Le Carrefour: Connecting French-Speaking Populations in Vacationland
Jessamine Irwin chats with us about Francophone immigrant experiences in Maine.
Jessamine Irwin, French professor and director of Le Carrefour
by Brian Alcamo
“Nobody knows about French in Maine, and nobody knows about all of the newcomers that have been arriving in the past few years,” Jessamine Irwin tells me over a Friday morning Zoom call. “It’s a lot of new information in thirty-two minutes.”
I recently sat down with French professor-turned-documentarian Jessamine Irwin to learn more about her first film, Le Carrefour (The Intersection). Why is it called the Intersection? The film explores “the intersection of francophone immigrant experiences in Maine.” The immigrant experiences which Ms. Irwin is referring to are those of white, older French speaking Mainers and those younger black French speaking population that has been steadily arriving since the mid 2010s. The film’s goal, she says, is to “serve as a catalyst to create a space for conversation surrounding immigration.” Some of these conversations, she hopes, will happen in French classrooms.
Jessamine, first and foremost, is a French educator. She cares about the plus-que-parfait, proper pronunciation of the French “R,” and pain au chocolat. While university French departments and other institutions that offer French classes consistently advertise French as a global language with over 250 million speakers, (making it the fifth most spoken language in the world!) courses typically only offer linguistic and cultural insights into one country: France.
Maine may not be the first place on the list of “French-speaking places that aren’t France” (you may be more inclined to think of Louisiana for that), but the East-Coast’s northernmost state has historically been a stronghold of the French language in the USA. Le Carrefour not only gives us insight into the present day immigrant experience in Maine, but also takes us through the history of immigration in French, answering many people’s (including protagonist Trésor’s) big question: why is there French in Maine to begin with?
Tresor, one of the film’s main subjects.
Cécile, another main focus of the film.
The journey of French into Maine began with the migration of Acadians into the state during Le Grand Derangement. This period of time, known as “The Great Upheaval,” in the mid 1700s, was an ethnic cleansing attempt imposed by the British after they took control of New France (present day Canada). Acadians lived off the land and worked with the woods, producing commodities like maple syrup and snowshoes. To this day, many of them are very tied to the forest. Acadian settlements in Maine are positioned extremely close to the Canadian/American border. Some of their relatives moved down south to Louisiana, particularly New Orleans. Their southern eponym slowly underwent a linguistic metamorphosis to become a word (and cuisine) we all know and love today, Cajun.
Back up north, though, a wide-reaching underground French speaking population has been living there since the dawn of the United States, and Jessamine Irwin wants you to know about it. Le Carrefour stars Tresor and Cecile. Tresor came to the USA from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a pitstop in Brazil. He speaks French, Portuguese, Lingala, Tshiluba, and some English. He is well educated, having studied pedagogy in his home country and Performing Arts in Brazil. Beyond his official education, though, Tresor is also filled with more worldly knowledge than most people. Before coming to the US, he lived in Brazil. He says that moving to another country is “like being born again.” Logistically speaking, this unfortunately meant that Tresor’s degrees and work experience abroad aren’t recognized in the USA. Despite being highly educated, he works night shifts in a warehouse in Maine. Hardship like this, including having to learn new languages, adapt to a new environment and bureaucracy, and deal with the trauma that comes with displacement, is a common thread among immigrants and history, Jessamine says, repeats itself.
This repetition, she says, is playing out right now in Maine, tucked away in the far northeast corner of the country. Cécile, the film’s other protagonist, is aware of this past immigrant experience. She is part of Maine’s large Franco-American community, and there was a lot of shame in Cecile's generation for identifying as such. “Many people might understand Franco-American as an American who speaks French,” Jessamine specifies, “but in New England the term takes on a more specific definition.” Not to be confused with Acadians who moved to Maine before the mills, Franco-Americans are of French Canadian descent, either an immigrant themselves or a descendant of an immigrant who moved to Maine from Canada to work in the mills during the Industrial Revolution between the 1850s and the 1930s. Cécile and others faced intense shaming from the English-speaking public, and were discouraged from speaking their language and from worshipping Catholically. Franco-Americans were even targeted by one of the largest KKK chapters in the US. “If we avoid trying to make people feel like they’re ‘Not American Enough’ we can all benefit from the diversity, more easily learn from each other, give people a voice, give power to people, and break the generational cycle of assimilation trauma.”
