Category Archives: French

Judging Coffee and Beer: Answer to DoubleShot Coffee Company

DoubleShot Coffee Company: More Espresso Arguments.

I’m not in the coffee biz but I do involve myself in some coffee-related things, including barista championships (sensory judge at regional and national) and numerous discussions with coffee artisans. In other words, I’m nobody important.

In a way, I “come from” the worlds of beer and coffee homebrewing. In coffee circles, I like to introduce myself as a homeroaster and blogger.

(I’m mostly an ethnographer, meaning that I do what we call “participant-observation” as both an insider and an outsider.)

There seem to be several disconnects in today’s coffee world, despite a lot of communication across the Globe. Between the huge coffee corporations and the “specialty coffee” crowd. Between coffee growers and coffee lovers. Between professional and home baristas. Even, sometimes, between baristas from different parts of the world.
None of it is very surprising. But it’s sometimes a bit sad to hear people talk past one another.

I realize nothing I say may really help. And it may all be misinterpreted. That’s all part of the way things go and I accept that.

In the world of barista champions and the so-called “Third Wave,” emotions seem particularly high. Part of it might have to do with the fact that so many people interact on a rather regular basis. Makes for a very interesting craft, in some ways. But also for rather tense moments.

About judging…
My experience isn’t that extensive. I’ve judged at the Canadian Eastern Regional BC twice and at the Canadian BC once.
Still, I did notice a few things.

One is that there can be a lot of camaraderie/collegiality among BC participants. This can have a lot of beneficial effects on the quality of coffee served in different places as well as on the quality of the café experience itself, long after the championships. A certain cohesiveness which may come from friendly competition can do a lot for the diversity of coffee scenes.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that it’s really easy to be fair, in judging using WBC regulations. It’s subjective in a very literal way since there’s tasting involved (tastebuds belong to the “subjects” of the sensory and head judges). But it simply has very little if anything to do with personal opinions, relationships, or “liking the person.” It’s remarkably easy to judge the performance, with a focus on what’s in the cup, as opposed to the person her-/himself or her/his values.

Sure, the championship setting is in many ways artificial and arbitrary. A little bit like rules for an organized sport. Or so many other contexts.

A competition like this has fairly little to do with what is likely to happen in “The Real World” (i.e., in a café). I might even say that applying a WBC-compatible in a café is likely to become a problem in many cases. A bit like working the lunch shift at a busy diner using ideas from the Iron Chef or getting into a street fight and using strict judo rules.

A while ago, I was working in French restaurants, as a «garde-manger» (assistant-chef). We often talked about (and I did meet a few) people who were just coming out of culinary institutes. In most cases, they were quite good at producing a good dish in true French cuisine style. But the consensus was that “they didn’t know how to work.”
People fresh out of culinary school didn’t really know how to handle a chaotic kitchen, order only the supplies required, pay attention to people’s tastes, adapt to differences in prices, etc. They could put up a good show and their dishes might have been exquisite. But they could also be overwhelmed with having to serve 60 customers in a regular shift or, indeed, not know what to do during a slow night. Restaurant owners weren’t that fond of hiring them, right away. They had to be “broken out” («rodés»).

Barista championships remind me of culinary institutes, in this way. Both can be useful in terms of skills, but experience is more diverse than that.

So, yes, WBC rules are probably artificial and arbitrary. But it’s easy to be remarkably consistent in applying these rules. And that should count for something. Just not for everythin.

Sure, you may get some differences between one judge and the other. But those differences aren’t that difficult to understand and I didn’t see that they tended to have to do with “preferences,” personal issues, or anything of the sort. From what I noticed while judging, you simply don’t pay attention to the same things as when you savour coffee. And that’s fine. Cupping coffee isn’t the same thing as drinking it, either.

In my (admittedly very limited) judging experience, emphasis was put on providing useful feedback. The points matter a lot, of course, but the main thing is that the points make sense in view of the comments. In a way, it’s to ensure calibration (“you say ‘excellent’ but put a ‘3,’ which one is more accurate?”) but it’s also about the goals of the judging process. The textual comments are a way to help the barista pay attention to certain things. “Constructive criticism” is one way to put it. But it’s more than that. It’s a way to get something started.

Several of the competitors I’ve seen do come to ask judges for clarifications and many of them seemed open to discussion. A few mostly wanted justification and may have felt slighted. But I mostly noticed a rather thoughtful process of debriefing.

Having said that, there are competitors who are surprised by differences between two judges’ scores. “But both shots came from the same portafilter!” “Well, yes, but if you look at the video, you’ll notice that coffee didn’t flow the same way in both cups.” There are also those who simply doubt judges, no matter what. Wonder if they respect people who drink their espresso…

Coming from the beer world, I also notice differences with beer. In the beer world, there isn’t really an equivalent to the WBC in the sense that professional beer brewers don’t typically have competitions. But amateur homebrewers do. And it’s much stricter than the WBC in terms of certification. It requires a lot of rote memorization, difficult exams (I helped proctor two), judging points, etc.

I’ve been a vocal critic of the Beer Judge Certification Program. There seems to be an idea, there, that you can make the process completely neutral and that the knowledge necessary to judge beers is solid and well-established. One problem is that this certification program focuses too much on a series of (over a hundred) “styles” which are more of a context-specific interpretation of beer diversity than a straightforward classification of possible beers.
Also, the one thing they want to avoid the most (basing their evaluation on taste preferences) still creeps in. It’s probably no coincidence that, at certain events, beers which were winning “Best of Show” tended to be big, assertive beers instead of very subtle ones. Beer judges don’t want to be human, but they may still end up acting like ones.

