"If we …, we could abolish homework in a French minute."

[Odessa Dawn]

​

"If we provided after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, we could abolish homework in a French minute. No one would miss it."
More: Louis Menand: The End of Homework? : The New Yorker

Does that mean that helping poor children is unachievable? Or it is a daydream if you think that poor children will get help? What do you, dear native speakers, call that in English language?
​

Thank you,

 

[bhaisahab]

​

"If we provided after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, we could abolish homework in a French minute. No one would miss it."
More: Louis Menand: The End of Homework? : The New Yorker

Does that mean that helping poor children is unachievable? Or it is a daydream if you think that poor children will get help? No, it doesn't say that at all. What do you, dear native speakers, call that in English language? I don't understand this question.
​

Thank you,

Bhai.

 

[SoothingDave]

It's a play on words. A "New York minute" is very fast, presumably since people there are always in a rush. Since this is about France, the author said a "French minute" instead.

Urban Dictionary: New York Minute

 

[Odessa Dawn]

I don't understand this question.

Thank you, SoothingDave and Bhai, so very much for spreading word and sharing it. Dear Bhai, I am so sorry for failing to make myself more understood. My bad English acts as a barrier to get my point across. Besides, I couldn't construct a clear, understandable question. However, satisfactory and definitive answers have been submitted thanks to your intellect minds. Again, thank you.
​

 

[sergeyrais]

​

"If we provided after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, we could abolish homework in a French minute. No one would miss it."
More: Louis Menand: The End of Homework? : The New Yorker

Does that mean that helping poor children is unachievable? Or it is a daydream if you think that poor children will get help? What do you, dear native speakers, call that in English language?
​

Thank you,

The sentence "

If we provided after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, we could abolish homework in ​

a French minute" means that they don't provide

after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, therefore they cannot abolish homework in ​

a French minute.

 

[Odessa Dawn]

The sentence "

If we provided after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, we could abolish homework in ​

a French minute" means that they don't provide

after-school music lessons, museum trips, and cool sports programs to poor children, therefore they cannot abolish homework in ​

a French minute.

Thank you. According to the context, doesn’t "a French minute" mean short period?

 

[sergeyrais]

Thank you. According to the context, doesn’t "a French minute" mean short period?

"A French minute" might mean a short period of time, but I would tend towards possible understanding it as a name of a radio/TV programme or as a name of newspaper/magazine column.

 

[5jj]

"A French minute" might mean a short period of time, but I would tend towards possible understanding it as a name of a radio/TV programme or as a name of newspaper/magazine column.

The 'period of time' reading makes good sense in the context provided. It's hard to see how a programme or magazine column makes any sense.

 

[SoothingDave]

It seems perfectly clear to me that a person writing in a magazine called "The New Yorker" would be making a play on the concept of a "New York minute."

 

[sergeyrais]

Thank you. According to the context, doesn’t "a French minute" mean short period?

Since in a minute = soon
therefore I guess in a French minute = soon from the point of view of French mentality.

If you make your comments on this message I will analyze them and try to answer in a Russian minute.