In My Tongue

So I went to French school. I went to French school in elementary school and in high school, and in elementary school, I remember how... Like, French wasn't a cool language to speak. So this was an Ottawa, so, yes, Ottawa is the capital of Canada, but it's mostly Anglophone, and we always felt like French wasn't a cool language to speak, and like, English was the cool language.

We would get in trouble if we spoke English at school, and we were always encouraged to like, you know, speak French and be proud of French because they would say, "Our ancestors fought for French," but they meant like, French Canadians. So I always remembered feeling kind of... kind of strange about it, as a kid, having to speak French, but I was always reminded that like, well, it's an advantage, because then you kind of speak both languages.

And then, I guess in terms of English, because I was -- Like I said, I grew up in Canada so, it's pretty Anglophone, so like the TV... you know, TV shows are in English and a lot of music is in English, so it's really... It's really easy to pick up English, but I didn't really know how to write in English, until the third grade, so I had some trouble, like, writing some words, and yeah... Kind of just like, knowing how to write words. And I always had trouble with some -- pronouncing some words as well, so I guess those would be my memories...

And I guess one more thing: So when we were... When I was in elementary school, we had like this after school program that was across the street, and there would be people from other schools who would come in, and it was mostly just like, other kids from English schools, and they would always make fun of us for being the Francophone kids, and saying like, "Oh you guys are the French kids, you guys don't know how to speak in English properly, you guys have a weird accent!" So, you know, that was always a bit strange.

But yeah, I guess those would be like, my memories: just like... kind of learning French, and being punished for speaking English, but then thinking English was cool, and whatnot.