The arbiter of things French, the Académie Française, will bestow upon Kirby Jambon the Henri de Régnier prize later this month. And that single act will not only honor the local French-immersion teacher for his literary creations, it will be, in a way, a significant validation of Louisiana French as a true and culturally rich language.

Jambon will receive the award in France for his work in support of literary creation in poetry for "Petites Communions," a poetry collection published in 2013. This is quite an accomplishment on Jambon's part, and an honor for all of Acadiana

Jambon's poetry is "full of Louisiana vocabulary and expressions," he said in an earlier article in The Daily Advertiser.

The man known to his students at Prairie Elementary as "Monsieur Jambon," was raised in Lafourche Parish by parents who spoke Cajun French. As one of only a few native Cajun French-speaking French-immersion teachers, Jambon serves as a real-life reminder to his students that French is not just a language spoken by their teachers from France and Belgium, Canada and Africa — it's a language that is still spoken right here in Louisiana.

Like many who grew up in French-speaking households, Jambon didn't fully appreciate the culture and traditional language of Louisiana until he traveled to other regions to look back with an outsider's perspective.

But the culture of Louisiana was not always highly valued, nor was its language.

In the not-so-distant past, it was viewed by the educational establishment and the mostly English-speaking public as not quite a legitimate language. Some wanted to call it a patois. Some called it broken French. Children were punished for speaking it at school and parents were discouraged from speaking it to their children at home.

In past decades, it has been maligned and ridiculed and undervalued. Only in the more recent past has Cajun French been identified as an archaic language — the French that was spoken by Acadian refugees who settled in Louisiana beginning in the mid-1700s.

Beginning in the 1960s, an awareness of the Cajun culture as something to be proud of emerged, encouraged by individuals and organizations such as CODOFIL.

Jambon, a passionate advocate for Cajun culture and language, has helped in the past to chip away at the residual misconceptions surrounding the local language. He previously was awarded Les Prix Mondes Francophones de Création for another book of poetry, "L'Ecole Gombo."

And now, his book of poetry that features Louisiana French has been singled out for recognition by the Académie Françiase, the ultimate guardian of the French language in France. This award, by implication, is further proof — if we need it — that Cajun French is indeed a legitimate language.

We in Acadiana love our food, cutlure and language. But it's nice to be reminded every now and then how special and distinctive our heritage truly is.

And Jambon has done that, through the example he sets every day with his students and through this prestigious international accolade.

We should all be proud.