At the same time, while there’s a good deal of debate over beer competition results and such, there doesn’t seem to be exactly the same kind of tension as in barista championships. Homebrewers take their results to heart and they may yell at each other over their scores. But, somehow, I see much less of a fracture, “there” than “here.” Perhaps because the stakes are very low (it’s a hobby, not a livelihood). Perhaps because beer is so different from coffee. Or maybe because there isn’t a sense of “Us vs. Them”: brewers judging a competition often enter beer in that same competition (but in a separate category from the ones they judge).
Actually, the main difference may be that beer judges can literally only judge what’s in the bottle. They don’t observe the brewers practicing their craft (this happens weeks prior), they simply judge the product. In a specific condition. In many ways, it’s very unfair. But it can help brewers understand where something went wrong.

Now, I’m not saying the WBC should become like the BJCP. For one thing, it just wouldn’t work. And there’s already a lot of investment in the current WBC format. And I’m really not saying the BJCP is better than the WBC as an inspiration, since I actually prefer the WBC-style championships. But I sense that there’s something going on in the coffee world which has more to do with interpersonal relationships and “attitudes” than with what’s in the cup.

All this time, those of us who don’t make a living through coffee but still live it with passion may be left out. And we do our own things. We may listen to coffee podcasts, witness personal conflicts between café owners, hear rants about the state of the “industry,” and visit a variety of cafés.
Yet, slowly but surely, we’re making our own way through coffee. Exploring its diversity, experimenting with different brewing methods, interacting with diverse people involved, even taking trips “to origin”…

Coffee is what unites us.

Mon Café Vert: séparer le bon grain de l'ivraie

Il y a déjà quelques semaines, j’ai acheté des grains de café vert (pour torréfaction maison) grâce au site MonCafeVert.com (MCV):

Mon Café Vert – Café Vert, Torréfacteurs maison, Café vert bio et Équitable.

Avant même de commencer à torréfaction, j’avais un bonne impression de cette entreprise.

Tout d’abord, la boutique en-ligne est relativement bien construite. Pas nécessairement d’un point de vue visuel (je suis pas très sensible à ça) mais d’un point de vue ergonomique. Les diverses sections du site sont clairement identifiées, le panier d’achat se met à jour automatiquement, le contenu affiché n’est pas trop «envahissant»… La boutique accepte les paiements par Paypal, ce qui est assez utile (malgré les frais). Interac en-ligne serait encore plus pratique, à mon avis.

La description des diverses variétés de café semble adéquate, bien que j’aurais personnellement aimé un peu plus de détails (origine plus précise, lavé ou naturel…). Les neuf variétés de café disponibles semblent suffisamment  différentes les unes des autres pour permettre des mélanges intéressants. Dans l’ensemble, les prix sont somme toute assez raisonnables.

MCV distribue aussi des cafetières piston (Bodum) et des torréfacteurs maison. Les torréfacteurs maison sont difficiles à trouver dans le commerce local et MCV les offrent à des prix raisonnables.

Un des plus grands avantages, d’après moi, est le fait que MCV soit une entreprise montréalaise. Pour diverses raisons, j’essaie le plus possible de faire des achats locaux et d’éviter la livraison. MCV offre la livraison gratuite à Montréal et Laval. Je préférerais pouvoir aller chercher le café directement, en métro, mais j’apprécie ce service offert par MCV.

D’ailleurs, c’est ce qui m’a le plus impressionné de MCV: non seulement ai-je obtenu la livraison gratuite à domicile pour une commande de moins de 40$, mais cette livraison a été effectuée dans des délais remarquablement courts et de façon personnalisée. Du service comme ça, c’est impressionnant!

D’ailleurs, c’est la qualité du service qui me pousse à bloguer au sujet de MCV et à faire référence au «bon grain»: du service pareil, ça mérite une reconnaissance amicale.

Ce qui m’a poussé à compléter l’expression usuelle dans le titre, c’est le fait que les grains de certaines variétés de café (le Djimmah, en particulier) sont moins bien triés que ce dont j’ai l’habitude. J’ai torréfié ces cafés à plusieurs reprises et j’ai été obligé de retirer un assez grand nombre de grains après torréfaction, ce qui est plutôt rare. Dans l’ensemble, je dirais que les grains sont d’assez bonne qualité et j’obtiens d’assez bons résultats dans la tasse. Mais j’ai obtenu de meilleurs résultats avec des grains de café vert achetés ailleurs.

N’empêche, avec un tel service, je peux pas me plaindre. Je me dois simplement d’être honnête.

Intervention médiatique helvético-québécoise

Un peu la suite (tardive) d’un billet sur la «vitalité culturelle du Québec» (qui était lui-même une suite d’un billet sur le contenu québécois), avec des liens à deux baladodiffusions: David Patry (du syndicat du Journal de Montréal) en entrevue sur Musironie et Jean-François Rioux (directeur radio à RadCan) en entrevue sur Médialogues.

Un peu plus de contexte que vous n’en désirez… 🙂

J’écoute de nombreuses baladodiffusions, en français et en anglais. En tant qu’ethnographe et en tant que  bavard invétéré, j’essaie  d’apporter mon grain de sel dans diverses conversations. Certaines baladodiffusions (entre autres celles qui proviennent du contexte radiophonique traditionnel, comme Médialogues) «donnent la parole aux auditeurs» en sollicitant des messages téléphoniques ou par courriel. Une participation beaucoup moins directe ou égalitaire que dans le média social, mais une participation sociale tout de même.

En tant que Québécois d’origine suisse, je me plais à écouter des baladodiffusions helvétiques (provenant surtout de la radio publique en Suisse-Romande, la baladodiffusion indépendante étant encore plus rare en Suisse qu’au Québec). Ça m’aide à conserver un contact avec la Suisse, ne serait-ce que par l’accent des participants. Et ça me fait parfois réfléchir aux différences entre la Suisse et le Québec (ou, par extension, aux différences entre Amérique du Nord et Europe).

