The French paradox.

                                     The previous blog leads me on to this one about how much a language is part of the political ideology of a group of people. And if you speak the language, beyond the correctness of its grammar and vocabulary, you see the world through this ideology. The paradox is that you can speak it only if you are a part of this ideology. If you refuse to share the same ideas, it is a language you speak only superficially to get around in everyday life.

                                      Having said this, France's adamant ideology of wanting to include only that which is acceptably "French", is reflected through its language as well. When you swear in to be a French citizen, you also swear in to be "French". You not only swear into being a law abiding citizen of the land but you also are required to accept being "laic"(secular) and many other things that go unsaid. You are expected to blend in as much as possible and even more. But that is another topic altogether. You will be asked at a point of time, if you desire to change your name or atleast make it sound more French. All Moustafas are warmly invited to become Michels or Jeans. It is almost a rebirth, giving up your past for an unknown French future. But you can choose not to. And even when you name your child, when still at the maternity ward, the representative of the State will see to it that the name is acceptable to the French ear. Well, if you choose not to change your name, when you swear into French citizenship, not even the spelling, it will be massacred, each time your name will be called.

                                   In the same way, the French language feels the need to translate and make words sound French. 'A computer' had to be translated into 'un ordinateur', the concept had to be retraced in its own history for a very French sounding word to be found, instead of blending into the universal 'computer'.  I wonder how the verb 'to google' is going to be translated into French.
                     
                                  Being French is an exclusive matter. You need to be exclusively "French" and leave behind what is a part and parcel of your being at the door step when you walk through that door. This inevitably leaves a huge number of immigrants defying and challenging the French ideology, every so often. As much as France adamantly refuses to blend into the global world, its (mostly non-European)immigrants stubbornly refuse to blend into what is acceptably "French".

                                In my opinion, if a country can be open to new colours and sounds added on to its landscape, so will its language. This can only enrich the country and eventually its language, thus making it grow and live. Resistance to novelty and change can only lead to decay and decrepitude. It is high time France stopped being a charitable country, 'France, terre d'accueil', where immigrants are presumably (economically) poor (and beggars, and beggars don't choose, do they?) and wanting help from its wellfare state. It has to start looking upon immigration as a way to enrich it in every way. And no immigrant is going to feel any richer by being exclusively French, even when he shall be well-fed and his health well taken care of. The art of being an immigrant is, ever including other ingredients to make the broth, a never-ending, dynamic process, wherever you live. Migration goes hand in hand with globalisation.

                           It makes me so sad and angry that a recent American movie, "Cowboys and Aliens" had to be translated into "Les cowboys et les envahisseurs" in French. Much as the country alienates its immigrants, so do they keep 'invading' it, I guess. How is it that an immigrant in the USA feels so patriotically American, only after a few years after swearing in, as to hold up the stars and stripes with pride and joy and France only manages to alienate most of its immigrants ? Or is it just me ?  If it is just me, forget the whole thing.