A bridge in the middle of Lewiston, ME
Mainers are very aware of people who did not grow up in Maine. They even have a phrase for it: “coming from away.” “To me,” Jessamine explains, “‘Coming from away’ is a very nonmalicious way that Mainers describe outsiders. People care about the lived experiences of others. “Maine,” she continues, “is not ethnically diverse. It’s very white, with those white people typically having Irish and/or French Canadian heritage.” There’s certainly lots of racism to deal with in the state. This racism follows economic lines and gets more rampant up north, away from Portland, Maine’s largest city (of 67,000 people). “People want to find someone to blame for their own hardship.”
Some people in Maine are welcoming the newcomers with open arms. In 2019 with the first big wave of asylum seekers, the former mayor of Portland, turned the Expo Center into makeshift housing, welcoming the asylum seekers and making them feel like they belonged, helping them to not feel othered. “It’s dangerous to not make people feel welcome,” Jessamine says. “There’s been displacement forever, and most Americans are lucky to have not experienced it.” Maine has an aging population. Like the countries where the immigrants are coming from, the state is undergoing its own Brain Drain. However, Jessamine says, “it’s practically being gifted these super capable young people, and even has some of the linguistic infrastructure required to welcome these newcomers.” Jessamine and Tresor want people to understand that educated people are coming. Trésor believes that all these immigrants want to do is pursue their passions and move forward with the people of Maine. In the 1970s, there were 147,000 French speakers living in the state, and that number has dwindled since. Newcomers are not only breathing new life into Maine’s economy, but its French-speaking population as well. But not even all Mainers know about their own state’s Francophone backbone.
The Gendron Franco Center, a historic stronghold of Francophone culture in Maine
Jessamine, luckily, grew up aware of all of the French being spoken betwixt and between Maine’s maple trees. Jessamine’s mother grew up in Madawaska, a town right on the border of Canada’s French-speaking province of New Brunswick. Her mom grew up hearing French on the playground everyday at school, and this exposure led to her pursuit of French, which she studied at the University of Maine in Orono and turned into a career while working at the school’s Franco-American Center. Perhaps interest in the French language is passed down matrilineally, because Jessamine followed in her mother’s footsteps, beginning her formal French studies in high school.
Unfortunately, the filmmaker didn’t get to formally learn about the French speakers in her home state that she knew existed during those early years of apprentissage. “In my French classes before the university level, I never came into contact with Franco-American representations.” With the exception of one Canadian teacher who provided some insight into Canadian French and cultural traditions, most of her school books were Euro-centric.
Jessamine finally began to learn about the French language in her neck of the (literal) woods when she began studying at the University of Maine, her mom’s alma mater. Learning French, or any foreign language for that matter, tends to unlock opportunities, and Jessamine was able to study abroad in France during her time in college. “When I went to Paris for the first time, it was like my eyes opened,” she says. “People had no clue what Maine was, and made fun of North American French. At first, I kind of embraced it.” Due to societal pressures, Mrs. Irwin was embracing was the homogenous view that many French students and educators have of the French language and culture. Through her film, she wants to challenge those ideas and provide a resource to help bring the diversity of the French speaking world into the classroom.
Vocabulary For Your Next Discussion About Immigration En Français
Les frontières - Borders
L’identité culturelle - Cultural identity
Locuteur natif - Native speaker
La barrière de la langue - Language barrier
Une dictature - A dictatorship
Lewiston, the center of Maine’s Franco American population, is what many Mainers would describe as a “die hard mill-town,” a working class town filled with Franco Americans. It was founded at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and many immigrants from Quebec fondly remember taking the train down to the Grand Trunk Railroad station. The town features remnants of “Little Canada,” which used to be tenement housing built in rapid succession for the mill workers who were moving in droves. “The main street is easily identifiable, with the Continental Mill coming, then Little Canada, and then the Franco Center,” Jessamine says. In a course that she created at NYU, Jessamine creates that experience for her students on a week-long trip to the french-speaking parts of Maine. But in a less curated setting during her summer of shooting footage in Maine, Jessamine could still speak French every day.