J’écoute des baladodiffusions de Couleur3 et de «La première» (deux stations radiophoniques de la SRG SSR idée suisse) depuis 2005. Mais ce n’est qu’en écoutant un épisode de la baladodiffusion de Vous êtes ici de Radio-Canada, l’été dernier que j’ai appris l’existence de Médialogues, une émission de La première au sujet des médias. 

Puisque je suis en réaction contre le journalisme depuis 25 ans, la critique des médias me fascine. Médialogues n’est pas, en tant que telle, représentative de l’analyse critique des médias (elle est animée par des journalistes et les journalistes peinent à utiliser un point de vue critique sur le journalisme). Mais plusieurs interventions au cours de l’émission sont effectuées par des gens (y compris d’anciens journalistes comme Christophe Hans) dotés du recul nécessaire pour comprendre le journalisme dans son ensemble et certains journalistes qui participent à l’émission énoncent à l’occasion des idées qui peuvent être utiles à l’analyse critique du journalisme.

Soit dit en passant, au sujet du respect… Je respecte qui que ce soit, y compris ceux avec qui je suis en désaccord profond. Je peux parfois sembler irrespectueux à l’égard des journalistes mais ce n’est pas contre eux que «j’en ai». Je suis en réaction contre le journalisme mais j’apprécie les journalistes en tant que personnes. Par ailleurs, je considère que beaucoup de journalistes sont eux-mêmes irrespectueux à l’égard des non-journalistes et leur manque de respect à notre égard provoque parfois en moi certaines réactions qui peuvent ressembler à des «attaques» plus personnalisées. Mon intention est toute autre, bien évidemment, mais je prends la responsabilité pour toute méprise à ce sujet. J’ai d’ailleurs été confronté à ce genre de situation, il y a quelques mois.

Revenons donc à Jean-François Rioux, en entrevue avec les journalistes de Médialogues.

Le contexte immédiat de cette entrevue est relativement simple à comprendre: la Société Suisse Romande (portion francophone de la SRG SSR idée suisse) procède en ce moment à la fusion de ses services télévisuels, radiophoniques et Internet. C’est donc un sujet qui anime et passionne l’équipe de Médialogues (située au cœur de cette transformation). La semaine dernière, intriguée par des propos de Gérard Delaloye, (dont les interventions ont été entendues à plusieurs reprises pendant la semaine), l’équipe de Médialogues s’est penchée sur la crainte toute journalistique de la perte de diversité causée par cette fusion de diverses sections du service public. N’étant pas en mesure de contacter le directeur télévision et radio (déjà sollicité à plusieurs reprises par Médialogues, à ce que j’ai pu comprendre), l’équipe de journalistes a décidé de contacter Jean-François Rioux. Choix très logique puisque la SRC est l’équivalent très direct de la SSR (y compris la distinction linguistique) et que CBC/SRC a déjà procédé à cette fusion des médias.

Rioux était donc invité à se prononcer au sujet des effets de la fusion des moyens de communication. Là où tout prend son sens, c’est que l’équipe de Médialogues utilise le terme «convergence» pour parler de cette fusion. Ce terme est tout à fait approprié puisqu’il s’agit d’un exemple de ce qu’on appelle «la convergence numérique». Mais, en contexte canadien (et, qui plus est, québécois), le terme «convergence» est fortement connoté puisqu’il a surtout été utilisé pour désigner ce qu’on appelle «la convergence des médias»: une portion de la concentration des médias qui traite plus spécifiquement de l’existence de plusieurs organes médiatiques «multi-plateforme» au sein d’une même organisation médiatique. Contrairement à ce que certains pourraient croire (et que je me tue à dire, en tant qu’ethnolinguiste), c’est pas le terme lui-même, qui pose problème. C’est l’utilisation du terme en contexte. En parlant au directeur radio de RadCan, il est bon de connaître le contexte médiatique québécois, y compris une aversion pour la convergence des médias.

En tant qu’ethnolinguiste helvético-québécois, il était de mon devoir d’indiquer à l’équipe de Médialogues qu’une partie de cette entrevue avec Rioux était tributaire d’une acception proprement québécoise du concept de «convergence». J’ai donc envoyé un courriel à cette époque, n’étant alors pas en mesure de laisser un message sur leur boîte vocale (j’étais dans un lobby d’hôtel en préparation à une visite ethnographique).

Alors que je suis chez un ami à Québec (pour d’autres visites ethnographiques), je reçois un courriel d’Alain Maillard (un des journalistes de Médialogues) s’enquérant de mes dispositions face à une entrevue téléphonique au cours des prochains jours. Je lui ai rapidement indiqué mes disponibilités et, ce matin, je reçois un autre courriel de sa part me demandant si je serais disponible dans la prochaine heure. Le moment était tout à fait opportun et nous avons pu procéder à une petite entrevue téléphonique, de 9:58 à 10:18 (heure normale de l’est).

Malheureusement, j’ai pas eu la présence d’esprit de procéder à l’enregistrement de cette entrevue. Sur Skype, ç’aurait été plus facile à faire. Compte tenu de mon opinion sur le journalisme, évidemment, mais aussi de ma passion pour le son, j’accorde une certaine importance à l’enregistrement de ce type d’entrevue.

