Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Louisiana, Lord, Louisiana

Y'all, I live in Louisiana. When I tell you we have enough to worry about, please believe me.*

This, my xenophobic, history-forgetting, make-me-wanna-pull-my-hair-out fellow Louisianans, is not one of those things.
School officials in Terrebonne Parish are considering a policy that would require all commencement speeches to be in English.

The proposal comes after Hue and Cindy Vo, cousins who were co-valedictorians at Ellender High School, delivered part of their commencement addresses last month in Vietnamese.

Why are school officials "considering" this policy? As one board member so eloquently put it, "I don’t like them addressing in a foreign language. They should be in English.”

You know, at my old high school this year, we had our first Latino valedictorian. He gave his speech in English and Spanish. And...

The world did not fall apart!

Let me just mention that Terrebonne Parish is in Acadiana. You know, the Louisiana area partly settled by people who were driven out of Canada by the British because of their French heritage and culture, which included speaking French.

Words (but not italics, apparently) fail me.
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*And those links could go on and on and on.


6 comments:

RageyOne said...

a shame that the priorities are so discombobulated.

Hagar's Daughter said...

elle,
I'm laughing because it's Louisiana, the area that speaks all this broken, crazy English-French-English.

I'm from New Orleans and lawd knows that I speak that craziness too here in Los Angeles.

I laugh though not because it's funny but because it's really kind of sad, cher. Why do we in America insist on not learning other languages and not appreciating other languages. Many people in other countries speak their native language and English. Don't they realize we are at a disadvantage.

Hey, maybe I'm asking too much.

Courtney said...

hd, you said it (in crazy English-French-English! And I understood!) And elle, I'm digging the new layout.

Giftie Etcetera said...

Your title says it all!!!

C'est la vie en Louisiane.

(Okay, my own French sucks. More power to those people who actually can speak two languages.)

Unknown said...

elle,
One Drop over at Too Sense has an interesting post that touches on a lot of the same stuff, from a personal perspective. You might like it.

Hawa Bond said...

Well... I'm on a tight work schedule today. I preserved one word in reply to the Board's behavior:

Ridiculous.

I reserved another word for individuals on the board, but it's probably not fit for public consumption.

Now back to work for me. hehe

Hawa from
Fackin Truth Blog

Revelations and ruminations from one southern sistorian...