I apologize if this subject has been dealt with here already. Perhaps I should lurk longer before I leap, but here I go at any rate...

Recently the flag-waving speech teacher I volunteer for in my son's school said that she wanted to "remove everything French" from her room. I stood there for a few moments, looking at her in utter disbelief, then said, "You do realize that my last name is French, right?" (My husband's family were French Huguenots from way back). She actually squinted her eyes at me in what for all the world looked like suspicion then quickly recovered.

After this I started thinking how disabled this speech teacher would truly be if she were to ban all French words from her room, since many of the words we use in English have French origins. I recalled a humorous webpage I saw some time ago and e-mailed it to her. Naturally, she did not respond. Heh! Likely most of you saw this, but in case you haven't here it is:

English Sans French
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p10s02-comv.html

Now I must find a fun Xmas gift for this speech teacher....from France, of course!

Viva la différence!