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I saw the license plate from Quebec "Je Me Souviens" which means "I remember." What do you Quebecans "remember?"
(Forgive me if "Quebecans" isn't the right term, please correct me. :) )

2007-11-03 09:02:25 · 4 answers · asked by NotMySecret 3 in Education & Reference Trivia

4 answers

From what I've found, it seems there is debate about what it is exactly that Quebecois are supposed to remember. Nobody remembers what they are supposed to remember!

2007-11-03 09:13:34 · answer #1 · answered by BethS 6 · 0 0

I think they refer to people from Quebec as "Quebecers" though I have seen a "k" included too:

Quebec City, Canada. “Je me souviens”—I remember. That's what Quebeckers write on their auto license plates and anywhere else they can.
But they can't remember what it is they are supposed to be remembering. Some say the phrase was coined by a famous Quebecker who is supposed to have said “I remember that I was born under the lily of France but raised under the rose of England.” The alternative theory holds that as the smoke of battle cleared from the Plains of Abraham on Sept. 13, 1759, to reveal that General James Wolfe’s British forces had routed those of Marquis de Montcalm, smashing forever the dream of New France, a despairing French voice was heard to cry out “Je me souviens.” Actually, that is improbable. The despairing voice would have cried “I will always remember,” or “I will never forget,” not “I remember” in the present tense. So the mystery remains. What exactly are Quebeckers remembering?
anti-British sentiment persists, and over time the slogan has taken a nationalist tint. It is taken by many to mean "I remember my French history and heritage" or, even, "I remember what the English did to the French".

2007-11-03 12:00:08 · answer #2 · answered by veraswanee 5 · 0 0

Quebecois is correct pronounced Kwe-be-kwaa

William Chamberlayne's article entitled "Quebec…“Je me souviens”—what?" mentions two possible origins of this saying.

One is that at the battle at the Plains of Abraham on Sept. 13, 1759 when the British forces under General James Wolfe defeated those of the French under Marquis de Montcalm, a French voice cried out “Je me souviens.”

The other involves a famous saying of the French who were defeated at this battle, which is “I remember that I was born under the lily of France but raised under the rose of England.”

Interesting sidenote: The Peace of Paris (1763) finalized the conquests Britain had made in Canada. France kept the right to fish off the coast of Newfoundland and was allowed to keep two small islands (St. Pierre and Miquelon) for drying fish.

2007-11-03 09:33:44 · answer #3 · answered by dat 3 · 1 0

the everything in the world

2007-11-03 09:34:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

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