‘Au Revoir, Louisiane’: Zachary man honors grandfather through digital French lessons

ZACHARY, La. (Louisiana First) — Louisiana is the only American state where French can be heard frequently, as the language has been part of its culture since the late 1600s. Some people are trying to keep it from dying out in the state, and they’re using the digital space to do so.

Joshua Atwell has a makeshift studio in his Zachary home, where he teaches Louisiana French to several hundred people who have subscribed to his services. He promotes it as Cajun French, but he said that is not a completely accurate descriptor.

“The populations that have the highest percentage of French speakers are actually Native Americans,” Atwell said.

Atwell teaches the history of this area in those lessons, including the 20th-century push to eliminate French across the state.

“It was a lot of prejudice,” Atwell said. “It was a lot of pressure.”

Arthur Matherne, an airboat tour guide in Des Allemands, said he grew up in a family where French was the predominant language.

“My parents hardly spoke English at all,” Matherne said. “My grandma didn’t speak English at all. She was totally French-speaking.”

Matherne said he grew up in an era when it was still taboo to speak French in classrooms.

“When we were in school and you’d talk French, they’d punish you, slap you or tell you not to speak French,” Matherne said.

Atwell said he learned about that history from his Cajun grandfather.

“I asked him about French one day, and he actually got really upset,” Atwell said. “That’s what he told me, ‘We don’t speak that here.'”

Atwell said that societal pressure led to the language declining as a primary or real secondary language. U.S. Census numbers indicate fewer people speak it each year, dropping from around 136,000 Louisianans in 2010 to around 68,000 by 2022. Atwell said he thinks that trend will continue.

“Language is like a code to culture,” Atwell said. “When the language that was spoken here since 1699 disappears, that culture over time is 100% going to disappear, as well.”

That gets to the heart of why Atwell said he is carrying the language forward.

“Conversations that people have been able to have that they wouldn’t have been able to, I think, is the biggest win for us,” Atwell said.

Those conversations are ones Atwell never had with his grandfather, but he said he now honors him every day by righting society’s wrongs and preserving the language.

“I think he would’ve seen the light,” Atwell said. “I think he would be really proud, honestly.”

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