Mahébourg to Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius

You know how in Canada, we have bilingual packaging? For us anglophones, we call it “cereal box French” or “shampoo French” – that’s basically our only exposure to the language on a day to day basis, and probably the extent of our knowledge for those of us long gone from high school. We really could do better.

Now look at Mauritius — or in French, Maurice. The official language is English and most can get by, but far more people speak French and tend to lead interactions with it, though everyone speaks Creole amongst themselves. Signs are in one to three languages, sometimes but often not translated, even in museums. Restaurant menus are haphazardly written in a mix. Towns often have names in both English and French. People comfortably switch between languages mid-sentence with no acknowledgement. There’s no identity crisis, no linguistic politics. The national currency even has amounts written in Tamil and Hindi, neither of which have official status. Students learn English, French, Hindi, and Mandarin in school!

There are other, far more obvious reasons that people come to Mauritius. But for me, as a language enthusiast, it’s jealousy that brought me here.
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