Filling The Final Week

As many of you may know, Claire and my senior project... didn't really go as planned... but never the less, being back in the states, we have to fill the final week with SOMETHING. After a few meeting with Ms. Davis and Madame Brennan, we have decided that we will watch Quebec films and help to devise potential projects that next years french class could do in order to really learn about Quebecois culture. I have watched one of the two films thus far, and have "Mon Oncle Antoine" left to finish. After getting home from Montreal and after the meetings, I was doing some thinking about how kids could really learn about the Quebecois culture besides just watching movies. My first thought went to music. Music is something that can cross language barriers, cultural barriers and really bridge divides between things that may be so innately divided. On my way home one day i turned on Sirius XM to the francophone channel and stumbled upon this really cool band called Final State. They were playing their new single "Make Up Your Mind" and although the title is in french, the song is sung in half french half English. Intrigued by the song, when I got home, I decided to look the band up and find some more music by them. And guess what I found out? THEY'RE FROM QUEBEC! This band was formed out of Quebec City, an almost solely french speaking city in the Province of Quebec. This band was singing in English AND French, something that just doesn't happen in Quebec City. Quebec City is where in Quebec that most of the drive to become a separate country comes from. The fact that this band is bridging the gap between the Anglo's and the Francophone's during a time where there is so much discontent between the two sides is unfathomable. If students were to research this band as well as others I think they could learn a whole lot more about Quebecois culture than just watching movies, because you can hear the gaps between the two sides being bridged through music, which to me, is so much more powerful than a movie that only talks about bridging the gaps.