Shooting with a bilingual team provided a few language-barrier challenges. Cecile is fully bilingual, Tresor is still working on his English. Jessamine’s co-director, Daniel Quintanilla could understand French, which helped for some on-set shooting snafus, since most of the film is in French and only two team members could decide whether enough footage was shot. Where her teammate’s knowledge of French was even more crucial, Jessamine said, was during the editing process. It turns out that screens and keyboards provide none of the social cues or body language to supplement spoken word.
If you’re wondering whether you can strike up a conversation in French with someone, the short answer is “yes.” Walking around Lewiston on a busy day (when it’s not freezing cold out), you can hear French in parks, spoken between friends and families old and young. You’re not considered a nuisance for trying to speak French, either. It’s a very “Maine” thing to acknowledge a passerby on the street. To wrap up our discussion, Jessamine recounted the story of when Cecile was asked “How can we be more welcoming to immigrants?” at a recent screening Q and A. Smiling, Jessamine recalled that Cecile advised people to simply “look people in the eyes and say ‘bonjour.’”
Thanks For Reading!
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A New French Single Hits #1
Australian pop star, Kylie Minogue has released a new French language single that has already broken the charts…
Australian pop star, Kylie Minogue has released a new French language single that has already broken the charts. The song, On Oublie le Reste, is a duet with French singer Jenifer, and includes a nod to one of Kylie’s biggest hits, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. The new sure-to-hit track features lyrics sung entirely in French by both Kylie and Jenifer and incorporates the famous “la la la” refrain from Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, which reached #1 in 40 countries in 2001.
Throughout her career, Minogue has been known for reinventing herself in fashion and music. She is described as a style icon and has been recognised with several honorific nicknames, most notably the "Princess of Pop". Minogue is also recognised as the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time. In 2008, Kylie received one of France’s highest cultural awards when she was made a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) for her contribution to French culture and for her overall love of the country. “Princess of pop, uncontested queen of the dance floors, you are a sort of Midas of the international music scene who turns everything she touches into gold, from records to micro-shorts,” said Christine Albanel, the French cultural minister at the time, when presenting the award to Kylie in Paris.
France wasn’t the only country where the song hit #1. Australia, Britain, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand all boosted the duet to the #1 spot. On Oublie le Reste, which in English means “we forget the rest”, continues Kylie’s long association with France where her music has generated twenty-four Top 40 hits, including 10 Top Ten singles and now, a chart-topping #1 single.
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The Expansion of French Language Classes
Montreal offers an expansion to French education with multiple budget increases to help more people learn French.
In a new proposal by the immigration ministry of Montreal, $70.3 million will be added to the existing funding for French instruction within the ministry, bringing the total to $170 million annually. Access to the courses will be expanded to include immigrants who have been in Canada longer than 5 years.
Quebec Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette announced as well that the weekly allowance offered participants in full-time French courses will be increased to $185 from $141. And part-time participants, who received no allowance, will now receive $15 for each day of training.
Child and disability care allowances for part-time participants also rise to $9 a day from $7. The expansion of the classes will see an additional 80 French teachers hired, an increase of 17%. The additional funding is hopes to create 300 extra French-class spaces for immigrants.
The province also hopes to reach an additional 4,500 immigrants annually through the expansion and contribute to the full-time French instruction of 17,500 a year. Stéphane Forget, head of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, said he believed the measures will “permit a more rapid and easier integration of immigrant workers into businesses in all the regions of Quebec.”
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New French Words to Use in 2019
New, and controversial, words to go along with the country’s ever-changing socio-political landscape.
If you’ve been following our French culture blog you’ll already know that France is carrying out many campaigns to preserve the French language. To the detriment of those wishing to keep the language in it’s purest form however, it has been announced that the 2019 editions of France's dictionaries will include entries that represent the “englishification” of the language.
A few of these include:
Fashionista - perhaps no surprise given France's world-renowned fashion industry.
Queer - a person whose sexual or gender identity does not correspond to established ideas of sexuality and gender.
Darknet -- a relatively new word in English meaning the hidden online network often used for illicit ends.
E-sport -- meaning a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators
As the political news continues to swirl, the French have a number of new terms concerning those in power including:
Dégagisme - a rejection of the political class currently in place (used by Jean-Luc Mélenchon)
Antisystème, - an alternative meaning of against the system in place
Revenu universel ("universal income" or "basic income") to mean a new kind of welfare program used by candidate Benoit Hamon
Cabinet Noir - hidden intelligence service
Women's rights have become a massive issue over the 2018, and the French have not been absent from the debate, thus ushering the terms:
Frotteur - the French word for those who get gratification from being unnecessarily close to women in public places.
