Will Louisiana join the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF)? The answer will be given in October at the 17th summit of La Francophonie held in Yerevan, Armenia. “Louisiana’s application is valid,” says Bertin Leblanc, the spokesperson for the IOF. The American state is home to almost 250,000 Francophones and 5,000 students enrolled in dual-language immersion programs, and submitted its application...
An advertising expert in Louisiana is hoping a website and a simple word — “Bonjour” — will give the state’s 250,000 Francophones more visibility. Three weeks ago, Brian Clary was looking for a Francophone hairdresser in the Lafayette region. The Virginia-born advertising consultant moved to Louisiana at the start of the summer and could easily have patronized an Anglophone salon....
A documentary project about the Cajun rock band The Lost Bayou Ramblers has been awarded the French Culture Film Grant by the #CreateLouisiana industry-building initiative and the TV5 Monde television network. “On va continuer !” (We will go on!). These words conclude every concert played by The Lost Bayou Ramblers. The sound of his instrument is still resonating when Louis...
This week-end, Americans will be celebrating Bastille Day by eating crêpes and drinking wine and cheering on the French team in the World Cup final. Foreign language advocate and devoted Francophile Kathleen Stein-Smith takes a look at the influence and impact of French language and culture in the United States. It is possible sit in a café, to have a macaron...
A tourist route linking French-speaking cities in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island will be inaugurated at the end of the summer in 2019. What do Lewiston and Biddeford in Maine, Manchester in New Hampshire, and Woonsocket in Rhode Island all have in common? More than half of the populations of these American cities spoke French just a century...
Norbert LeBlanc doesn’t hunt alligators anymore. Instead, he has spent the last 15 years taking Francophone tourists on tours of the swamps east of Lafayette in his role as a guardian of Cajun culture in Louisiana. The engine purrs slowly as the boat slips between the cypress trees. The stem of the vessel cuts gently through the duckweed covering the...
On April 5, 2018, Louisiana submitted its membership application to the IOF, the International Organization of La Francophonie, which unites French-speaking countries. The decision will be announced at the IOF Summit held in Yerevan, Armenia, on October 11 and 12 of this year. The State of Louisiana is home to almost 250,000 Francophones and has 5,000 students enrolled in English-French...
The Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) has been fighting to maintain French as the "normal and usual language" in the province of Quebec since 1961. The organization strives to keep out English words and annually updates a dictionary containing three million French terms. France-Amérique talked with the OQLF spokesperson, Jean-Pierre Le Blanc, to find out more. France-Amérique: What...
While Aznavour and Brel enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame in the U.S.A., musicians who sing in French still struggle to make it big across the Atlantic — unlike those who opt for English. French DJ David Guetta and the Versailles-born rockers from the band Phoenix won their first Grammy Awards for songs with English lyrics in 2010. The number...
From Baton Rouge to Lafayette and from the App Store to social media, a group of Louisianan activists is fighting to preserve the language of their ancestors — Cajun, or Louisiana French. Luke Romero uses his iPhone if he wants to understand his Francophone grandparents. Born into a family based in Louisiana since the 18th century, the 33-year-old software developer...
Americans speaking to other Americans… but in French! From Brooklyn to San Francisco and from Boston to Minneapolis and Ville Platte (Louisiana), many radio stations and shows are now broadcast in French. It’s 7:30 pm (EST) on Radio Soleil. After the horoscope in Creole and a few bars of kompa blasted out on a trumpet, it’s time for the weekly...
Promoting Francophone culture in the United States is the mission of TV5 Monde. And as part of "le Mois de la Francophonie" (French Month) celebrated every March, the channel will be screening a series of documentaries and movies showcasing the diversity of the French language in the United States. Here is our selection. Rendez-vous d’Amérique March 10, 6:25 pm EST...
Francophonie — the collective peoples and institutions that speak French — is celebrated every March. Both an initiative driven by successive French governments and a tradition upheld by embassies, this honoring of the French language is confusing to say the least. March is filled with cultural events championing the French language all over the world. But the initiative is a...[Subscriber]
Billy Fumey dreamed of being a cowboy when he was a child, but the young man has actually become an American "emissary" for his native French region of Franche-Comté. Guitar in hand, he tours Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, following in the footsteps of the first Franc-Comtois settlers. The inhabitants of Besançon in Eastern France know that their city shares...
A pair of French teachers have spent two years following the key players in the rebirth of the French language in Louisiana, including teachers, activists, politicians, students and parents. The duo’s resulting documentary, Theo’s Choice, will premiere in Lafayette, Louisiana on January 26, 2018. Théodore Brode is one of the rare French teacher from Louisiana. He is part of the...
The sixth annual gala of the French-American Chamber of Commerce Foundation in New York took place on September 28, 2017, and honored the television channel TV5 Monde USA with the French Company of the Year Award. Yves Bigot has been the CEO of the Francophone channel since 2013, and spoke to us about the presence of TV5 in the United...
It has come to my attention that the Maisons Françaises of New York University and Columbia University, two places that are symbolic of French culture in the United States, may soon be renamed “Maison françaises et francophones.” This initiative leaves me perplexed. I do not know what to think of this change, and I wonder what the French and American readers of France-Amérique...
Dennis Stroughmatt didn’t like French at school. Despite this fact, the American musician and historian has become the sole guardian of a quickly-vanishing French dialect from Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Today he is fighting to keep Illinois French alive by teaching seminars and playing concerts throughout the United States. France-Amérique: How did you come upon “Illinois French”? Dennis Stroughmatt: I...
Cajun French was forbidden in Louisiana until 1964. This dialect is a blend of French, English, Spanish and Caribbean influences, and is now being revived through the music of the Lost Bayou Ramblers. The band’s singer and violinist, Louis Michot, talked to us about his commitment to save Louisiana’s Cajun culture. France-Amérique: How did Cajun French arrive in Louisiana? Louis...
