But it's nice to see that in responce to the lip service France's minorities have received, they are fighting back for their languages. The conclusion sums up the hypocritical nature of France's attitude quite nicely, actually:
"This policy of cultural homogeneity has been challenged from both the right wing and the left wing. In the 1970s, nationalist or regionalist movements emerged in regions such as Brittany and Occitania claiming that the people should do what the French State refuses to do. The main result was the creation of associative schools in the minority languages. That new web of schools is called Diwan in Brittany, Ikastola in the Basque country, Calandreta in Occitania, Bressola in Northern Catalonia.
Since then, the popular pressure has legitimised the teaching of minority languages, obliging the French State to open its own bilingual schools in the 1980s. But even today, only one quarter of the young Bretons have access to a course of Breton language during their time in school. The Constitutional Council also blocked the assimilation of the Diwan schools into the public education system.
A long campaign of defacing road-signs led to the first bilingual road-signs in the 1980s. These are now increasingly common in Brittany. As far as the media are concerned, there is still hardly any Breton on the waves. But since 1982, a few Breton speaking radio stations have been created on an associative basis. The launching of the Breton TV Breizh was a commercial failure.
There is some opposition to Loi Toubon mandating the use of French (or at least a translation into French) in commercial advertising and packaging, as well as in some other contexts."
"This policy of cultural homogeneity has been challenged from both the right wing and the left wing. In the 1970s, nationalist or regionalist movements emerged in regions such as Brittany and Occitania claiming that the people should do what the French State refuses to do. The main result was the creation of associative schools in the minority languages. That new web of schools is called Diwan in Brittany, Ikastola in the Basque country, Calandreta in Occitania, Bressola in Northern Catalonia.
Since then, the popular pressure has legitimised the teaching of minority languages, obliging the French State to open its own bilingual schools in the 1980s. But even today, only one quarter of the young Bretons have access to a course of Breton language during their time in school. The Constitutional Council also blocked the assimilation of the Diwan schools into the public education system.
A long campaign of defacing road-signs led to the first bilingual road-signs in the 1980s. These are now increasingly common in Brittany. As far as the media are concerned, there is still hardly any Breton on the waves. But since 1982, a few Breton speaking radio stations have been created on an associative basis. The launching of the Breton TV Breizh was a commercial failure.
There is some opposition to Loi Toubon mandating the use of French (or at least a translation into French) in commercial advertising and packaging, as well as in some other contexts."