Écriture inclusive -inclusive writing
Grossophobia - the stigmatisation of those who are overweight or obese
Boboisation - from the commonly used word bobo (a contraction of the words bourgeois and bohemian meaning hipsters) can be used to mean areas being being taken over by hipsters or gentrified.
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Faux Ami Diplomacy
Even world leaders have slip ups when speaking in a non-native language.
Late last month, French President, Emmanuel Macron seemed to encounter a situation of having good intentions “lost in translation.” While Macron is known for being well versed in English, he uttered the phrase that flipped the news cycle on it’s head for the rest of the week to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“I want to thank you for your welcome, thank you and your delicious wife for your warm welcome,” Macron said.
As one may expect, the journalists in attendance took this story and ran with it with the AP posting a report beginning with the phrase “Was it a Freudian slip by French President Emmanuel Macron? A joke linked to French gastronomy?” as a reference to the statement U.S. President, Donald Trump made to Macron’s wife, Brigitte.
In July of this past year, when Trump visited Paris for Bastille Day, he complimented Macron’s 64-year-old wife, Brigitte, saying she was in “such great shape.”
While it is easy to label Macron acting inappropriately for the linguistic choice, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the term in the French language. In navigating this “faux ami,” ( a word that looks and sounds similar in multiple languages but differs significantly in meaning), we must understand that the term “délicieuse” can and often does mean “delicious,” but it can also mean “lovely” or “charming” when used to describe a person.
Regardless of all things considered, this headline inducing event is a prime example of the difficulties of conducting diplomacy in a foreign language, even for a staunch globalist such as Macron.
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What's In A Label?
In France, it may mean the difference between soy “milk” and soy “beverage."
The Académie française is, without a doubt, the authority in the protection of the French language. If you’ve read our article Au Rivoir Smartphones, you can see the depths to which the committee is willing to go to make sure that the language is preserved.
According to a report by The Independent, French MPs have voted to prohibit the use of language used to describe meat, including the English words "sausage" and "burger," for anything that isn't actually meat. This mirrors an incident in the U.S. where Hellman's & Best Foods wanted to crack down on companies like Hampton Creek and Unilever by asserting that, by law, if a product calls itself mayo, it must have eggs. As one may expect, they were unsuccessful in instituting this linguistic regulation, and have developed their own lines of egg-less mayo.
While good intentioned, this entire cause may be a total French faux pas. While it’s obvious that the origins of the baguette and champagne are obviously and unapologetically French, the origin of the burger may not be so cut and dry. According to Wikipedia, “The exact origin of the hamburger may never be known with any certainty. Most historians believe that it was invented by a cook who placed a Hamburg steak between two slices of bread in a small town in Texas, and others credit the founder of White Castle for developing the "Hamburger Sandwich."
This proposal, however, would not only extend to meat, but also to soy & tofu products marketed as “milk” or “butter”. Wendy Higgins, of Humane Society International, said: "It’s a shame that instead of embracing vegan and vegetarian food, France has adopted a position of defensive paranoia. But ultimately it won’t stop the rise of compassionate eating because the delicious, nutritious, Earth-friendly and ethical benefits will prevail regardless of what you call the products.”
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Forwarding Francophonie
In February, France hosted the international organization devoted to its favorite export: its language.
This past February, France hosted an international conference devoted to recognition of French culture and language around the world. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, made the revival of France's international influence one of his key priorities after rising to power in 2017. Also being employed to aid efforts is the Francophonie, an organization of former French colonies and other French-speaking populations.
The Francophonie is considerably younger than it’s older sibling, the British Commonwealth, and was established only in 1970, more than two decades after the British founded their organisation and is not nearly as political. While the British Queen remains the head of state of 16 out of the Commonwealth's 52 member-states and their summits deal with global governance issues, French presidents exercise no comparable functions in the Francophonie, and instead deal with nurturing cultural projects. This makes it easier for France to push for the inclusion of many countries which were never French colonies but where the French language plays an important role.
President Macron has stated that “The potential of the Francophonie is immense; with nearly 275 million French-speakers worldwide, France remains a juggernaut in the global linguistic landscape," in a speech last October.
