THE STATE OF FRENCH STUDIES IN THE US : FACING A NEW CHALLENGE

Until the recent past French in the US was considered less a foreign language than the language of culture or, to say it differently, the second language of those who could read or speak a foreign language. In fact, this has been true since the birth of the nation. Take, for example, a letter from John Adams, who became the second President of the United States, to his wife Abigail, in which he tells her to study French ; a language, he writes, that « soon will become a necessary Accomplishment of an American gentleman and lady. »

We all know that, since the 18th century, French has been associated with the language of culture and diplomacy. However - and this is less often acknowledged- while French has enjoyed for many years a high status in the US, it achieved this despite the lack massive immigration of French people, compared for example with Italian, Spanish or Portuguese immigration. One result of this situation is the fact that there has never been any serious discrimination against a culture and a language identified with a local community.

To be accurate, there is one exception, which I ought to mention, as we are in Lowell and on a university campus that began as the Lowell Textile Institute. It concerns the French-speaking Canadian immigrants, the thousands who came to work in the mills of this very city, who lived in their close-knit « Petits Canadas », and were dubbed « the Chinese of the East » for their refusal to assimilate with the rest of the English speaking population. As an illustration of this, - given the fact that history was made in this very neighborhood – I have added a brief editorial from the New York Times dating from 1892, which is quite explicit on the subject.

If, at the turn of the 20th century, at the time of the creation of the American research university based on the Germanic model, German became for a while the first rival of French, its diffusion later on suffered from both world wars and the American military engagement against Nazi Germany.

The prestige of the French language survived three waves of democratization that have changed American High Education. First, at the end of the 19th century, a period when private Liberal Arts colleges following the British model transformed themselves into research universities and opened to the children of immigrants from Europe ; and then again after World War II, followed by an additional massive change in the 60’s, which, incidentally, gave yours truly an opportunity to start his career across the river as a French instructor at Lowell State College. Those of you who have read Candide may remember the word of Voltaire : « When you are more or less content where you are, you stay there. »

It also happens – luckily - from the 60’s onward, that theoretical and literary French movements, such as existentialism, structuralism, post-structuralism, one after the other, continuedthe prestige attributed to French and maintained it at the level of noble disciplines such as English and philosophy.

That belongs the past. Today French has lost its aura of distinction as well as a good portion of its influence. After being the language of culture or the sole foreign language of those who could boast having the knowledge of a second language, French as become a foreign language like any other, however far behind its rival, Spanish.

The reason? For the last decades, no appealing intellectual or literary – or better said – subversive movement has succeeded to the 1960’s schools of thought that once attracted students to French studies. For – and this is important to underline - what often had seduced American intellectuals with French thought was its radicalism or even its perversion. From De Gaulle and its « Vive le Québec libre » in Montreal in 1967 to philosophers or controversial thinkers such as Derrida or Foucault, « the French thing » has been associated with excess, provoking a kind of tremendum et fascinans.

Thus, victims of their success, the last waves of imported thought have now been assimilated by American scholars and diffused in all the appropriate disciplines, but only at the elementary level and in translation, under the form of extracts you may find in such courses as Great Books of the Modern Period. In short, French thought belongs today to the common trunk and no longer exerts any intellectual leadership. The following is perhaps an appropriate comparison : The same as surrealism can be considered as the last artistic avant-garde of the Old World (you’ll note that there is no American term to translate avant- garde in English), post-structuralism, perhaps, is the last theoretical avant-garde movement originating from Europe.

Furthermore, since the end of the 60’s, the American dream of the melting pot has been viewed as an instrument of oppression towards minorities ; multiculturalism, or the rise of cultural studies, is now in competition with the humanities. Increased consciousness in ethnic pride has led, for example, to the cultural diversity requirement that is now part and parcel of the new general education requirement.

The result? Nowadays French suffers from the handicap of political correctness, and for a good reason. For a long time, Europe has represented a hegemony of political and cultural imperialism. Hence today multiculturalism is almost fatally anti-European, and French is twice the victim, first because, more than any other foreign language, it is ofen identified with elitism and distinction, and secondly, because, as I said at the beginning, no local community of importance can claim it as its own heritage language . Yes, even in Lowell, the « All American City », whose Franco-American strand is irremediably fading away as the years go by.

