I have found myself lost with things to say about being Franco-American.
Besides describing myself as a descendant of French-Canadians from Québec, I have found it challenging to find more words to define it.
I’ve seen so many videos while scrolling through social media of other people in my age range sharing aspects of their culture with the world. Either they know the history, they’re learning the language (if they aren’t already fluent), they dance to their culture’s music in their traditional dress, or sing along with their own meaningful songs.
It’s inspiring to see young people embracing their culture, especially online. Every time I see these stories, I badly want to share my own culture in the same way. Although I’ve thought of many ideas to participate in these “culture challenges,” there’s always the imposter syndrome that stops me.
What is traditional dress for Franco-Americans: do we even have that? Would we adopt the French-Canadian tuque or ceinture fléchée? Or adopt clothing styles that the early settlers of New France wore? And what is our traditional music? Who are we, really?
The Spark of Inspiration and the Challenge of Imposter Syndrome
It hurts to admit, but I do have conflicting thoughts about sharing something that I still don’t know all that much about.
Recently, I had a conversation with other 20-somethings about our place in the Franco-American story. I don’t think any of us expected to have hours of things to say, but we shared personal experiences of feeling different than our peers in many ways.
Although we grew up in different parts of the United States, we spent most of the three and a half hour conversation watching our jaws drop as we connected so many dots.
We discovered that we’ve been told scarily similar things about the way we looked with our sharp French-Canadian facial features. We shared the French words we picked up from our childhood and compared our pronunciations. And we talked about where our ancestors immigrated from, whether it was Québec or the Maritime Provinces.
The Flag of Québec 
The Acadian Flag
For a long time, I had a difficult time explaining what Franco-American culture was. In the past, I would often wonder if it even was a culture. It seemed so insignificant with the limited amount of information that I could find.
Culture is defined as “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.”
With this in mind, I feel like you know you’re a part of something unique when most people around you have no clue what you’re talking about. At age six, I told my new friends at my new school all about my mémère.
I thought everyone knew what I was saying, but I quickly learned that the term was completely unknown. Just like my other “Franco-Americanisms” that my family used regularly.
Connect Through Memories and Stories
So you must realize that you’ve stumbled upon a culture when you finally connect those dots with other people who get it. Especially when it’s among us in the younger generation, aka ‘90s kids.
We remember mémère’s gorton (or creton) and know what tourtière is (even if we pronounce it differently). We’ve been told that our facial features are sharp and distinct by others who meant it as a bad thing. Yet even when we’ve traveled all the way to France, we’ve had random people walk up to us speaking French.
But we most likely grew up speaking English before French (if we learned French at all). And if our schools offered French class, it was only Parisian French. So we couldn’t even speak to our older family members in Québec French.
We grew up thinking our culture wasn’t that interesting due to some family members telling us that it’s nothing special. Or “It’s just how I grew up, what’s so interesting about it?”
Think Beyond What’s Already Out There
It’s one thing to keep the food and preserve the language. But until we understand that this is our culture and something unique to us, it will be easily left behind and forgotten.
Academics and genealogy are great resources in discovering this part of ourselves, but it’s not the most effective in getting younger people interested. It could become their favorite pastime at some point, but it can also be intimidating on the surface.
To reach the rest of us twenty-somethings (and the generations below us), it’s time we create fresh storytelling techniques using new media.
So for those of us in the younger crowd who regularly use Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, or YouTube, we can reach other people in our age range by telling our personal stories.
If they know, they know and they’ll find the connection with us that we found with each other.
Where to Find Others Who Share Our Passion
To journey down this rabbit hole, here are some links:
Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Quebec/
https://www.reddit.com/r/acadie/
https://www.reddit.com/r/francoontarien/
https://www.reddit.com/r/francophonie/
https://www.reddit.com/r/france/
Because Reddit is an open platform where any number of people can post their opinions at any time: keep in mind that the views, information, or opinions expressed in these links are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Moderne Francos.
Video Content:
Create Your Own Engaging Content
If you use Instagram, make sure to check out their TikTok equivalent called Reels. But if you’d like to work with more video time, you can also share your content through IGTV.
For more content ideas, follow current trends and think about how our culture can be added into the mainstream.
It doesn’t have to only be personal stories: if you’re into theatre, create short skits. If you’re a musician, write a song and perform it. Or do a video attempting to master Québécois and French-Canadian foot-tapping. If dancing is your thing, check out un quadrille and maybe mix in some modern dance techniques.
The Sea Shanty trend has been a big hit throughout video platforms this year, so surely we can come up with some epic lyrics (perhaps a song about a certain flying canoe?).
The spark of creativity is essential in telling our story outside of our Franco-American bubble.
Although this blog doesn’t have new media content yet, if you post your personal story of being Franco-American, French-Canadian, Acadian, etc., on any of these platforms, I’ll add it to this list of links!
We can create fun and engaging content to share our culture. During the process, we’ll learn new things about ourselves and our place in this larger story. The imposter syndrome might put up a tough fight within our minds. But maybe if we focus on making this entertaining, those worries will disappear.
The passion for Franco-American, French-Canadian, and Acadian culture among the younger generation is definitely alive today. If a few of us 20-somethings can have a three and a half hour conversation about our experiences, imagine how many more connections we could make beyond our social circles.
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