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

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tfgLnNkKL_efFEVuiX7ZO2s510wvFeJcLAWqzsfhq7k/edit

This picture was taken on Roosevelt Ave.

The languages here presented are English

The sign shows signals, the name of a trade school and its address, it shows the rules for parking, graffiti, traffic signals, and also it shows banners to show propaganda of some sort of website.

Growing in an English and Spanish home brought up who and when and how should we speak both languages. My father always said that in school I’ll eventually learn my English so why not learn Spanish at home and what he said was what concluded. Being Hispanic in our society means that we have to know how to speak Spanish and there’s a correct way when speaking it as well. Language and how we use it shapes us and based on the people that we are around affects it. When in a professional environment we are opt to use our “professional” English and of course when we are at home, with our friends our language becomes more comfortable to us. By this I mean we speak in our languages and the we say things the way we want to; slang.

The reality is people judge you and hire you based a lot on how you speak. The minute people open their mouths we already pick and choose where this person is from and how they were raised. We judge people on the use of their grammar and how they use it. Our attitudes about language affects the way we treat speakers. Dialect is determined by many factors including socioeconomic status and education. We may say that we dont judge people but in reality in a way we do, we read and see if the person is talking to us in slang so we can use that same tone with them. We judge on grammar, we judge on the English they use and we judge on the way they present themselves when speaking. We tend to say that people who only speak in slang were raised in a household where English and maybe even education wasn’t strongly implied. All around us even important speakers we tend to judge and see if they really use those vocabulary words to make them seem smarter.

1. Did I answer the question correctly?

2. Is there anything that I should add or remove ?

3. What else can I use as a guide to answer the question ?