M’enfin…

Donc, Maillard et moi avons pu parler pendant une vingtaine de minutes. L’entrevue était proprement structurée (on parle quand même de la Suisse et, qui plus est, d’un journaliste et auteur œuvrant en Suisse). Une section portait directement sur la notion de convergence. Selon Maillard, celle-ci pourrait faire l’objet d’une diffusion de deux minutes au début de l’émission de vendredi. La seconde section portait sur mon blogue principal et se concentrait sur l’importance de bloguer dans un contexte plutôt carriériste. La troisième section portant sur un de mes «chevaux de bataille»: la musique et les modèles d’affaires désuets qui la touchent. Comme beaucoup d’autres, Maillard s’interrogeait sur les montants d’argent associés à certains produits de la musique: les enregistrement et les spectacles. Pour Maillard, comme pour beaucoup de non-musiciens (y compris les patrons de l’industrie du disque), il semble que ce soit l’accès à la musique qui se doit d’être payant. Malgré les changements importants survenus dans cette sphère d’activité para-musicale depuis la fin du siècle dernier, plusieurs semblent encore croire que La Musique est équivalente aux produits de consommations (“commodities”) qui lui sont associés. La logique utilisée semble être la suivante: si les gens peuvent «télécharger de la musique» gratuitement, comment «la musique» peut-elle survivre?  Pourtant, ce n’est pas «de la musique» qui est téléchargée, ce sont des fichiers (généralement en format MP3) qui proviennent de l’enregistrement de certaines performances musicales.

L’analogie avec des fichiers JPEG est un peu facile (et partiellement inadéquate, puisqu’elle force une notion technique sur la question) mais elle semble somme toute assez utile. Un fichier JPEG provenant d’une œuvre d’art pictural (disons, une reproduction photographique d’une peinture) n’est pas cette œuvre. Elle en est la «trace», soit. On peut même procéder à une analyse sémiotique détaillée du lien entre ce fichier et cette œuvre. Mais il est facile de comprendre que le fichier JPEG n’est pas directement équivalent à cette œuvre, que l’utilisation du fichier JPEG est distincte de (quoiqu’indirectement liée à) la démarche esthétique liée à une œuvre d’art.

On pourrait appliquer la même logique à une captation vidéo d’une performance de danse ou de théâtre.

J’ai beaucoup de choses à dire à ce sujet, ce qui est assez «dangereux». D’ailleurs, je parle peu de ces questions ici, sur mon blogue principal, parce que c’était surtout mon cheval de bataille sur le blogue que j’ai créé pour Critical World, il y a quelques temps.

Comme vous vous en êtes sûrement rendu compte, chères lectrices et chers lecteurs, je suis parti d’un sujet somme toute banal (une courte entrevue pour une émission de radio) et je suis parti dans tous les sens. C’est d’ailleurs quelque-chose que j’aime bien faire sur mon blogue, même si c’est mal considéré (surtout par les Anglophones). C’est plutôt un flot d’idées qu’un billet sur un sujet précis. Se trouvent ici plusieurs idées en germe que je souhaite aborder de nouveau à une date ultérieure. Par exemple, je pensais dernièrement à écrire un billet spécifiquement au sujet de Médialogues, avec quelques commentaires sur la transformation des médias (la crise du journalisme, par exemple). Mais je crois que c’est plus efficace pour moi de faire ce petit brouillon.

D’ailleurs, ça m’aide à effectuer mon «retour de terrain» après mes premières visites ethnographiques effectuées pour l’entreprise privée.

Langue de bois et ethnographie

J’ai récemment eu l’occasion de penser à ce qu’on appelle la «langue de bois». D’ailleurs, cette expression me motive à écrire ce billet en français. Je sais pas exactement comment dire la même chose en anglais, même si le concept est évidemment connu des Anglophones.

Ce qui m’a poussé à penser à la «langue de bois», c’est cette entrevue, réalisée par Jesse Brown de la baladodiffusion Search Engine de Radio-Canada anglais (CBC) avec un porte-parole de Telus:

Search Engine | CBC Radio | Podcast #16 is up .

D’après moi, cette entrevue est assez représentative de la «langue de bois». Telus fait un geste intéressant, en permettant à un de ses représentants de parler «ouvertement» dans le cadre d’une baladodiffusion. Mais le contenu et le ton de cette entrevue révèlent ce qui est, selon moi, un problème fondamental de certaines entreprises en ce qui a trait aux «relations publiques». Plutôt que d’admettre qu’il y a une différence d’opinion entre Telus (ou Bell) et les utilisateurs de messagerie sur cellulaire, ce porte-parole utilise une rhétorique que je considère tortueuse pour convaincre les auditeurs (et l’intervieweur) du bien-fondé des actions de son entreprise.

C’est, selon moi, une stratégie peu appropriée au domaine actuel. Ça ressemble étrangement à la politique de l’autruche et ça n’aide en rien au rétablissement de liens de confiances entre Telus et le public.

Je suis rarement aussi direct, dans mes propos au sujet d’une stratégie. En fait, mes propos sont probablement plus «forts» que ce que je crois vraiment. Outre la frustration par rapport au coût prohibitif des messages entrants sur Bell Mobilité (qui m’a poussé à cesser d’utiliser un cellulaire de Bell), je n’ai que peu d’intérêt réel pour la question précise des rapports entre Telus et ses clients. Mais j’accorde davantage d’importance aux relations publiques, intéressé comme je suis en ce qui a trait à la recherche auprès des consommateurs (“consumer research”).

C’est que je suis en pleine réorientation professionnelle. J’ai récemment obtenu un contrat auprès de la firme Idea Couture de Toronto en tant qu’«ethnographe francophone autonome» (“French-speaking freelance ethnographer”). Pour ce contrat, je fais affaire avec Morgan Gerard qui, en plus d’être ethnographe, est aussi blogueur. J’intègre désormais certaines de mes activités de média social avec mon expertise en tant qu’ethnographe. Je souhaite d’ailleurs renforcer ce lien et éventuellement obtenir divers contrats en tant qu’ethnographe spécialisé en média social. Ce premier contrat d’ethnographe autonome n’est pas directement lié au média social et la principale méthode de recherche utilisée est basée sur des visites à domicile, auprès de familles québécoises diverses. J’aimerais effectuer d’autres recherches du même type dans le futur mais je vois aussi certaines extensions plus près du média social.

