RUMFORD – A 78 rpm record played the foot-tapping sounds of a Madame Bolduc singing “La Bauce,” the Canadian, Quebec and Montreal flags hung colorfully along one wall, and young and old feasted on crepes.
It was the end of a three-week unit in Catherine Charles’ classroom at Mountain Valley High School on learning how to speak better French by talking and interviewing local people of French ancestry. Dozens of students and adults chatted, ate and got to know one another.
“It’s a great experience for them and for us,” said Marcelle Miller, who’d been interviewed by Larissa Cayer and Joshua Burke. “We don’t have an opportunity to do this anymore.”
Her last name, Miller explained, was actually Anglicized from Meunier, meaning a miller of flour.
She and Larissa learned at lot. Larissa discovered that her great-aunt once operated Georgette’s Hat Shop in downtown Rumford, and that her grandmother and mother had worked there.
“Marcelle knew my grandparents, and my grandparents used to speak French, but now they’ve lost it. I’m picking up on my heritage and can understand the language better,” she said.
Arthur Boivin, whose original language was French, discovered much of it coming back and getting better the more he spoke with Brendan Kreckel and D.J. Gerrish.
“Using it makes it a lot better,” he said.
And hearing it, said Gerrish, is a real learning experience.
“We’ve just heard our teacher speak it. This is firsthand,” he said.
Roland Belanger saw the invitation in the newspaper asking French-speaking community members to attend and have a chance to speak their language.
“I thought it might help the teacher, especially with the dialect,” he said as he placed a 78 rpm French record on the record player for everyone to listen to.
Charles, who is in her second year at the high school, said she’d tried a similar project when she taught at Foxcroft Academy.
“This gives the students a real-life situation to practice speaking French,” she said.
Students interviewed community members, then shared their results through PowerPoint demonstrations.
Comments are no longer available on this story