Experience The Story Of French Authored By Jean-Benoît Nadeau Available In Readable Copy

first three parts of the book were pretty interesting, even for someone like me who speaks no French, The fourth part was a little boring and I mostly skimmed it, I felt like throughout the emphasis disproportionately leaned toward France and Quebec, I would have liked to have seen more about the language in colonies/former colonies, Southeast Asia was all but overlooked with the exception of a few cursory mentions, Maybe that's because they don't really use French there now, but that's still part of the story of the language and worth exploring,.stars. I thought the first two sections which focused more on history and etymology were really interesting, the third section about more modern institutions was okay, but I couldnt finish the fourth section when it started getting into text messaging shorthand and what that could mean for the future of language.
Coming from, it read like an outofdate and outoftouch hyperbolic news segment about the kids these days, Not as humorous as their previous book and the structure forced much repetition that could have and should have been eliminated with a different organizational format, Some interesting points but, by no means, a scholarly inquiry into the sociocultural aspects of French and its prospects for the future, But it's interesting that the book in some ways ignores the truth of its own analysis, e, g. , when considering why France is itself such a minor player in the international francophonie and Francophonie sphere could the legacy of colonialism play a role here, The authors repeatedly point out that this is not a book about English and anglophones, but admit that the stories are intertwined, In their quest to focus only on the unique aspects of the French story, they seem to ignore some truths about languages in general in the modern world, including English.
They discuss the "agonizing" of some over the influence of slang adopted by youth as demoralizing French, but the same "agonizing" continues to occur regarding English, Perhaps much of what they attribute as the special situation of French is really about language more generally spoken and written in the age of globalization, the Internet, the decline in print media, etc.
Nevertheless it's an interesting popular level read about French for those who, like me, continue to struggle to learn more than just junior high and high school level French.
Why does everything sound better if it's said in French That fascination is at the heart of The Story of French, the first history of one of the most beautiful languages in the world that was, at one time, the preeminent language of literature, science and diplomacy.
  Nadeau and Barlow chart the history of a language spoken as a native tongue bymillion people around the globe,  The first document written in the French was signed by the sons of Charlemagne in, After this, Latin was purged from the

courts of France by Francoisst, giving root to French speakers'st century obsession with language protection, The obsession progressed as Cardinal Richelieu established the French Academy, a group entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the language pure and eloquent, As French circled the globe, the international cast of characters included Montaigne, Catherine the Great, Frederic II of Prussia, the guides of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Jules Verne, and others.
 Let Nadeau and Barlow guide you through the story of a language used to write some of the world's great masterpieces of literature, construct some of the most important documents of diplomacy, bedevil millions with its vagaries of pronunciation and beguile everyone with its beauty.
A charming idea, the story of French, It offers scores of anecdotes and repeated opportunities to grow one's French vocabulary, It is a trove of "did you knows": on Indochine, Acadians, the French Republics, ancien regime, Alliance francais, Cajuns and Cadiens,

But reading it felt like a chore,

One issue: Lesotho is inaccurately described as a good example of democracy in Africa, It's a constitutional monarchy minus one point where there is little by, of and for the people minus another point, I got this book from my favorite thrift store, thinking I'd be able to read it soon, but I didn't start doing so until I thought I could learn a thing or two from its espousal on making French one of the leading international languages based on it's brief review on its back cover even in these times when Mandarin is actually spoken by more people than English considered by most as the international language of business.
I mean, I'm not exactly reading nor studying French at allit does not appeal to me at all personally except upon remembering that one of my favorite modern day saints, St.
Therese of the Child Jesus spoke French when she was still with us, I'd rather become competent in Spanish, or Mandarin anytime soon even before I get to learn my first lessons in French though I know some good friends who speak French, plus I've seen many great French films.
I have to admit the image of the French can be mesmerizing, given the ads amp the images that we see all around us about things of beauty, style, and design.
In comparison, the English, of which I speak, read amp write since I was small as in practically native for all intents amp purposes, looked eccentric and weird to me given their apparent emphasis on things of royalty and class differencesbut that's already going too far for our purposes here.
This review will then be focused on what mainly got into my mind while perusing seriously the contents of this book while I went about in my daily city trips here in NYC.