En préparation à ce travail contractuel, je me suis lancé dans la lecture de certains textes liés à l’utilisation de l’anthropologie et/ou de l’ethnographie dans le contexte des études de marché ou autres sphères d’activités du domaine privé. C’est un peu une façon pour moi de me «baigner» dans l’anthropologie et l’ethnographie appliquées, de réellement devenir ce type de chercheur, d’«assumer mon statut» d’ethnographe autonome.

Un livre qui m’a été conseillé, et que j’ai lu dernièrement, est Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research, de Sunderland et Denny. Je crois que l’aspect ethnolinguistique de cet ouvrage est ce qui a plu à John McCreery puisqu’il est, tout comme moi, actif dans l’étude ethnographique du langage. D’ailleurs, plusieurs dimensions de Doing Anthropology ont titillé non seulement mon sens de l’anthropologie linguistique mais aussi mon sens de la sémiotique. Ces chercheuses utilisent une approche très compatible avec la mienne puisqu’elle joint l’ethnographie à l’étude de la signifiance. McCreery aurait difficilement pu mieux tomber.

Ce livre me donne aussi un avant-goût des questions débattues par les ethnographes du domaine privé. Je perçois entre autres un sentiment d’incompréhension, de la part des ethnographes du milieu académique. Et un certain embarras face aux questions épineuses touchant à l’identité sociale, voire à la notion d’ethnicité. D’un point de vue ethnographique large, j’ai reconnu dans ce texte des sujets importants de l’ethnographie contemporaine. Au-delà de mon travail pour Idea Couture, j’ai trouvé des pistes pour m’aider à expliquer l’ethnographie à des gens d’autres sphères d’activité.

Et, pour terminer par un retour sur la «langue de bois» de Telus, j’y ai lu des choses très intéressantes au sujet de politiques inefficaces de relations publiques qui, tout comme ce porte-parole de Telus, se concentrent sur une rhétorique hermétique plutôt que de faire preuve de transparence et d’humilité.

Je reviendrai certainement à tout ça très bientôt.

Shuffling Answers

The latest “meme-like” thing I’ve seen (on Facebook):

  1. put the ipod on shuffle
  2. use it to answer the question
  3. hit “next”
  4. try not to cheat

Sounds fun. The result is that we notice patterns in pseudo-randomness.

I decided to use a slightly different method. I’m using the last twenty tracks which appear in iTunes as “recently played,” after I sync my iPod touch. For some reason, this list doesn’t include the most recent tracks but it does include a series of tracks which played in sequence, last night. I was brewing and my iPod touch was in shuffle. It all sounds less random than the original rules would make it but I decided on that method before using it. Not intention of cheating or tweaking the results. After all, there’s no such as a guilty pleasure, in music.

Without further ado… (These are put in reverse chronological order.)

  1. How am I feeling today?
    • Attention Mesdames et Messieurs, Michel Fugain, Gold
  2. How far will I get in life?
    • I Want Tomorrow, Enya, The Celts
  3. What is my best friend’s theme song?
    • Hand in My Pocket, Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
  4. What was high school like?
    • Summertime, Al Jarreau, Tenderness
  5. How will today be?
    • Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais, Serge Gainsbourg, De Gainsbourg à Gainsbarre (disc 2)
  6. What is in store for me this weekend?
    • Real Estate, Chelsea Bridge (Big Band), Double Feature
  7. What is the best thing about me?
    • Le baiser, Alain Souchon, Au ras des pâquerettes
  8. What song describes my parents?
    • Storms in Africa, Enya, Watermark
  9. How is my life going?
    • Farafina Dembe, Mali Compil, Mali Compil
  10. What song will they play at my funeral?
    • Sweet Lullaby (Q-Bass mix), Deep Forest, Sweet Lullaby
  11. How does the world see me?
    • Ghost World, Aimee Mann, Bachelor No. 2 (or, The Last Remains of the Dodo)
  12. What do my friends think of me?
    • Viajar Canção, Paulo Ramos, Futuro
  13. Do people secretly think I’m good looking?
    • Alice au pays d’Arto (valse), La Bottine Souriante, Rock & Reel
  14. How can I make myself happy?
    • Bungalow, Valérie Lemercier, Chante
  15. What should I do with my life?
    • Croquis et agacières d’un gros bonhomme en bois: III, Erik Satie, Piano Works (Daniel Varsano)
  16. What is some good advice?
    • Super Bowl Sundae, Ozomatli, Ozomatli
  17. Will I get married?
    • J’ai oublié le jour, Beau Dommage, Où est passée la noce?
  18. Where will I go in life?
    • Shepherd Moons, Enya, Shepherd Moons
  19. Will I have kids?
    • Alexandre – Danse Bulgare, Malicorne, Le Bestiaire
  20. What is my current theme song?
    • Cherokee, Big Band De Lausanne, Spring Song

Some of these I find quite funny. For instance, Souchon’s «Le baiser» (“The Kiss”) as the best thing about me. Or that people would see me as a ghost, suggested by Aimee Mann’s song. Not to mention that the answer about marriage comes from an album which has «noce» (“wedding”) in the title. At the same time, some answers only seem to make some sense, if I try quite hard. So I can see some connection between secrets about physical appearance and «Alice au pays d’Arto» (“Alice in Arto’s Land”) through some interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s work.

I do notice that there are several tracks by Enya. There are 24 Enya tracks out of 1665 on my iPod touch so I don’t really think it’s an artefact of the pseudo-random shuffling algorithm. But my iPod touch playlist isn’t that representative of my music collection (tracks are selected automatically by iTunes). And I found those tracks rather fitting for my mood at the time.

Yes, I’m preemptively responding to “playlistism.” While I sincerely think that no music listening should be deemed “guilty,” I know that people do judge others based on their musical choices. And I get defensive.

