Post by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by OlrikPost by StreetPost by OlrikPost by j***@gmail.comAnd Canadians speak Canadian.
Eh?
Post by StreetExactly. You got it.
Et plus de 25 % d'entre-eux parlent français, faut-il le rappeler...
LOL. Thanks Olrik but, although I'm a bilingual 'mer'can, I know zero
French. :)
That's OK. Most English-speaking Canadians ignore us and don't
understand French...
I guess it goes both ways... During my seven years in Montreal
Really? Wow!
Do I detect sarcasm? No need to be on the defensive.
No sarcasm there. I would have been surprised at 6 months... 6 years
*is* quite an experience.
OK. I got it wrong.
Post by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by OlrikPost by Malte RunzI met a lot of people, who didn't speak any English at all, and had refused to
learn it.
English is not required for living or working in Québec... ...
One could equally argue that French is not required for living and
working in Alberta, no?
Why would it be? Alberta is an anglophone province. ...
That was my point.
Post by Olrik... No French-Canadian
would expect to be served or addressed in French except in some federal
institutions in large cities.
It was just another story I remember from the news. I found the woman,
'demanding' to have a French speaking doctor in rural Alberta, to be
very entitled.
Post by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by Olrik... But when were
those "7 years"? ...
November 1996 to February 2004. Back when the 'language police' were
checking people's business cards to make sure they followed the rules
regarding the size of the letters use in the French text compared to
the English text.
You'll have to provide me with a link for that. Part of the mandate of
the Office québécois de la langue française deals with public commercial
displays. I'm not sure it covers business cards...
But sure, the Office had its shares of zealous, almost comical
interventions.
I believe the business card episode took place in Trois-Rivieres. I
remember they interviewed people on the street, and the everybody,
anglo- and francophones alike, agreed that it was not what they
wanted. I tried to google it, but alas, the story is 20+ years old,
and I couldn't find it.
Post by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by Olrik... Because 7 years in the 60's or 70's are truly not them
same as 7 years in the '90s or the 21st century...
Post by Malte RunzMany young people too. I also heard people complaining about
not being able to get a French speaking doctor in rural hospitals in
Alberta,
Quite understandable.
Why not encourage Francophone to also be bilingual?
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_demographics_of_Quebec>
Montreal is pretty much 50/50 isn't it? The last 5 years of my stay in
Montreal the ex, ma blonde, and I lived in Pointe Saint-Charles. A
poor very mixed neighborhood on the surface, but in many ways very
segregated. Anglophone bars, francophone churches and so on.
Post by Olrik"Bilingualism
According to the 2011 census,[6] the rate of bilingualism (the
percentage of the population that said they had knowledge of both
English and French) is at 42.6 per cent in 2011, up from 40.6 per cent
in 2006. (It is at 17.5 in Canada overall)"
So the right question is, "Why not encourage anglophones to also be
bilingual?"
I might have been a tad on the defensive myself here. Sorry. 90% of
the people I knew were Francophone, and I was told the story of Quebec
as they saw it. But being a foreigner maybe I could see things that
those who were more emotionally engaged in the dispute couldn't. And I
did spot cases, on both sides, of double standards. I chose to keep
quite most of the time, and continue my daily life as a Francophone
with a weird accent.
Post by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by OlrikPost by Malte Runzwhilst my doctor in Montreal refused to speak English when I
came to see him.
Quite understandable. English people have their own hospitals and
medical institutions. A francophone doctor may be not comfortable enough
in the English language to discuss medical matters.
So Francophones can rightfully complain, but Anglophones need to go to
"their own hospitals"? It smacks of intolerance of the other side.
Why are we always to blame? Why do you even *expect* to be served in
English in a francophone hospital?
I'm certainly not blaming anybody, and my experience with the doctor,
who didn't want to speak English, was out of the ordinary.
Post by OlrikBTW, the English minority clamours for their own institutions, and they
have them : universities, hospitals, services in English in almost all
Québec service points.
As for their hospitals, the main one is the brand new McGill University
Health Centre (MUHC).
<https://muhc.ca/>
This is to ensure that a patient can be served in English in all
departments, form the cafeteria to nurses to any kind of caretakers.
Glad to hear it. Of the Anglophones I knew many felt very much on the
defensive. 'I'm born here, I love Quebec just as much as the
Francophones do, but I feel like I'm being treated as a second rate
citizen', they'd say.
Post by OlrikPost by Malte RunzPost by OlrikPost by Malte RunzI will say though, that most francophones had no
problem speaking English with me, being a foreigner, and they did
appreciate my efforts to speak French. I'm not shaming on anybody.
Today, English is taught from primary school, for which I am against.
The result is that, too frequently, children from immigrants are reared
and schooled in French, but talk among themselves in English. I don't
blame them, I blame globalization, the actual creation right now of a
vast English centrist culture that's atomizing individuals and
destroying common sharing.
But that's another debate!
:-)
Don't get me wrong. I have great sympathy for the struggle French
Canadians have gone through. The historic discrimination, the
deliberate efforts to destroy their culture, the deportation of large
groups of people to the swamps of Louisiana and so forth. Their fight
is a just one, no doubt about it. The rift between the two groups was
far greater than I imagined before I moved there. One thing both sides
could agree on, though, was that the Anglophones ought to be ashamed
of not speaking better French... ;-)
True!
What'll happen when the Hispanics and Chinese want to be recognized as
distinct groups! Trudeau will have to listen, won't he.
But that's another debate!
--
Malte Runz