Greater Than the Barrier Reef-The French Language Barrier

Laïcité is the French word for the notion of separation of church and state.

And when these people say “separation,” they aren’t kidding around.

Americans, too, fight about this concept-prayer in public schools, teachers who must be careful to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas-but let’s face it, at the end of the day it says “In God We Trust” all over those good old American greenbacks.

In that case, I imagine the French saying,

“Give me Euros or give me death.”

When writing my laïcité article, I encountered roadblocks both mental and physical. My American mentality made it difficult for me not to immediately equate this French notion of absolute separation of church and state with a (not very) disguised form of racism or prejudice against the Muslims who this legislation seems to most target.

Other than these cultural challenges, I discovered that it is also difficult to work on a story that deals with international affairs when you are looking at your laptop in Chicago, Illinois.

For instance, I found a reference to a group of young French Muslim women who have a more relaxed stance about wearing the headscarf, but when I tried to look at their website it was (of course) in French. I used Google’s Translator tool, but at times the translation seemed inconsistent and I found this frustrating because I have no real way of knowing how accurate the information is.

Getting in touch with sources was another issue along these lines. Here in the states, it is actually relatively easy (with a combination of perseverance and luck) to get a hold of aldermen, CEOs, and even senators. However, contacting someone in France is difficult twofold: there is both a potential language barrier and the problem of time-3pm in the States becomes 10pm in Paris.

I sent out two emails: One to Khiari Bariza, one of the only Muslim French senators, and one to the group I mentioned previously.

So far, I have not heard back from either.

But there is still time. Maybe these French will ultimately understand my transatlantic attempt to reach out to them.

Or, like our countries’ different attitudes towards religion, maybe the cultural gap is too wide to effectively cross.

Like Apples and Oranges.

French fries and Freedom fries.