In this case, there are some tracks I enjoy more than others. Some tracks are quite representative of my musical tastes. And there’s some level of diversity in this selection.

All in all, a fun exercise.

Gender and Culture

A friend sent me a link to the following video:

JC Penney: Beware of the Doghouse | Creativity Online.

In that video, a man is “sent to the doghouse” (a kind of prison for insensitive men) because he offered a vacuum cleaner to his wife. It’s part of a marketing campaign through which men are expected to buy diamonds to their wives and girlfriends.

The campaign is quite elaborate and the main website for the campaign makes interesting uses of social media.

For instance, that site makes use of Facebook Connect as a way to tap viewers’ online social network. FC is a relatively new feature (the general release was last week) and few sites have been putting it to the test. In this campaign’s case, a woman can use her Facebook account to connect to her husband or boyfriend and either send him a warning about his insensitivity to her needs (of diamonds) or “put him in the doghouse.” From a social media perspective, it can accurately be described as “neat.”

The site also uses Share This to facilitate the video‘s diffusion  through various social media services, from WordPress.com to Diigo. This tends to be an effective strategy to encourage “viral marketing.” (And, yes, I fully realize that I actively contribute to this campaign’s “viral spread.”)

The campaign could be a case study in social marketing.

But, this time, I’m mostly thinking about gender.

Simply put, I think that this campaign would fare rather badly in Quebec because of its use of culturally inappropriate gender stereotypes.

As I write this post, I receive feedback from Swedish ethnomusicologist Maria Ljungdahl who shares some insight about gender stereotypes. As Maria says, the stereotypes in this ad are “global.” But my sense is that these “global stereotypes” are not that compatible with local culture, at least among Québécois (French-speaking Quebeckers).

See, as a Québécois born and raised as a (male) feminist, I tend to be quite gender-conscious. I might even say that my gender awareness may be somewhat above the Québécois average and gender relationships are frequently used in definitions of Québécois identity.

In Québécois media, advertising campaigns portraying men as naïve and subservient have frequently been discussed. Ten or so years ago, these portrayals were a hot topic (searches for Brault & Martineau, Tim Hortons, and Un gars, une fille should eventually lead to appropriate evidence). Current advertising campaigns seem to me more subtle in terms of male figures, but careful analysis would be warranted as discussions of those portrayals are more infrequent than they have been in the past.

That video and campaign are, to me, very US-specific. Because I spent a significant amount of time in Indiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, my initial reaction while watching the video had more to do with being glad that it wasn’t the typical macrobrewery-style sexist ad. This reaction also has to do with the context for my watching that video as I was unclear as to the gender perspective of the friend who sent me the link (a male homebrewer from the MidWest currently living in Texas).

By the end of the video, however, I reverted to my Québécois sensibility. I also reacted to the obvious commercialism, partly because one of my students has been working on engagement rings in our material culture course.

But my main issue was with the presumed insensitivity of men.

Granted, part of this is personal. I define myself as a “sweet and tendre man” and I’m quite happy about my degree of sensitivity, which may in fact be slightly higher than average, even among Québécois. But my hunch is that this presumption of male insensitivity may not have very positive effects on the perception of such a campaign. Québécois watching this video may not groan but they may not find it that funny either.

There’s a generational component involved and, partly because of a discussion of writing styles in a generational perspective, I have been thinking about “generations” as a useful model for explaining cultural diversity to non-ethnographers.

See, such perceived generational groups as “Baby Boomers” and “Generation X” need not be defined as monolithic, monadic, bounded entities and they have none of the problems associated with notions of “ethnicity” in the general public. “Generations” aren’t “faraway tribes” nor do they imply complete isolation. Some people may tend to use “generational” labels in such terms that they appear clearly defined (“Baby Boomers are those individuals born between such and such years”). And there is some confusion between this use of “historical generations” and what the concept of “generation” means in, say, the study of kinship systems. But it’s still relatively easy to get people to think about generations in cultural terms: they’re not “different cultures” but they still seem to be “culturally different.”

Going back to gender… The JC Penney marketing campaign visibly lumps together people of different ages. The notion seems to be that doghouse-worthy male insensitivity isn’t age-specific or related to inexperience. The one man who was able to leave the doghouse based on his purchase of diamonds is relatively “age-neutral” as he doesn’t really seem to represent a given age. Because this attempt at crossing age divisions seems so obvious, I would assume that it came in the context of perceived differences in gender relationships. Using the logic of those who perceive the second part of the 20th Century as a period of social emancipation, one might presume that younger men are less insensitive than older men (who were “brought up” in a cultural context which was “still sexist”). If there are wide differences in the degree of sensitivity of men of different ages, a campaign aiming at a broad age range needs to diminish the importance of these differences. “The joke needs to be funny to men of all ages.”

The Quebec context is, I think, different. While we do perceive the second part of the 20th Century (and, especially, the 1970s) as a period of social emancipation (known as the “Quiet Revolution” or «Révolution Tranquille»), the degree of sensitivity to gender issues appears to be relatively level, across the population. At a certain point in time, one might have argued that older men were still insensitive (at the same time as divorcées in their forties might have been regarded as very assertive) but it seems difficult to make such a distinction in the current context.

All this to say that the JC Penney commercial is culturally inappropriate for Québécois society? Not quite. Though the example I used was this JC Penney campaign, I’m thinking about broader contexts for Québécois identity (for a variety of personal reasons, including the fact that I have been back in Québec for several months, now).

My claim is…

Ethnographic field research would go a long way to unearth culturally appropriate categories which might eventually help marketers cater to Québécois.

Of course, the agency which produced that JC Penney ad (Saatchi & Saatchi) was targeting the US market (JC Penney doesn’t have locations in Quebec) and I received the link through a friend in the US. But it was an interesting opportunity for me to think and write about a few issues related to the cultural specificity of gender stereotypes.