What struck me really about this book is its narrative about tendencies of those who are in positions of power, or the powers that be, to use language in shaping the minds and controlling the behaviors of people who don't fit in their ideas of what's good and bad.
It's all the same story all over again, just like in my experiences with my ability to use English, in which we who have learned our English not really in UK, in Ireland, or in the US are easily thought or dismissed by others as not really learned in real English at all unless proven by having passed language proficiency exams that very well bring money into their pockets!well, this is the same line story in this particular book.
The authors have described their terrible experiences of being discriminated because they speak and possess a tone that has been decided by the powersthatbe as not "real French.
"

Reading through this book, I particularly remember how the couple Nadeau JeanBenoit and Barlow Julie narrated that the French they know and have learned is considered below parthere were even periods before when French language teachers were thought to be of poor competency when they come from Quebec, or in Montreal, Canadaas the French used here sound archaic, and have been kept away from latest developments in other areas where French is officially used including, of course, France.
Even recently, I met two or more people who have told me about how aghast they were at listening to Canadian brand of Frenchthey thought of it as "provincial.
"

I can very well relate to the experience, Applying the ideas to what we nonUS or nonUK, or nonAustralian, or nonNew Zealand, or nonIrish, or nonCanadian natives experience when people get surprised at finding out that we have learned our brand of English in our respective countries in my particular case, I was exposed to English in the Philippines, which country was a colony of the US fromto, hence the exposure to the English language, being part of the heritage, no matter how badly colonial that could be to others.
Of course, for all intents and purposes, I speak with an accent in English, and I'm proud of itit's my heritage, It doesn't in any way make my English bad in any form from the regular English used in the UK, the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Ireland.
My English is as native as it can be, having grown up with itin fact, I even used English when my late Father and I would have serious arguments on certain issues as he could explain himself better in English than in Ilocano his first language, being a major language spoken in northern part of Luzon, the Philippine archipelago's largest island or Tagalog the basis of the Philippine national language to me who remembers being exposed to English most strongly from TV's Sesame Street.


This book is a great example of work that advocates a more international, more expansive brand of multilingualism, or the use of several major languages all the same time, and not at the dire expense of one language thought to be not international enough these days in this case, French, which used to be considered the "international language" at least a hundred years ago.
It's refreshing and assuring to get myself reminded that my set of experiences on the languages I know and use have similarities with the authors' experiences these are just familiar to those who grew up in environments where several languages are used and spoken simultaneously.
In this case, I'm happy to be assured that the authors have a fairly clear idea of the experiences of people who speak/read/write/listen/pray in two or more languages daily amp that this is actually an advantage, a great strength, rather than thought to be a weakness or even at worst as copycats by certain people who are aghast at our awesome language abilities.
Out of all the books that have taken me forever to read recently, this one is my absolute favorite, By far. Sure, it gets a little draggy toward the end when they go through every single way that French could ever apply to anything in the modern world ever.
But so much more than that, it's a history of the development of French, the development of its influence, a culture, a worldview, outposts of thought everything, really.
Will you still enjoy it if you don't speak French Absolutely it's just that some of the examples will have less resonance for you,

The logic of French purism since Malherbe has been that each word should have a precise definition no two words are perfectly synonymous, In Webster's English dictionary the word tolerate has a definition, But put up with is defined merely as "tolerate," without further explanation, No French dictionary would ever do that, A French dictionary of synonyms goes much further than an English thesaurus, which merely lists the synonyms, It will either give precise definitions for each equivalent, categorize the synonyms as literal, analogous or figurative or differentiate them in some other way,

My favorite fascinating new fact The difference between Creole and Cajun cultures in Louisiana, Cajuns and their culture are descended from FrenchCanadian Acadiens who relocated into Louisiana, Creoles and their culture are descended from refugees of the Hatian civil war following that country's independence, And I can't resist throwing in a fascinating fact that I already knew: creole note the small "c" is a linguistic term referring to a "created" language, When you have a group of people working or living together who are all native speakers of different languages, they sometimes develop a pidgin, Fact from the book: One of the earliest recorded examples of which was Lingua Franca, developed by merchants and traders around the Mediterranean, Pidgins don't really have much in the way of grammar, However, as speakers of pidgins have kids and the language is perpetuated over the course of a generation or two, a grammar develops, and it becomes a creole, a completely independent language.
No one grew up speaking Lingua Franca, so it never grew into a creole, Another fact from the book: Linguists believe there are creoles currently developing in a couple of Francophone countries in Africa,.
Only because sometimes it was repetitive and the end dragged quite a bit, But was still fascinating! I loved the first half or so of this book I find the evolution of languages to be fascinating, and Nadeau and Barlow do a very nice job of condensing hundreds of years of history into a readable narrative.

Unfortunately, the second half of this book didn't quite live up to the first half, At least for me. It was far drier, and it seemed that about every other page, the authors were trying to remind the reader that French is still an important language,
But overall, a fun pop history book, particularly if you parles fracais, Fascinating investigation into the origins and evolution of the French language, Benoît moves outside of just Quebec, his homeland, and France, and investigates how the language has evolved in both the countries typically associated with the francophonie or part of the formal Francophone, and those such as Israel which have many French speakers.


It is a work of history, politics, and above all a book of love for a language the author clearly cares deeply about, The book served as a great introduction to my time in France as I have begun studying the French language, .