French Canada may not have the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, but it boasts an entirely unique French cultural and linguistic identity.
Each year, students studying French at BYU travel to France on study abroad programs with the hope of experiencing the ins and outs of French culture in real life. However, the 2024 Paris Olympics disrupted the annual France spring study abroad, inspiring the director, Professor Bob Hudson (French Renaissance and Culture) to bring back a decades-old study abroad in Québec City, Canada. After joining the study abroad group, undergrad Céline Brown (French ’24) spent her time in Canada learning about the unique culture and focusing on what the languages—both English and French—revealed about the people using them.
Brown learned French as a little girl and, by the time she reached college, decided it was time to explore language learning in a university setting. Having spent ample time using French while visiting Southern France and on a mission to French Polynesia, she saw firsthand how language impacted identity—especially her own. Brown explains, “In French, I think differently than I do in English because my language influences my identity and my culture.” With this knowledge at the forefront of her mind, she made a goal to interact with as many French speakers as possible, hoping to see how Canadians feel their identity shifts as they switch back and forth between English and French in an area where both languages are prevalent.
Initially, Brown expected Québécois culture to represent a mix of European and American culture, the first coming from the language itself and the latter from geographical proximity to the US. After spending a few days in Québec, however, she learned that despite European and American influences, French Canada had a culture unlike any she’d seen before. She could particularly see this difference in public spaces, such as stores, where she was consistently greeted in both English and French. She quickly realized the essential role both languages play in Canadian culture. Brown notes that in Québec, “the language flows equally between English and French. And, so, with those two routes converging together, I did not feel like, in Québec, I was merging a European with an American—the culture was Canadian.”
Brown made the most of her visit by talking to locals in each of the cities she visited. As she traveled with her peers throughout Québec, Montréal, and Ottawa, she came to understand Canada through the eyes of those living there. Brown especially saw this interplay between language and identity in the immigrant community, which holds a plethora of dialects taken from each immigrant’s home country. She notes, “There are many ‘Frenches.’ I think it’s really beautiful that, as human beings, we adapt, and we change, and we develop our language and our communities based on what’s around us.” Brown met French speakers from all around the world, helping her see a myriad of cultural practices and identities tied to each unique dialect.
Weeks after returning from her study abroad, Brown still feels the impact and the weight of all that she learned. She says, “As a student who was blessed to go onto this experience, it has played a large part in my study at BYU and [is] the culminating point of why I studied French. So, I’m just very grateful that my studies ended in Québec City.”
Find a study abroad fit for you on the Kennedy Center website.