Official in Louisiana's French-Speaking Stronghold Calls for English-Only Graduation Speeches

Tuesday , July 01, 2008

AP
HOUMA, La. —
As an agency created in response to the long suppression of French in state schools turned 40, a south Louisiana school board member suggested that only English should be allowed in graduation speeches.

Rickie Pitre is among six people with French surnames on the nine-member school board in Terrebonne Parish, where the county's name is French for "Good Earth" and elders of the local Native American tribe speak French as their first language.

His proposal was made after co-valedictorians and cousins Hue and Cindy Vo, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam, gave parts of their commencement speeches in Vietnamese during Ellender High School's graduation ceremony.

Cindy Vo translated her single sentence in Vietnamese, telling her classmates it was a command to always be your own person. Hue Vo spoke a bit longer in her parents' language, without translation, said board president Clark Bonvillain and schools superintendent Ed Richard.

"I don't like them addressing in a foreign language. They should be in English," Pitre said during a recent committee meeting.

He did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.

But Richard is dubious.

"I did advise them that I didn't think they needed to go there," he said. "But I'm only a superintendent, not a board member."

He said the board voted to have the department check out Pitre's proposal.

Marjorie Esman, executive director of the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union, said the proposal might violate speakers' civil rights.

As late as the 1950s, children who spoke French in school were routinely punished.

"It seems like these issues will never go away," said Warren Perrin, president of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, which is turning 40 this year.

The state constitution passed in 1974 specifically recognizes "the right of the people to preserve, foster and promote their respective historic, linguistic, and cultural origins," he said.

Terrebonne Parish is part of Acadiana, the 22-parish area settled first by French-speaking Catholics deported from Nova Scotia in 1755.

Perrin said the last Census found the Acadiana region to be the nation's most culturally diverse.

"Realizing that, we have to be sensitive to the many, many cultures in this region," he said. "It would seem the French, who have been subjects of prejudice, would be more sensitive to the issue. I find that extremely ironic."

Hue Vo said that in her speech, she told her parents that she is grateful to them, and honors the hardships they faced moving here from south Vietnam.

"It's very important to my parents that I keep my culture," she said. "I felt if I expressed myself in Vietnamese it would be more heartfelt."

Esman said no law gives students a right to speak in languages other than English, but a rule forbidding it might amount to racial discrimination.

In spite of the area's long French heritage, Spanish is probably now the most common language other than English, Bonvillain said.

"No one is out to do away with any second language," he said.

Rather than forbidding languages other than English, he said, the board may require students to keep such sections brief and translate them for the rest of the audience.

English is the American language. That's what should be spoken in public addresses. All this use of other languages and accommodation in official circumstances seems destined to fragment our society more and more.

__________________
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The Vo family sounds like a classic American success story to me. My reaction to their speeches (at least as described in the article) was the exact opposite of Mr. Pitre's reaction. Their use of their parents' native language was a nice touch and particularly appropriate in the context of valedictory speeches.

Louisiana has funny politics. To those of us who have only visited the southern part of the state, Louisiana seems like a wide-open, anything goes kind of place, but the voters down there seem to favor some of the most closed-minded politicians.

x2

__________________
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Let's get Latin and deity off of our currency too!

It's the nature of diversity, dculkin. Some parts of the state are populated by what can only be described as neo-nazi sympathizers. Other areas by Laotian Buddhists who came to the USA after having supported the losing side in the CIA's secret war ( -- a fascinating story in its own right -- and not unlike the North Korean partisans who came to the the USA following the end of the Korean War or the Vietnamese and lately, Iraqis and Afghans). Other areas are black liberationist bigots. The Vietnamese and Laotians moved here for the French language and some Vietnamese were Catholics, too. So we have Catholic churches with the mass said in Vietnamese.

If you look at our history of governors as a thermometer, we have had a black one (a republican), a buncha bigots (all Democrats), a whole string of populists, some traditional liberal Democrats, 3 recent, traditional conservative Republicans. Our congressional delegation, in the past couple of generations, has been mostly moderate Democrats (with a couple of conservative Democrats -- an endangered species today), a few moderate Republicans, and a couple of conservative Republicans -- not unlike the Congress itself!

The article above mentions that we are an extremely diverse community and that is a fact. A trip to Intracoastal City will reveal a variety of European and southeast Asian languages haggling over shrimp and shellfish. Go to an oil rig and you'll find all kinds of folks of every hue. It is a community that has a deep respect for tradition. So the Laotian Buddhists, a very conservative community, are at home with the conservative Catholic community. It's a peculiar area. Thank goodness most people don't want to visit the rural areas of Louisiana. I hope tourists continue to believe that NOLA is all there is.

B

IMHO, it's not the use of foreign languages that fragments our society. What fragments our society is when people like Pitre condemn people like the Vo children, who are simply honoring their parents and their parents' culture. His intolerance is the problem here, IMHO.

In this instance, I agree. The Vo kids did a fine thing. The entire speeches were in English and only the portion to their parents was in Vietnamese. One kid translated and the other didn't. courtesy would dictate a translation for the majority, but they're just kids and probably not the first or last that didn't think things through all of the way. I suspect not all adults do, either.

It sounds like the parents need to learn English before we need to push 3 for Vietnamese.

__________________
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1976 240D parts car
1970 220D daily driver

Much as I believe we need to insist on English as our official U.S. language, I have no problem with a brief interlude in someone's native tongue. No one should mind a "For my parents, I believe this is best said in Vietnamese," etc., followed or preceded by a quick translation for the rest of the audience.

It's not as though the kids demanded the right to give their entire speech in Vietnamese.

By the way, who was the black Louisiana governor? During Reconstruction, right?
.

__________________
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Formerly:
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Friend or pho?

We can only hope that the graduation was celebrated with real American food . . . pizza . . . chop suey . . . ceaser salad . . . california roll . . .

Pinchback. An interesting man, to say the least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._B._S._Pinchback

Dem people from sout Loosyanna, I can't even unnerstan 'em when dey speak English....

__________________
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TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
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[quote=MTI;1899577]Friend or pho?

quote]

LOL. I keep telling my wife, who is vietnamese, that she should open a soup place called "what the pho?" or "wake up and smell the pho"...

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No Soup Pho U

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It's Pho You