Hence, one has the right to worry about the future of French studies in the US, not only because of the intellectual climate I have just evoked, but also because of the nation-wide dangerous decline of French in enrollment figures to the advantage of Spanish, both at the secondary as well as the post-secondary level.

Just a few figures : a survey conducted at the secondary level in 1905 showed that 10.1% of high school students took French and none Spanish. In the mid 60’s the percentages were 10.8% for French and 12.3% for Spanish. Three decades later, Spanish has jumped to 45.8% et French is down to 9.3 %. The informal survey that I conducted this past summer with high school French teachers revealed that there are today about four classes of Spanish for one class of French.

Why is this preference for Spanish? Here is the usual answer : Spanish is viewed as being not only easier to learn, but also as being more useful. I may add that I have posed this very question to incoming Freshmen from the Lowell area, whose last names revealed a Franco-American heritage, but who nevertheless had elected Spanish instead of French. The few students I have questioned hadapparently, at least for the moment, no interest in their roots or in their heritage language. They are Americans. Period. You’ll find an interesting confirmation of this assertion in a recent article from The Boston Globe titled “The Unhyphenating of America”.

Furthermore, what’s left of the French, or more precisely of the Franco-American, presence in Lowell, is nowadays in museums, with, for intance, Jack Kerouac’s Underwood typewriter or on the front of a few rare buildings with still a « Bienvenue » sign on them, but most of the times converted. Here is a significant example, just a few blocks – or, should I say, quadras, from this campus : the mother-church of the Franco-Americans, the very church from which Kerouac was eulogized in October 1969, and known for 150 years as « L’église Saint Jean-Baptiste » is now « La iglesia Nuestra Señora del Carmen ». One exception however: Mammon and its Dollar Almighty: Just a few steps from the late Franco-American church proudly stands the very prosperous Banque Populaire franco-américaine, whose credit card bears the name of Jeanne d’Arc Credit Union.

The subtitle of this brief presentation is Facing a New Challenge. In very simple terms, this challenge can be summarized in two missions: the first one led by the American Association of the Teachers of French, whose 75^th annual congress held in Boston this past summer had for theme: “French changes but doesn’t age” (Le français change mais ne vieillit pas) and led as well by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy – what other nation in the world spends 1% of its budget to propagate its own culture? - a mission that could be titled the reconquest of the French language. The second one consists in better mastering and properly utilizing the new technologies that are so easily put at our disposal.

Here is an example of what I mean by reconquest: Rather than competing with Spanish, which de facto has become the second language in the US, let us endeavor to show our students that French is also useful, useful in particular for better mastering English. For the sole 12^th and 13^th centuries, for instance, ten thousand English words have been borrowed from French. And what about the United States of America? Thirty, out of our fifty states, have been discovered, explored or named by French explorers. What word, for instance, to describe the vast expanses of the Mid-West is more American than “prairie”? French explorers excelled in finding the proper descriptive term to aptly name what they saw, be it “Vermont”, the ‘green mount’, or ... “The Grand Tetons”. Say it in French: les grands tétons – and you immediately know what it means - the big tits. Spanish, of course, has contributed to the enrichment of the English language, but to a much lesser extent. Also, Spanish, as well as Portuguese, has this peculiarity that distinguishes it from the other romance languages and increases its difference with English, namely that 9% of its vocabulary is of Arabic origin.

Let’s demonstrate also that the study of French, but not only French, any foreign language has practical advantages. Research has shown that five years of study of a foreign language, any foreign language, compared to the study of any other subject, was associated with higher SAT scores. It has been demonstrated also that students who continue the study of foreign languages develop a greater facility for the acquisition of the artificial languages of computer science.

Here is another point: Despite the handicap of political correctness and the cultural imperialism of French, go and look at some of the magazines where American men and women of a certain class answer the question of which language they would like to be able to speak, which would give some luster to their social or professional life. Why invariably do they respond “French”? For reasons as banal as being able to correctly pronounce the name of the dish or the selected wine on the menu of a chic restaurant. Incidentally, I’ve just used three French words!

