Living in the CASL as a French student

It all started in fall semester of 2012 when I first decided to take French at Henry Ford Community College. I honestly did not know what I was getting into besides taking a language that sounded astoundingly beautiful. As the year progressed, I found myself starting to like French more and more then I started seeing the connections in my everyday life. However, this was not just in the historical borrowing of English words but also in how the French language itself has influenced English. In the fall of 2013, as a transfer student, I decided to keep taking French. My French teacher, Lindsay Todd-Colby, is phenomenal and I actually started to understand the French language more. By the end of that 2014 school year in I decided to switch my major from English to French studies.

What I value the most about CASL is that it really opens your eyes to the fluidity of language - it’s not just set in stone like bricks that are holding up a building. CASL also opens your eyes to the connections of multiple instances occurring at the same time. Language is so much more than just sounds and scribbles that form words which turn into sentences and those sentences into long paragraphs thus turning into essays that we dread as college students. Language describes every emotion you could possibly feel and it’s forever changing, that’s powerful. How many other man-made things are alive like language? Every utterance is a new creation made by humans. In my opinion, language is a river and we are the fish: this world is created because of language; without it how could we describe, learn, or explain what these substances are without communicating?

Being a CASL student has really impacted my life because I want to spend the rest of my life studying languages (linguistics) and I want to learn as many languages as possible because learning languages is another way to communicate. My major is best because it’s French. Most Americans say that French is the language of love but it is also a language of hatred, sadness, hard work, dedication, patience, beauty, acceptance, and so much more. French is a language that is ancient yet modern at the same time. I highly recommend that all major take up a minor in a foreign language because honestly our generation is a global generation. It is going to be hard to compete with multilingual individuals in the work force when you only know English. It cannot hurt you to learn another language; better yet, it can only help you in the future.  When you go on spring break use those Spanish skills next time you go to Puerto Rico, or next weekend when you go to Canada use your French skills. Learning another language makes traveling to another country better. My French major has drastically changed my life and the lives of the people around me.

Ty Martin is a CASL French honor student