone's reality.

You are right. Language is a means of communication... like communicating our culture. Without it, our songs, literature, art, jokes, history wouldn't exist. It would all just be lost, just like ancient Greek or Latin, and we all know how important those languages ended up being! French-Canadians have been pushed around and often told they could not speak their languages... For a while it was even banned in schools, so of course we will fight to keep it alive! It's a part of who we are. Can you imagine if Latin still existed?

I think it's so important to preserve a language, no matter how "small" the population is. The more services and classes offered, the more people are willing to learn and keep it in their culture. If it's almost impossible to find, they will most likely give up and lose it. If I keep up with the Radio-Canada example, I know for a fact that if it didn't exist, a ton of us would lose our mother tongue. Many of us who now live abroad or among English-speakers wouldn't have a way of keeping up with the language or the community. Sometimes, listening to it is enough to be able to keep it.
Now that I live in Germany, where French is definitely not a popular language, especially not canadian French, I have to go out of my way to practice and find the information and news in my own language if I don't want to lose it. And trust me, I already am.

My Franco-Manitoban "flag" tattoo

A Glimpse into the Past

One of the best parts of going to Festival du Voyageur?

The reenactments. Inside the Fort Gibraltar, we have recreated a few of the huts, where people would have worked and did trading.
Every year, I always go check out the blacksmith. I love watching these men work, even if it's basically the same thing every year. It's a lot of fun, every one is in period costumes and you can actually learn a whole lot about the fur trading era of Canada. I learned a lot this year when I went into the Trading post: there was a guy who was talking about the Fort's history, which is interesting simply because it's about where I live, and it's part of our history.
Here are some more things you can visit at Festival du Voyageur!

Blacksmith 

Blacksmith

Woodworking Workshop 

Fur Trading 

Items "for sale" in the Trading Post

A Voyageur's bed in the barracks

A Voyageur sitting by the fire in the barracks

HÉ HO!

HE HO!

It's that time of year again!

Festival du Voyageur started Friday night and I couldn't be more excited! The music lineup is amazing and the weather is incredible! On top of that, this year the Festival celebrates its 45th anniversary!
For those who don't know, Festival du Voyageur "celebrates Canada's fur-trading past and unique French heritage and culture through entertainment, arts and crafts, music, exhibits, and displays." (Wikipedia)
It's basically the big winter event that all us Frenchies wait for impatiently! I've been going there since I can remember, and since last year, I've been working there during the school program.
It's a really great festival where we gather, listen to amazing music, admire beautiful snow sculptures, learn about our fur-trading history and eat maple taffy!
Here are some pictures of my weekend at Festival:

Snow sculpture at the entrance of the park

Snow sculpture

Maple taffy!!! Best thing ever.

Gerald Laroche (my dad! - In case you can't tell - that's a harmonica in his hands)

The Crooked Brothers

 HÉ HO! Bon Festival à tous!

Film Premiere

Gabriel Tougas, a Franco-Manitoban made this incredible movie here in Winnipeg about two young francophone students who accidentally stumble upon what could be a huge oil company fraud and investigate it.
Click here to see the official trailer.

Image source

I went to help out on set (for like... 2 hours...) on the first day of production, which was really great to be a part of, even for just one day and I'm in the credits! (yay!) So naturally, I wanted to see the final product! My mother was also a contributor, so we got tickets and went to see it premiere last night!
They had installed a red carpet and background to take pictures, the cast and crew were there, CBC was there was well and it was just really fun to see all these people from the community get together and work on a project like this.

Gabriel Tougas, the director

My reactions:
OMG! The movie was beautifully shot: it made Winnipeg looked incredibly pretty, the actors were really good and the dialogue and story was absolutely fantastic. It's not an easy story to tell, and I thought it was really well done. Each character had its own distinct voice, and the plot was easy to follow and far from boring!

Super belle job, Gabriel! 

Tattoo (Part One: The Tree)

I have two tattoos that I'm very proud of. There's a lot of meaning behind them. They both have a story that makes them come to life. The first tattoo I got was in March 2012. My mom came with me. I was really nervous but excited at the same time. It was only when the needle went off, that scary buzz, that I really got nervous. Surprisingly enough, it barely hurt. I almost fell asleep! Of course, there were some parts that were a little more painful, but it wasn't too bad. The healing process hurt more than the actual tattooing. For the first one, anyway.

This image represents where I'm from, my heritage; who I am. I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba as a francophone. My first language is French, and I have always lived in the french neighbourhood of Winnipeg, Saint-Boniface. Though a lot of it is about pride, I also wanted to have a reminder of where I come from, so that one day, if I lose my first language, which I slowly am, I will always remember. You never know where life will take you, so I take my life with me.

The Franco-Manitoban community has its own flag. That's what my tattoo is. At first glance, it may not look anything like it, but that's for a specific reason. I didn't want to have a tattoo of a flag, or a maple leaf on myself. I wanted something a little more artistic. I kept all the elements of the flag, and "brought them to life." The red stripe represents the Red River, the yellow represents the importance of agriculture, while the green plant, designed to look like an "F" represents the very much alive and flourishing community whose roots are very deep, and the white which takes up over half of the flag represents the vastness of the prairies.

As you can see, I kept all those elements: the Red River, the field of yellow, and the tree, whose roots go in the river. I added another element, though. In the tree, there are two branches that take the shape of an "8". The 8, when horizontal represents infinity, which is also the symbol for the Metis, which I am.

As you can see, there is a lot of meaning behind this one tattoo. I took a long time to find exactly how I wanted it, where, and why. I don't think I will ever regret this decision!

The Name

Emilie Bordeleau-Laroche

What a name. It's a very French name with actual meaning behind it.

First off, there's my first name: Emilie. In English, it's pronounced exactly like "Emily," it just has the french spelling, which I personally find prettier. I think part of the reason I was name Emilie is because of a famous character in the books and TV series Les Filles de Caleb, named Emilie Bordeleau.

Now, for the last name. For a french-speaker, that name is a piece of cake, but for the english-speaker... this name looks quite difficult. I mean, how in the world do you pronounce E-A-U together!? It's actually quite simple: Bor-da-lo-La-raw-sh. See? Easy peasy.

If you take the name apart, if get something like this: Bord de l'eau and La roche. Bord de l'eau literally means "edge of the water"/"shore" and la roche means "the rock."

Yes, I was teased a lot. People saying "hey look! It's Emilie, the rock on the shore!" It never bothered me. I actually find it kind of poetic.

Originally, my parents wanted to call me "Marina." A very pretty name, but combined with a last name like mine would make it a little silly: Marina Shore-The Rock... So, I was given the name Emilie.

I really do like my name, though. I think it's a pretty name, and I definitely love giving people a hard time with it!