“It’s scary how much your generation uses English words.
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
– It’s not that bad anyway!
“You don’t realize that. You spent the weekend talking about KPIsof templatesof processof USPof stakeholdersof forecasts… It shocks me to see that you are not able to speak French!
After two days of internal meetings, we were all seated when one of our directors, in his late sixties, reproached us for our total disengagement with the French language.
For me, a proud defender of the survival of our language, I was ashamed. Could it be so terrible? I have always been sensitive to French. At home, my parents kept telling me: “It’s perfect to want to learn and speak English, but speak only one language at a time. When you speak English, speak English and when you speak French, use French words. They all exist. »
Our company was until very recently managed by an Anglophone and a Francophone. However, in Jon’s time, we never used so many words in English as we do today. Reality couldn’t help but hit me. It was true. the branding. going forward. Think outside of the box. Have leverage. The best practices. The low hanging fruit. The quick wins. A little touch base. I feel not. It’s a no brainer. Your call. Do small talk… I was flabbergasted by the number of words my colleague was listing to me.
Part of me wanted to tell him he was exaggerating. What “give feedback is natural in our Quebec language. However, in fact, the word in French exists. It’s feedback. Of course, from a phonetic point of view, it is less cool…I mean less trendy… Uh… I rather mean connected! I had to search for trendy in French, because my brain didn’t have it in its natural reference points.
Our carelessness, our generational linguistic laziness, that is the real problem. The expressions of our own language no longer come to us spontaneously.
They are there though. However, they are less widespread and less natural. Of course it’s weird to say nice, rather than coolto say cute rather than cuteto speak of a showroom, rather than a showroom… It’s more stuck, more formal, speaking French. It feels like a little more stuck up…
Fortunately, thanks to my colleague, I discovered the forgotten pride of finding the right word and bringing out these pearls of little French words abandoned for American “coolness”. I have to admit, sometimes I feel cheesy using words my grandmother used back then that I never heard in the 21st century.e century. Eventually, maybe that’s the real battle ?
Since last November, our team has given itself the challenge of actually speaking French. To use French words, even Quebecois, because it’s even better to use our colorful words! And to “give ourselves a chance”, we have granted ourselves the right to use anglicisms rather than perpetuating our habituation to the English sound. For the moment. Because it is tough trying to deconstruct a way of speaking that we have taken for granted for so long.
I must confess that often I have no fun stopping every two words in a sentence to correct me, or worse, correcting me on the same word three times in a row in the same conversation. In writing, it’s fine, you force yourself more, but orally, especially when you let yourself go a little, it’s really quite a challenge ! When we want to be natural, spontaneous, it’s more smooth to say that it is world cuprather than great.
I must admit that the first week, everyone thought it was funny. But for nine months, I break the ears of all those who rub shoulders with me with my search for French words.
With my friends, my colleagues, my family, I told them all about my new fad. They found the idea initially charming, to get bored more or less quickly and end up finding me tiring as a curse!
To all those who have rolled their eyes in the last few months, I want to tell you that I will be stubborn. Because do you know what? After nine months, I still find it difficult not to say that “I find that tough “. And when I let my guard down a little, the words of Shakespeare… or rather, should I say, those of Britney Spears… slip well in spite of me between my lips. I will not let go because the cause is just. The protection of French in Quebec is fundamental. And we all have a role to play. There is no law on earth that will dictate the words that come out of our mouths every day. It’s a choice. A responsability.
Are you game ? Do you accept the challenge to use only French words during the next week? Try it, you’ll see that it’s a lot harder than it looks, but it’s worth the effort! Except I wouldn’t push my luck…