Stable Bilingualism and Multilingualism in Canada

This is a slightly edited version of one of my posts on the LingAnth mailing-list. Susan Ervin-Tripp had posted a message about endangered languages. I mused about possibilities for bilingualism or multilingualism to be stable. Claire Bowern described such patterns. As a follow-up, Peter Patrick mentioned the Canadian situation. As a Québécois, I felt compelled to post something about what I perceive Canadian bilingualism and multilingualism to be like. This is not meant as an expert opinion on the situation.

Without further ado…

Glad to see such an interesting discussion about language diversity. My two (Canadian) cents, to keep the ball rolling. (I’m sending those comments as a French-speaking linguistic anthropologist from Montreal who is not a specialist of Canada.)
Bilingualism in Canada is quite specific. Unless otherwise specified, the term “bilingual” refers to individuals who are fluent in both French and English. There is a perceived imbalance in the degree of “bilingualism” among French- and English-speakers. Bilingualism in other languages tends to be treated separately. Fluency is evaluated using many criteria, including “accent” and even eloquence.
English and French are the (only) two official languages in Canada. Official status for both languages has important consequences in federal politics and administration. Given the official status of both languages, bilingualism often implies advantages in professional placement. New Brunswick is the only province to be officially bilingual (it has the largest French-speaking population outside of Quebec); Quebec is officially French-speaking (with important political consequences); other provinces are officially English-speaking; territories follow federal regulations, though Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun has official status in Nunavut (not sure on the details).
Functional bilingualism can be said to be fairly stable in some specific regions. However, the situation in most French-speaking communities outside of Quebec is usually perceived as a potential switch from French to English: children of “inter-marriages” are likely to only speak English. This switch is perceived, in French-speaking communities, as tantamount to language loss. Language insecurity is at rather high levels in many French-speaking communities outside of Quebec.
In Quebec, the perceived likelihood that French would disappear has decreased dramatically over the past several years. In such a situation, bilingualism is infrequently perceived as a threat. French-speaking Quebeckers appear quite secure in their (our) language use and they (we) will often use English in multi-lingual situations, without any fear of language, status, or identity loss. Perhaps because of French language ideology, English-speakers fluent in French tend not to speak French with native speakers of the language (outside of formal contexts in which bilingualism might be expected).In short, the general model is one of monolingual communities (either French- or English-speaking) with bilingual individuals.Multilingualism is often seen as a completely separate issue. Apart from the status of the French language here, multilingualism in Canada seems fairly comparable to multilingualism in the U.S., despite significant differences in policies and in perceptions. A simplistic explanation of differences: for a relatively long time, Canadian policies have tended to emphasize the right for immigrant groups to “maintain their cultural identities,” including their native languages (the “mosaic” model instead of the “melting pot”); several languages besides English and Spanish are involved in social and political issues; multilingualism is probably more of an urban phenomenon throughout Canada (most of the Canadian population is concentrated in a relatively small number of cities); languages of First Nations/Aboriginal/Native/Autochtonous groups are the object of some concern but relatively little attention is paid to those issues by the general population.
Regardless of these issues, the three-generation pattern [monolingual to bilingual to monolingual] is perceived as the dominant one throughout Canada, with relatively few exceptions. Stable bilingualism in, say, Punjabi and English or Italian and French is usually limited to specific neighborhoods in one of Canada’s largest cities.
To briefly go back to the original article which sparked this discussion, language diversity in Canada is probably increasing but the notion that this diversity might threaten English is rather uncommon. One of the reasons might be that functional bilingualism is perceived favourably by many people.

I’m posting it here because I’d be delighted to get feedback on it. More specifically, I’d like to be proven wrong on some of those issues. The best way to overcome one’s own biases is to publicly discuss them and it’s quite possible that my perspective or that my observations are flawed.

In fact, I noticed after posting that message that the Northwest Territories (NT) follow their own language policies, giving official status to several Aboriginal languages. From a page on language rights:

The Official Languages Act recognizes the following Official Languages: Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuktitut, (including Inuvialuktun and Inuinnaqtun) and Slavey (including North and South Slavey). They are given equal status according to the individual provisions of the Act.

I originally thought that Nunavut (NU) was the only Canadian Territory with its own language policies (different from federal policies). My impression is now that the status of Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun in NU is “more official” than the status of Aboriginal languages in NT, but that might have to do with the fact that NU’s governmental website seems to be fully available in Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun and the NT one is only available in English. If I’m not mistaken, Yukon (YK) directly follows language policies from the federal government. Of the three territories, NU has the highest proportion of native speakers of neither English nor French (71.4% in 2001). NT has a much lower proportion of native speakers of neither English nor French (19.4% in 2001). YK only had 9.9% of native speakers of neither English nor French in 2001.

(Interesting statistics on languages in Canada’s provinces and territories.)One thing I’m really not sure about is how different Canada is from the United States in terms of languages of “First Nations/Aboriginal/Native/Autochtonous groups.” From colleagues who work with such groups, I get the impression that some groups are “better off” on one side of the U.S./Canada border than some other groups but that, maybe, the situation is fairly equivalent on either side. I would assume that such a pattern would apply to language policies but I don’t know much about any of this. My general impression is that Inuktitut, Ojibwa, and Cree languages are rather well-protected in Canada and that Navajo and Ojibwa are well-protected in the United States. This impression might have more to do with my rudimentary knowledge about the number of speakers of those languages in the United States and Canada than with actual language policies.Another thing that would merit discussion is the proportion of active bilinguals among French- and English-speaking communities. The overwhelming impression among French-speakers (at least in Quebec and New Brunswick) is that they (we) are the ones who “accommodate” English-speakers by speaking English even in situations in which French-speakers greatly outnumber English-speakers. However, it seems to be a contentious subject as English-speakers are said to feel that they are the ones accommodating French-speakers. Some English-speaking friends alluded to this, but language use is a bit too touchy a subject for conversation among “bilingual” friends. There’s a lot of research on those issues, some of which I have read, but I’m still not clear on what is really going there. So I was walking on egg shells when I wrote my message, trying not to make any specific claim about accommodation. As a French-speaker who has lived in both Quebec and New Brunswick, my strong impression is that we, in fact, do accommodate much more frequently than English-speakers would in most informal situations. I really would like to be proven wrong, as I can’t wrap my head around the discrepancy. I guess that this is the point at which I’m too much of a French-speaker.

