Hey gnu, h'I tink you tink h'I h'am a Franchman, me. But you don know what I yam and I don know what you are, you.

[several of my formative years were spent in Northern Aroostook County, Maine, in the town of Van Buren. This is located in an area generally known as "The Valley", a euphemism for The Saint John River Valley. The majority of the population is French Catholic.

When I arrived it was 1963, I was in the fifth grade and they assigned me to an English class and a French class. My parents thought I would be learning my own language in the English class and a second language in the French class.

Unfortunately the French class was intended to teach the kids how to speak their native tongue correctly. The teacher arrived on the first day of class and spoke for ten minute in a completely incomprehensible language before I got the nerve up to raise my hand and ask her to speak English.

English class was intended to teach the kids a second language!]