Making it Real

Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs.

I grew up
attending a French immersion school on the very English speaking prairies of
western Canada.
Every subject, except English, was given in French by first language French
speakers from Quebec
or France.
The problem was that when we stepped out into the freezing cold, the only
French that existed for us was the obligatory translation on everything from
chocolate bar wrappers to cartons of milk.

Contrary to popular belief, only
about twenty percent of Canadians speak French and the great majority of those
live in the east. Out in the Wild West, exams were the sole motivation to use
French and as the language didn’t exist to us outside the classroom, the system
generally produced students with excellent receptive skills but only mediocre
speakers. The added difficulty of learning everything in a second language only
fueled the resentment that I used to feel while trudging off to school in the
snow.

It took me more than twenty years to finally thank my mother for her
perseverance when I gave her a phone call from my first tour in Paris, thanking her for
giving me the gift of another language. It’s with this experience in mind that
I have always been a bit skeptical of the mad push for bilingual schools here. That is until the other day when I was given the chance to swap my normal
workplace environments of concerts halls and adult classrooms for a crowded
music room full of 5^th and 6^th graders in the Castra
Caecillia.

My bandmate, harmonica ace, Jose Luis Naranjo and I were invited to
give a bilingual workshop on the Blues and in the talk we worked on the Blues
as poetry and then showed them how to accompany the song they created on their
instruments.

It was one of those rare moments that every educator strives for,
the learning was palpable in the room, the classroom fell by the wayside and
the kids were learning without realizing it. Their language skills completely
surprised me and the songs they played were excellent. With motivational
activities like this, no wonder these hardworking teachers are making me
reconsider.