Another reason for me to post that message here is that, apparently, a colleague would like to use my message (as is) in class. Not that I expect others to use it but in such a situation, it seems even more important for me to ensure that my message isn’t too inaccurate.

So, again, I’d be really happy if some people could post comments here telling me inaccuracies in my short explanation on language diversity in Canada.

Firefox 2 Beta and Spell-Checking

Erm…

Is it just me or the “spell as you type” feature in Firefox 2 doesn’t work in the French localization?

The option is set (“vérifier l’orthographe lors de la frappe” in Options:Avancé) but mistakes aren’t underlined in text fields. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to change the text’s language.

As silly as it sounds, this is the one feature which could radically improve my browsing and blogging experience.

This is with Firefox 2.0b2 on Windows XP SP2.

Normative Language and Spontaneity

In an interview (in French) with Bruno Guglielminetti (site not yet updated with the interview), copy-editor François Hubert discussed the “quality” of the French language on blogs (by which he means the grammatical, typographical, and spelling correctness of blog posts in French).

This concept of language quality, as described by Hubert and many others, is an important component of French language ideology. While speakers of other languages often complain about the poor quality of other speakers’ speech (and, especially, writing), normative language seems to be a more important part of the language ideology for the French language than, say, the language ideology for the English language.

The insistence on normative language, on the part of French-speakers, seems to have very important effects on both non-native speakers of French and native speakers of French. For instance, many non-native speakers of French will refrain from using the language with native speakers because they fear the native speakers will judge them negatively. While this does happen with learners of other languages, it seems especially debilitating for people trying to use French across language communities. In fact, insistence by Hubert and others on the “quality” of written French might be one of the motivating factors for my blogging mostly in English.

Of course, Hubert has the right to his opinions on the matter and his preference for normative language could be interpreted as a part of his job as a copy-editor (my wife is also a copy-editor…). Yet, even those who work on prescriptive grammar in other languages may be more open to non-normative language. For instance, comments by the editors of the Chicago Manual of Style in their Questions and Answers monthly column often display a much more tolerant attitude to non-normative language than many French-speakers with minimal interest in language issues.

There’s a strong tendency in language sciences (my wife and I are both in the field) to adopt a much more neutral view of language prescription. Some language scientists may talk in private about their preference for «un bon français» (“a good French,” as close to the standard register as possible) but the general agreement is that any language variety is as good as any other in linguistic terms.

In this specific interview, Hubert was mostly discussing blog entries and their spontaneity. Pinpointing a known phenomenon linking mistakes with online communication (“What? There’s a ‘Preview’ button?”), Hubert sets up a model opposing spontaneity to quality.  Hubert himself not only sends his blog entries in a word processor to check for typographical mistakes (a spell-checking browser makes this much easier to do) but he even prints out some of his entries before posting them. Thankfully his advice to bloggers is less extreme as it centres on rereading posts before submission and going back to older posts in order to revise them for posterity’s sake.

None of this is inappropriate advice, but it leads us to think about the blurring line between oral and written communication. Hubert’s argument is that, if we care about communication so much, we should revise our texts as they might remain available for a long time. Bloggers often take another approach to revision: readers are like an open-source community of copy-editors. Blogs with active readership communities often attract comments on language issues. Simple typographical mistakes are usually spotted by some astute reader quite early on and deeper issues are sometimes solved by the community. “Given enough eyeballs, all typos are shallow.” This is especially true if the author of the entry is perceived as somewhat condescending to her or his readers. Nothing will motivate someone to write a comment than showing the mistakes the author has made!

This all has to do with not only spontaneity but the “release early, release often.” Bloggers do revisit older entries, if need be. Not necessarily by editing the original entry but by posting a follow up. Blog étiquette seems to have it that entries should be left untouched as much as possible. Otherwise, comments on those entries cease to make sense. And when bloggers are trying to get to publishing quality, they might in fact use the power of the community as an editing team. As such, a blog entry is like a recorded conversation. You don’t change the conversation but you can use it to go further. In such a context, normative language makes fairly little sense. As long as you can post quickly and the gist of your ideas can be understood well-enough to enable readers to ask questions, heavy revision of every single entry is contrary to the very principle of blogging.

IMHO, such emphasis on revision and “language quality” is a reason why so many people have difficulty with writing. Nothing prevents someone from writing more abruptly than thinking about peculiarities of written language. Except if those peculiarities are what this person is writing about, of course!

One thing that few people seem to discuss extensively is the fact that younger people are in fact writing inordinate amounts of text online. Of course, those with a prescriptive and normative view of language will just say that what is written online by a thirteen year old has no value because of the “poor quality of the language.” Yet those teenagers who are instant messaging their way to becoming extremely fast typists are really writing. They are putting ideas into written form. And they develop ways to be as efficient as possible in their writing while still being understood by their interlocutors. More than a skill, it’s an important social change. Writing is not what it was when only a precious few scribes were able to use it for specialized communication and archival (like accounting and religion). Scribes of old have been responsible for a number of changes in language. Why can’t millions of teenagers have more of an impact on written language than a few dead scribes?