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"How I Learned to Speak English" 1900
- University of Ottawa Press
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Louis Frechette Translated by Wayne Grady how I LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH Born in Pointe-Levis on November 16, 1839, Louis Frechette attended the Petit Seminaire, the College Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, and the Seminaire de Nicolet before becoming a clerk in the law firm of Francois-Xavier Lemieux in 1860. For the next three years he studied law at Universite Laval, worked as a reporter for LeJournal de Quebec, wrote his first play, Felix Poutre, and published his first book of poems, Mes Loisirs. Then began his difficult years. Called to the bar in 1864, he opened an office in Levis and founded the controversial newspaper Le Drapeau deLevis, in which he voiced his opposition to Confederation. The paper ceased publishing after four issues, and Frechette left the country—settling eventually in Chicago, where, as editor of L'Ame'rigue, he proposed the annexation of Canada and the United States. He soon quit the newspaper over a disagreement about the Franco-Prussian War (he took the side of France); returning to Quebec in 1871, he set up a law firm, wrote a scathing diatribe, Lettres a Basile, attacking Adolphe-Basile Routhier, a popular Quebec lawyer, and ran for Parliament. He lost. He was elected, however, in 1874, and served one term before losing again. Moving to Montreal in 1880, he contributed to the controversial La Patrie (owned by Honore Beaugrand,a friend of Faucher de Saint-Maurice and the future mayor of Montreal), and that year won the Prix Montyon, awarded by the Academic fran9aise. From then on his reputation asa writer of international stature was secure. He spent a year in France, then returned to Quebec City to accept a sinecure as clerk of the Legislative Council; for La Patrie and Le Canada artistique, he wrote a series of portraits of typical Quebecois 64 Louis FRECHETTE characters later published as Originaux et detraques. He was named president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1900, the year he wrote his Memoires intimes—a work of gentle charm and biting wit—and died of a stroke on May 31, 1908, in Montreal. Frechette was in love with language. His Originaux et detraques is full of wild descriptions and untranslatable puns, and his later work also explores the limits of conventional speech. "Comment j'ai appris Panglais," translated by Wayne Grady as "How I Learned to Speak English," from Memoires intimes, is an excellent example of Frechette's wry and irreverent humour, very modern in its style and approach. It is not surprising that the Memoires remained unpublished for more than fifty years after Frechette's death. "How I Learnedto Speak English"is a translationof"Comment j'ai appris 1'anglais" published in Memoires intimes (Montreal:Fides, 1961). How I LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH 65 [54.225.1.66] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 04:22 GMT) u r c l o s e s t n e i g h b o u r s w e r e a n E n g l i s h f a m i l y n a m e Houghton. They had two sons, Bonnie and Dozzie. There was a daughter, too, but never mind her for now—I was too young for the more interesting half of humanity, what we call the fair sex, to hold any interest for me. Quite the reverse, in fact: I was more disposed to pity girls, small, fragile creatures that they were, with no wind for running, who had to wear skirts that prevented them from having all kinds of fun, especially climbing trees, turning somersaults, or rolling head over heels down hills. My brother Edmond and I and the two Houghton boys, though, we were a pretty good foursome, the oldest Houghton being exactly my age, and the youngest the same age as my brother. And in spite of my prejudice against the English, and the fierce arguments that would flare up between us at even the mention of the name Papineau, we were two pairs of buddies even more assiduous in our relationships than our parents encouraged us to be. "Playing every day with those Houghton youngsters can't help but teach our boys to speak English," my father would say, "and at their age there's a good chance they'll acquire a decent accent." "Hanging around all the time with those Frechette kids," Mr. Houghton, on his part, would reflect, "Bonnie and Dozzie will be speaking French in...