Friday, February 06, 2004, 10:16 GMT
Guilhem:
Aquò es per tu e escrich en occitàn la bela lenga sòrre que aprenguèri a terras de Provença e de Lengadoc, a las Universitats Occitanas d'Estiu. T'asseguri que mon filh ha nom de Guillem perquè son paire (ieu) amavi los verses de Guilhem de Berguedan e Guilhem de Cabestany o lo comte Guilhèm de Peitieu. I ieu escriguèri verses trobadorescs a ma femna durant lo nostre prometatge. Come lo teu grand i soi un home encara jove! E ma filha ha nom de Beatriu, per la Divina Comèdia del Dante on tamben trobaràs uns verses occitans en boca del gran trobador Arnau Daniel.
And to my friend Nicolas from Nîmes, there surely are many ways to be French without making people forget their language and all their cultural heritage. Usually, in Europe at least, the people who speak most foreign languages are native speakers of languages spoken by not so many people. Think in the Dutch, the Scandinavian, people from Central European countries. Educated people from these countries usually speak 3/4 languages fluently although they feel specially proud about their own. In Spain, a survey found out --we already knew, of course-- that the most fluent foreign language speakers were to be found in the Catalan Countries, Basque Country or Galicia. Meanwhile, many Spaniards, French or English-speaking people (this isn't the case of those who post to this forum) feel they have more than enough with their "National" tongue. The English speak French terribly but the French often speak terrible English, and I don't mean accent I just mean good language level. If you go to the smaller "hidden" European nations things seem to change. It must be a matter of a mind that has been trained in a couple of languages from early childhood and of not having any imperialistic feeling over the world we live in.
Aquò es per tu e escrich en occitàn la bela lenga sòrre que aprenguèri a terras de Provença e de Lengadoc, a las Universitats Occitanas d'Estiu. T'asseguri que mon filh ha nom de Guillem perquè son paire (ieu) amavi los verses de Guilhem de Berguedan e Guilhem de Cabestany o lo comte Guilhèm de Peitieu. I ieu escriguèri verses trobadorescs a ma femna durant lo nostre prometatge. Come lo teu grand i soi un home encara jove! E ma filha ha nom de Beatriu, per la Divina Comèdia del Dante on tamben trobaràs uns verses occitans en boca del gran trobador Arnau Daniel.
And to my friend Nicolas from Nîmes, there surely are many ways to be French without making people forget their language and all their cultural heritage. Usually, in Europe at least, the people who speak most foreign languages are native speakers of languages spoken by not so many people. Think in the Dutch, the Scandinavian, people from Central European countries. Educated people from these countries usually speak 3/4 languages fluently although they feel specially proud about their own. In Spain, a survey found out --we already knew, of course-- that the most fluent foreign language speakers were to be found in the Catalan Countries, Basque Country or Galicia. Meanwhile, many Spaniards, French or English-speaking people (this isn't the case of those who post to this forum) feel they have more than enough with their "National" tongue. The English speak French terribly but the French often speak terrible English, and I don't mean accent I just mean good language level. If you go to the smaller "hidden" European nations things seem to change. It must be a matter of a mind that has been trained in a couple of languages from early childhood and of not having any imperialistic feeling over the world we live in.