Artemis II mission astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reed Wiseman attend a welcome ceremony in Houston on April 11.<\/span> Photo: Ronaldo Shemit\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAir Canada president Michael Rousseau was forced to resign last month amid a storm of outrage after he spoke only two words of French in a video commemorating two pilots killed in a fatal crash. One of the pilots is a native French speaker, and Air Canada is based in Montreal, but Rousseau’s inability to speak French, despite having a French-speaking mother and wife, is seen as an insult by the 80 per cent of Quebec’s French-speaking population.<\/p>\n
Even Canada’s prime minister weighed in on the controversy, saying the video showed “a lack of judgment and a lack of compassion.”<\/p>\n
Weeks later, as the Artemis crew hurtled toward the moon, Mark Carney had nothing but praise for Hansen.<\/p>\n
“Of course, Canadians are very proud of you for a variety of reasons, but hearing you speak French for the first time in space was incredible,” he said while speaking French to the astronauts. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of what you\u2019re doing\u2026We\u2019ve all watched and been inspired by what you\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two’s Anglophone conversations – speaking to each other in heavily accented French – aroused widespread admiration among many Canadians.<\/p>\n
“Francophones in Canada will applaud these efforts. Neither of them speaks perfect French, and they probably never will, but to see them do that publicly and publicly will resonate with Francophones across the country,” said St\u00e9phanie Chouinard, a political science professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, the tertiary institution where Hansen attended. \u201cPerfection is not expected here, but effort and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen learned French early in school and was required to achieve a high level of French to graduate from RMC. He still frequently uses French at public awareness events and often answers questions from Canadians bilingually. For many, Mr. Hansen seems to treat French as part of his job representing Canada, and the head of Air Canada also seems to treat French as an option.<\/p>\n
“Besides being a firefighter, being an astronaut is probably the most aspirational career for kids, and for Hansen to take the lead in that effort and show that it’s always a work in progress is the best role model you could hope for,” Chouinard said. “French is not widely spoken in the hallways of NASA. [But] He knows he represents Canada and thinks it’s worth showcasing Canada as something important. This speaks volumes. \u201d<\/p>\nMichael Rousseau resigned in the wake of the video controversy.<\/span> Photo: Nick Lachance\/Toronto Star\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn an online forum, there was discussion about the astronaut’s heavily accented French, with most saying it was impressive. And many people made the obvious point. That was the opposite level of effort from Air Canada’s outgoing CEO.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hansen has publicly spoken of his desire to represent the people living in Canada as best he can. He has developed close relationships with Indigenous elders to better understand the cultural significance of the 13-month calendar shared by Anishinaabe, Cree, and Haudenosaunee cultures that guides planting, harvesting, hunting, and gathering.<\/p>\n
The Artemis II mission departed Earth during the Anishinaabemowin Sugar Sign Moon, Jiisbakdoke Giisis. This period is widely recognized as the period of renewal when maple sap flows.<\/p>\n
The custom patch worn by Hansen during his tour of duty was designed by Anishinabe artist Henry Guimond. Part of the image shows Artemis firing arrows with astronauts, sending them around the Grandmother Moon, which reflects the cycle of life.<\/p>\nJeremy Hansen’s custom mission patch.<\/span> Photo: CSA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n“Sit down with your elders and ask them questions,” Hansen said from space. \u201cEvery time I listen, I learn something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon returning to Earth, the Artemis crew seemed moved by the very human experience of leaving Earth. Hansen later said the incident made him realize that humans are “small and powerless, but powerful when we come together.”<\/p>\n
Recent developments in artificial intelligence and wearable technology have led some to suggest that learning a second language is no longer important. But the Canadian astronaut’s decision to speak French while the world is watching reflects deep cultural elements embedded in learning and respecting other languages.<\/p>\n
“Of course, language is a tool for information, exchange and communication. But it is much more than that. Anyone who decides to learn to speak another language than his own will realize how much any language contains certain concepts about the world and universe around us,” Chouinard said. \u201cThis is really a way of learning to see the world, our world, through a different lens.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Canadian #astronaut #Bon #Mot #heals #wounds #French #argument<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FFew people predicted humanity’s quest for the moon as accurately as 19th-century French writer Jules Verne. Jules Verne’s two works, From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, anticipated many of the features of modern lunar exploration. But Byrne’s language had never been spoken in deep space until Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen uttered … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1176,975,1171,715,1175,1173,1172,1174],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-argument","tag-astronaut","tag-bon","tag-canadian","tag-french","tag-heals","tag-mot","tag-wounds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}