He is also adamant about dispelling claims that this is merely an attempt to save a declining French language and culture when stating that "This is not at all a defensive policy I want to present here." However with most of its member states being at financial disadvantages, the Francophonie relies on France's resources for it’s sustainability much more than the Commonwealth relies on Britain.
Still, there are plenty of actions being taken including booming online French language courses in places where French culture was not previously dominant such as the Gulf. If one thing is for certain, it is that the promotion of the French language is dear to the hearts of most of its citizens. Not convinced? Recently President Macron conducted interviews to media around the world in English. Let’s just say, it didn’t go over so well back home with some of his countrymen.
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8 French Phrases That Do Not Translate in English
These French words and phrases might not work well with flashcards, but learning them is so worth it.
Learning French is always filled with surprises, especially when some words and phrases do not exist in English. For us, this is one of the most exciting things about learning a foreign language - discovering completely new things we never knew existed. On that note, we wanted to provide a few French phrases and words you may have never heard before but might find inspiring. As you read, imagine incorporating one of these in your next conversations en français. Also, if you know a few that aren't listed, feel free to add it to the comment's section below. Bonne lecture!
"La douleur exquise"
Oh, the romance of the French language! This phrase is both eloquent and rather depressing as it roughly translates to "the exquisite pain." For French people this phrase would be used in reference to the longing for a love that cannot be achieved. Very similar to a Romeo and Juliet scenario. Next time you find your heart aching for something it cannot have, remember this phrase to sum up your expression.
Téléspectateur
It's almost shocking that a word like this does not exist in English as Americans are one of the largest consumers of media on the planet. However, the French came up with a term which describes viewers who are either audience members of a live TV broadcast or are simply watching/listening to TV from their home as a téléspectateur.
"Flâner"
If you've ever been to Europe, you know that long leisurely strolls through city plazas is a common activity for the locals. In French, you may think to describe this with the term 'une promenade' (which means a stroll in English). However, in the 19th century, a new word was created which defined a stroll, more specifically a stroll through Paris, without any particular destination or goal in mind as Flâner. Thus, aimless Parisian pedestrians strolling the city only to enjoy the view became known as Flâneurs.
"Bricolage"
If you are a crafty person, then this French word is for you. It translates to something very similar to do-it-yourself or DIY. Additionally, a bricoleur describes someone like a handyman.
"Ras-le-bol"
This one is perhaps the oddest French phrases of them all which describes an extreme sense of dissatisfaction and frustration. It would be something similar to the English "I've had enough," "I'm through," or "I've had it up to here with..." This is typically the last thing you might hear out of someone's mouth before storming out of a room after a heated discussion.
"Bouffer"
This term is a way to describe how animals eat. It can also be used to impolitely refer to humans, kind of like the saying that someone 'eats like a pig.'
"Retrouvailles"
This rather charming French word describes the ultimate sense of joy experienced when meeting someone you may not have seen for a very long time. If you could see it, it would look like someone jumping up and down and screaming with happiness.
"LoufoQuerie"
In short, this term means craziness. The word and how it came to be is crazy within itself. It's root, louchébem, is a slang term invented by French butchers in the 19th Century who made a sort-of-game out of the French language. For each word, they would move the first consonant to the end, add a standard suffix, then place the letter 'L' at the very beginning. This is something like 'pig latin' or 'gibberish.' To this day, this slang language is still used in France by butchers across the country. The root of this term is indeed just as crazy as its meaning.
Learning French is always surprising and these 8 French Phrases That Do Not Translate in English are just a few of the hidden secrets to becoming more fluent in French. Have other words or phrases you'd like added to this list? Don't forget to post them in the comment's section below & pass this forward to your francophone friends online using #jplingo @jplinguistics. Merci et à bientôt!
Pop Quiz - Can You Answer These 8 Cultural Facts?
Think you know more than thing or two about French and culture? Prove it!
Think you know a thing or two about French language and culture? Take our fun and short 8-question quiz which will test your knowledge on some of the country's most beloved history. Click submit to see the right answers. Bonne chance!
(Please note the source of original content for the quiz above: www.french.lovetoknow.com)
We hope you enjoyed Pop Quiz - Can You Answer These 8 Cultural Facts! For more language tips and French classes visit us at www.jplinguistics.com.