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Host Garrison Keillor answers your questions about life, love, writing, authors, and of course, A Prairie Home Companion.

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To Be Misunderstood

December 1, 1996 |

First, I really enjoy the show. Now for my question; I am a French major at the University of Arkansas and I have been having a constant fight with my mother about whether or not I have any hope for employment in "The Real World." Does anybody have any idea what someone could do with a French degree? I would hate to have to concede defeat to my old mother.

Thanks,

Mark Harris

Maurice the Maitre'd replies: Eh, Monsieur Marque Arris of Arquansois, you are on the right track exactly. The question is not "What can one do with a French degree?" but rather "Whatever would one do without it?" To learn French is to open a door and enter a civilized culture that gives one profound inner satisfaction regardless of career. Pity the poor English majors who spend years of their lives on a language of shopkeepers. You are a poet, sir, and a philosopher. Tell your dear mother that to speak French is to be misunderstood, and forgive her shortsightedness.

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