Curious Louisiana: 'How many people speak Cajun French' in our state?

Kindergarten teacher Sandrine Pouzache goes through each letter of the word "bonjour" at École Saint-Landry, a new French immersion charter school, on the first day of class Wednesday, August 18, 2021, in Sunset, La. STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK By KEN STICKNEY | Staff writer Ken Stickney Author email Feb 19, 2023 Feb 19, 2023 2 min to read When Taylor Townsend learned she needed four courses in a foreign language as part of her history degree requirements at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the junior jumped in with both feet by minoring in French.Townsend studies traditional French in Southwestern Louisiana, best known for Cajun French. She is conversational in traditional French but finds Cajun French more difficult to navigate. “I’ve been told all my life a lot of people speak it, but I’ve only ever met one person who speaks it,” she said— a Cajun French speaker in Denham Springs. Townsend, of Livingston Parish, said her classes reference differences between traditional...