French speakers have come a long way

To the editor:
    Just recently, I started thinking, once again, about how attitudes toward the use of French seem to have changed for the better over the past 15 years or so. This change did not come about without a long hard fight. I remember very well the not too distant past when people didn’t speak French unless they “had to,” at least in Presque Isle.     I moved here when the Aroostook Centre Mall first opened, and back then, people resisted French. If they thought you spoke no English, they would address you in French. If they knew you were bilingual, it was English all the way. English was considered “superior.” French speakers did not promote their language. Instead, they apologized for it. To speak French publicly, without apologizing, was considered rude. I was often scolded. I never stopped.
    It seems that French speakers have come a long way, even in Presque Isle. The use of French no longer seems to be limited to groups of two people whispering in private corners so as not to “get caught,” the way it was back in the early 1990s when I first moved here. Back then, two French speakers would switch automatically from French to English whenever a third person joined the conversation, even if that third person also spoke French. French in pairs was fine, while French in groups of three was frowned on and French in groups of four or more was unheard of. It wasn’t considered polite.
    Things have changed. There are still those who don’t like to hear French spoken in front of them, but Franco-Americans have begun speaking French among themselves more and apologizing less. This is good, because French, like English, is very much a part of Aroostook County’s culture. The language has been spoken in much of northern Maine since 1785, and its status as a respected local language is long overdue.
    The use of French should not be limited to two people speaking softly to each other in private corners. On the contrary, French should be promoted both as a social language and as a business language, along with English. After all, both languages are part of the soil, and if we give up one of our local languages, we will help no one and cheat ourselves.