The second mission of reconquest aims at better tapping the resources offered by the new technologies, which, when employed properly, are the best allies of a foreign language teacher. The internet can be used at all levels, from the teaching of grammar to the teaching of civilization. Talking about the sins of the past of Europe, I mentioned the words “cultural imperialism” and “hegemony”. Can it be argued today that internet represents a new hegemony, held today by US? 45% of internet traffic is said to be done in English. However, rather than taking a negative view of this important fact, let’s appreciate its usefulness with all its practical applications. It gives French culture in particular a means of being disseminated throughout the world that is both novel and unprecedented.

I began these reflections with a quotation from a political man, the Bostonian and francophile John Adams. I will conclude with the following response from Condoleeza Rice, the woman, the Black woman, who is President Bush’s national security advisor, but is also a talented pianist as well as a specialist of Russian. When she was an undergraduate student in Denver, one of her ill-advised professors undertook to offer a theory on the intellectual superiority of the Whites. She rose and retorted with the following: “The one who speaks French here, it’s me ; the one who plays Beethoven, it’s me. I have a better knowledge of your culture than you have. Those are things that can be learned.”

One last word of confession: without an internet search, I would never have discovered the preceding quote. Hence, long live the internet and long live French!

About the Francos ...

[...] “their singular tenacity as a race and their extreme devotion to their religion and their transplantation to the manufacturing centers and the rural districts in New England means that Quebec is transferred bodily to Manchester and Fall River and Lowell. Not only does the French curé follow the French peasantry to their new homes, but he takes with him the parish church, the ample clerical residence, the convent for the sisters, and the parochial school for the education of the children. He also perpetuates the French ideas and aspirations through the French language, and places all the obstacles possible in the way of assimilation of these people to our American life and thought. There is something still more important in this transplantation. These people are in New England as an organized body, whose motto is “Notre religion, notre langue, et nos moeurs.” This body is ruled by a principle directly opposite to that which has made New England what it is.”

New York Times Editorial, June 6, 1892

[. . .] leur singulière ténacité en tant que race, leur extrême dévotion à leur religion et leur transplantation dans les centres manufacturiers et les districts ruraux de Nouvelle-Angleterre signifient que le Québec s’est transféré corps et âmes à Manchester, Fall River et Lowell. Non seulement le curé français suit la paysannerie française dans leurs nouvelles demeures, mais il emmène avec lui l’église paroissiale, la vaste résidence de son presbytère, le couvent des religieuses et l’école paroissiale pour l’éducation des enfants. Par le moyen de la langue française sont également perpétuées les idées et les aspirations françaises, et sont également disposés sur la voie de l’assimilation de ce peuple à notre vie américaine et à notre façon de penser tous les obstacles possibles. Il y a cependant quelque chose d’encore plus important dans cette transplantation: non seulement ce peuple est constitué en un corps organisé dont la devise est “Notre religion, notre langue et nos moeurs ”mais encore ce dernier est gouverné par un principe directement opposé à ce qui a fait la Nouvelle-Angleterre ce qu’elle est.” [my translation]

and “The Unhyphenating of America”

“Four centuries after the Pilgrims reached Plymouth Rock, European-Americans are cutting their ancestral roots. In the last decade, the number of Americans who said they were English, Irish, or from another European derivation dropped by at least 32 million, according to new Census 2000 data. Six million more people than ten years ago, about 20 million, listed their ancestry as "American" or "USA." And millions more left it blank.” The Boston Globe, May 31, 2002. “

L’Amérique se défait de son trait d’union”. Quatre siècles après l’arrivée des Pélerins au rocher de Plymouth, les Euro-Américains coupent leurs racines ancestrales. Selon les résultats du dernier recensement (année 2000), le nombre d’Américains qui, au cours de la dernière décennie, se disaient Anglais, Irlandais, ou d’une autre souche européenne, a diminué d’au moins 32 millions. 6 millions de plus qu’il y a dix ans, c’est-à-dire environ 20 millions de personnes, ont indiqué que leur héritage ancestral était soit “Américain” soit “USA”. Et des millions d’autres ont simplement laissé la case en blanc. [my translation]