An intolerant people named Québec

When you really think about it, immigrants coming from another country where they don’t speak English nor French, thus they will have to learn a new language anyway, they would be BETTER OFF learning English than French.

1. If you want to do any kind of business in Quebec, you won’t go far if you don’t speak English. (Most of the business leaders and managers in Montreal are English speakers)
2. English is much easier to learn than French.
3. Later, if they want to move elsewhere in the world (or there kids), it will be easier.
4. International communications are done in English.

All French people in Quebec should learn English for their personal benefit. Really, IMHO, one of the nicest things about Montreal is that when you meet people or ordering at a restaurant or whatever, at first you don’t know in which language to speak, it’s a true bilingual city (on top of the fact that nearly every language in the world is spoken somewhere in Montreal, but that’s another story).

Don’t get me wrong, French is a beautiful language and so is the culture that comes with it, but I don’t think the solution is to force it on people. America is the land of the free, and we are part of America, so I think that people should have the choice, plain and simple. Both French and English should be available in school starting at 1st grade, and each student (or their parents) could choose witch one they take, and we all know that those who will learn both languages will have an edge over the ones that don’t...

For the record: I was born in Quebec, I live in Quebec, and my mother tongue is French, my parents don’t speak English. And learning English has been one of the most enriching knowledge I’ve learned so far.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by ion

a quarter of canadians cant even speak english, let alone french ! c'est pas simple comme ca ; on ne peut pas juste dit qu'un immigrante peut etudier un langue et voila ! it takes forever to learn a language.. par exemple je connait certains gens qui ont habité ici pour la plupart de ses vies (ils sont immigrantes) et ne peuvent pas communiquer la langue comme une langue maternale. easier said than done. don't be a silly quebecer !

But still, hearing people talk in our mother tongue when it's not theirs is always a charming experience... but trough an online forum the accent is missing, which is a shame

A quarter of Canadians? Do you count Quebecers in there?

Double Post:

Originally Posted by Phoque le PQ

true, learning English is imperative to francophones. However, if immigrants only learn English, they are putting themselves appart from the rest of the province. Yes, the language of the majoirty on the continent is English; nevertheless, they ought to learn french too if they want to live in quebec.

I think it's just a matter of respect; when I go elsewhere in canada, i speak English; when ROC comes here, they should speak french

I understand what you mean Phoque. It’s true, it is respectful for immigrants to come here and speak French to us.

Think about this, when you go elsewhere in Canada, you speak English right, and that’s good, I do too. Well otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be understood anyway, hehe, and when I find somebody who speaks French outside of Quebec, it’s always a good experience to talk with them in French a little, everybody loves and prefers their own mother tongue, right, because it’s part of them, it’s in their heart, a language is more than a language, it’s a culture, it’s a way of thinking, it’s a way of living, and I’m sure you understand that since your bilingual.

When you go to Spain, Italy, Germany, Romania, Russia or China; do you (or would you) still speak the local language? And it would be a matter of respect there too, I bet you would be well respected by Germans if you go there and make an effort to speak to them in German, they would be glad (if there is any German in the house, please correct me if I’m wrong ).

I believe that you never fully understand a culture if you don’t learn the local language. For example, when I was in High School (about 15 years old), I believed that Americans had no culture, and that was probably due to the influence of my fellow Quebecers that were raised the same way as I was (Americans hatred, or dislike if you will). It was when I start learning English (the American way to speak English) and reading original versions of books by Americans that I realized that Americans had a great culture (some part that I liked and some that I didn’t, but still a great culture), only very different from ours, a very powerful culture, for example Americans see it big, they have tremendous will power, and they worship and respect a “don’t quit” mentality. And then it dawned on me: Maybe it’s not by chance that USA is the number one country in the world right now... And still, I haven’t live there yet, so they are probably of lot of things that I don’t understand today about American culture.

Why am I explaining all this? Well, what Quebecers, what we really want is to preserve the culture, our culture, to keep it going, to have our kids living it, and their kids too, and so on. It’s not really the language; the language is a tool for living it, that’s it. The thing is by forcing foreigners to learn French , it won’t help our culture if those foreigners don’t care, because they will only learn the practical part of the language. They have to learn it out of free will; otherwise it means nothing for our culture, because they’ll resign it as soon as they are “free” to do it.

A lot of immigrants have grow up in places where they were forced to comply to their country believes, otherwise they would be very disadvantage (take the communist party for example). I don’t think we want to repeat that...

And even if it would work? Say by forcing our language on the immigrants, it would make them adopt our culture (by force, or law), what kind of culture would that become? The Quebecer culture is a surviving culture, and we’re very proud of that, and the burden to continue it must be our own, it’s our duty to preserve it by teaching it to our kids and by living it everyday… and that way if it eventually dies, well then it didn’t really deserve to stay alive anyway (meaning it wasn't strong enough)...

And if you ask me, it will eventually happen, it will never die but over time, our culture will change, it will change a lot, mainly because of the immigrants; the mix of everyone will create a new culture, kinda like Montreal has a different taste then the rest of Quebec, and that’s fine, that's part of letting immigrants in, that’s evolution of civilisation...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

Recently the OLF made the test for nurses to include a lot of mechanical-related things such as asking for the french word for a car's bumper.

La réponse est: bumber. It's easy.

Seriously, this is harsh, even I, have to think about it before coming up with the french answer...

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