Analysis Of Patricia Smith's Article 'Parlez-Vous Fabulous?'

Changing a store sign might lead to a cultural threat. This situation can be seen in the article “Parlez-Vous Français?” from New York Times Upfront by Patricia Smith. In her article, she addressed the issue in Quebec, which the American retailers objected the Quebec government rules because the Quebec government required foreigner stores and restaurants to include French translations. Patricia supports the idea of translating the signs to French because the title was written in French despite the fact that her article written in English. She also builds her arguments by using pictures, quotations from Canadian professors, experts, and specific rhetorical strategies. However, Patricia attempts to persuade the American retailers that changing

She explains why the Quebec government takes this action by providing the evidence that “But Quebec made French its sole official language in 1977, and Quebec law requires stores to serve customers in French and post in store displays and labels in French” (Smith par 4). Whereas, she justified the American retailer’s attitude toward this action when she explained their object to that law which is due to the cost of changing the signs and they would like to keep their universal brands the same. In addition, she quoted Nathalie St. Pierre who is one of the Retail Council of Canada ‘“Our members in general feel that this is very unfair’” (par 6). To present the American retailer’s rights. On the other hand, she quoted Andre Holman, who is Canadian expert, to support Quebecers ‘“It’s immediately interpreted as a symbol of a bigger threat that Quebecers have always faced’” (par 9). When Patricia asked a question “why so much hullabaloo over a few store signs? It has to do with Quebec’s unique history within Canada” (par 8). She used the word “hullabaloo” which she is trying to convince American retailers to tolerate and obey the

She summarized the French settlement and the battle between British and the French, and she clarified the difference between Quebec and the rest of Canada “By 1900, about three quarters of Canadians used English in government, business, and daily life” (par 11) After that, she mentioned that in 1977, “Quebec’s legislature made French the province’s sole official language” (par 13). In order to prove that is has been a long time ago since the French language been official language in Quebec. Patricia used the map to describe how the French culture spread in Quebec. She includes statistics about Canada and U.S. in her article which reflects the difference in population, GDP, Geographic Area, and the most important the number of official languages which is two in Canada, while zero in the U.S. to reveal the different rules and elements between Canada and the U.S. and to show the reader that Canada has two languages and the French language is an official