Daysi Perez
Reflective Essay 3 (draft)
The language that I will be discussing in this paper is going to be French, the so called language of love. I have chosen to explore this language more because of the simple fact that growing up my father told me to learn another language other than Spanish, which was spoken at home. Throughout middle school, high school, and my two years in college, I studied French and become fond of it. French is one of the five most widely-spoken Romance languages, each descended from Latin. French itself is an evolution of Gallo-Romance dialects – with a rich history well worth exploring. (Rosetta Stone) It is stated from Rosetta Stone, that French is said to be the official language, or one of the official languages of 33 countries.
Within the French language, different variations and dialects exist. In France and Corsica about 60 million individuals use French as their first language, in Canada more than 7.3 million, in Belgium more than 3.9 million, in Switzerland more than 1.8 million, in Monaco some 80,000, in Italy some 100,000, and in the United States especially Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, some 1.3 million. Furthermore, more than 49 million Africans—in such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia—use French as a first or second language, and millions of inhabitants of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia use it as their principal international language. Many creole French speakers too use standard French in formal situations. (Encyclopedia) Outside France, the French of Canada, originally probably of northwestern dialect type, has developed the most individual features.
An interesting fact about the French language is that the French people are very eager and keen to learn new languages, even so that there is a movement in France to protect the French language. For example, the word cd-rom was quickly converted and absorbed into the French language as “cederom.” (bbc news) Minister Toubon brought upon a law that requires radio stations to play French music 40% of the time and that foreign film titles must be translated into French. Attitudes that people have towards the language would mainly be that it is the language of love. Just like any other language, an attitude that I first had, for instance, was that it was difficult and requires a lot of phlegm for certain words such as, heureux meaning happy.
- What are some advice that i can get to include in regards to what social factors are associated with attitudes that people have towards this language/dialect? Racial? Socioeconomic class? Cultural? Education? Ethnic? Sexual or gender identity association? Physical/mental impairment? Anything else?
- Is the essay okay so far?
References:
-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3143464.stm
-https://www.rosettastone.com/lp/french/history-of-the-french-language/
-French language. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
https://academic-eb-com.rpa.laguardia.edu/levels/collegiate/article/French-
language/35353
Hey Daysi,
In my opinion I think that your essay is extremely informative. I get lots of background information about the French Language and it’s importance to you and France. It’s great so far, i think you should add on how French speaking people are perceived as for example, fancy, rich, snobby, upper class/lower class, extatic people when they visit other countries or when they interact with people with different ethnicities.
thank you !