[martin14]

kind of sad to see most of the posts here.

Being officially bilingual is one policy I really support.

Going to school in NB as a kid, I learned both. My french was always pretty
horrible, but the girls found it cute, and I was able to get around
during my time in Quebec. Was never critcized by the French people either;
they were happy I was in there jawing away.

I think the politicians in Quebec have not helped the cause:
of course, the people in the ROC pick up on the sensational headlines
and figure all Quebecers are like that, and then they prepare some
flammatory rebuttal, such as kick them out or so and so.....

Most Quebecers do not reflect the PQ/BQ nonsense;
it's perhaps the greatest shame that most of the people of Canada don't see that.

[EdwardRI]

MacDonaill MacDonaill:

EdwardRI EdwardRI:

You're an idiot. If you want to waste your time learning, probably for fun, a bunch of languages whose speakers almost all know English anyway, that's your business. The only useful language I see in that list is German.

A quarter of the Canadian population speaks French, that's why it's an official language. No one's asking you to learn it, but if you don't you can forget about getting many jobs in the federal public service. You might be able to be a postal clerk in Kamloops, but forget about being ambassador to Iran.

French is a global language that opens a million times more doors than almost any of those you have supposedly learned. Not only that, but it allows you to gain access to an important market right here at home.

French is spoken as an official language on five continents. That's something you can't say about any of the languages you speak (besides English).

Actually most of those languages I grew up learning as a child since they were used commonly in my family. The only language that didn't add familial benefit was German. I chose German because I had to study a second language for my undergraduate degree and it appeared the most useful choice to me.

I have stated this before: I will never have any desire working in federal public service. The private sector pays too much. That knowing french, above other languages, is an asset to becoming an ambassador to Iran is a reflection of the sad state of Canada's official language policy. As for Canada's use of French, I have absolutely no desire of living anywhere east of Vancouver in this country. There's a good chance that I'll move to the US. French is something like the 11th most common language in BC. It's not significant here nor any region in the world I might live in the future.

[Bodah]

martin14 martin14:

kind of sad to see most of the posts here.

Being officially bilingual is one policy I really support.

Yeah it is, but since the rate of bilingual people hasnt changed in the past 40 years. Bilingualism is obviously not about making people bilingual anymore. That's evident.

[Benn]

EdwardRI EdwardRI:

kenmore kenmore:

EdwardRI EdwardRI:

I know English, German, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and I'm working on Scottish Gaelic. I've had use for each of these languages more than I've had for French, so I won't learn French.

Seems rather silly that it's an official language.

And my question to you is... where did you "have to use them" ? not in Canada where the two OFFICIAL languages are french and english.. .. sounds like you would like to live in Europe? planes leave every hour!

Having lived in Canada all my life, I'm yet to find a situation where knowing any amount of french would have been useful. That french is an official language, on the books, is purely academic to me.

Knowing some French when living in Quebec IMO is useful simply out of respect. My German was not perfect when I lived in Germany and much less was my Portuguese when I lived in Brazil. However I feel it is respectful to the dominant language of the region if you can at least approach them and start a conversation in the local language. That is why it is useful! That and if you live in Ottawa you won't find a decent job not knowing it so its useful by legal necessity here.

More often then not when you make the effort, the native speaker will change to English if they know it. Some find this insulting when a French speaker does this (as if your French is not good enough for them to use with you) but its actually the opposite.

I'll start learning French as my 3rd language in the New Year, half due to needing it for work and half to not feel like and ass answering French with English while living in Quebec.

Now moving on to the other side of the fence I have run into a few people out eat here who, when I tell them I'm from out west so never really learned or was exposed to French, tell me that that was my choice because there are French immersion schools I could have gone to. This is just ignorant in the worst. How many western 5 years old going into school who have never heard more than 5 french words say "Mommy, Daddy, I want to go to French Immersion School!" Any Immersion school works best when the second tongue is also spoken at home and or one is living surrounded by the language.

I know people who took grade 1 to 12 and 2 years University French and came out east and got only their A and low B levels in French which are not good enough for many Government jobs out east. So the argument "Oh you had a chance to become bilingual" is just uneducated!

[Benn]

EdwardRI EdwardRI:

[

I have stated this before: I will never have any desire working in federal public service. The private sector pays too much. That knowing french, above other languages, is an asset to becoming an ambassador to Iran is a reflection of the sad state of Canada's official language policy.

I have a friend who runs job competitions on a regular basis for the Fed in Ottawa and more than once they've told me how they have had to hire like the 5th most knowledgeable and experienced person to do the job since the hiring requirements stated MUST be C/C/C Bilingual in French. This reoccurring situation has led to at least one major federal department referring to Francophones who are poor workers as "Incompetent in both official languages" as it's assumed they got the job over a bunch of better suited candidates.

Yes the focus on the criticism is on francophones. This may be wrong but its the reality of the perception out here due to requiring French fluency in a job that does not really need it as a bonafide requirement but to meet a quota.

[EdwardRI]

Benn Benn:

Knowing some French when living in Quebec IMO is useful simply out of respect.

I won't ever be living anywhere near Quebec, though. If I stay in Canada, it'll only be in British Columbia.

[Benn]

Fair enough, however I said the same thing about living in Manitoba lol.

[ASLplease]

I support Multilingualism because it illustrates how much money is wasted on patronizing the french.

[kenmore]

ASLplease ASLplease:

I support Multilingualism because it illustrates how much money is wasted on patronizing the french.

Man are you uneducated.... you need to do some homework...

[kenmore]

Bodah Bodah:

martin14 martin14:

kind of sad to see most of the posts here.

Being officially bilingual is one policy I really support.

Yeah it is, but since the rate of bilingual people hasnt changed in the past 40 years. Bilingualism is obviously not about making people bilingual anymore. That's evident.

Funny how those who can't whine and complain.. You friggen live in Québec, how is it you don't speak french?

[ASLplease]

kenmore kenmore:

ASLplease ASLplease:

I support Multilingualism because it illustrates how much money is wasted on patronizing the french.

Man are you uneducated.... you need to do some homework...

I am not the one being narrow minded here. I say we go for multilingualism. Bilingualism is prejudicial and bigoted.

[MacDonaill]

EdwardRI EdwardRI:

MacDonaill MacDonaill:

EdwardRI EdwardRI:

You're an idiot. If you want to waste your time learning, probably for fun, a bunch of languages whose speakers almost all know English anyway, that's your business. The only useful language I see in that list is German.

A quarter of the Canadian population speaks French, that's why it's an official language. No one's asking you to learn it, but if you don't you can forget about getting many jobs in the federal public service. You might be able to be a postal clerk in Kamloops, but forget about being ambassador to Iran.

French is a global language that opens a million times more doors than almost any of those you have supposedly learned. Not only that, but it allows you to gain access to an important market right here at home.

French is spoken as an official language on five continents. That's something you can't say about any of the languages you speak (besides English).

Actually most of those languages I grew up learning as a child since they were used commonly in my family. The only language that didn't add familial benefit was German. I chose German because I had to study a second language for my undergraduate degree and it appeared the most useful choice to me.

I have stated this before: I will never have any desire working in federal public service. The private sector pays too much. That knowing french, above other languages, is an asset to becoming an ambassador to Iran is a reflection of the sad state of Canada's official language policy. As for Canada's use of French, I have absolutely no desire of living anywhere east of Vancouver in this country. There's a good chance that I'll move to the US. French is something like the 11th most common language in BC. It's not significant here nor any region in the world I might live in the future.

It seems curious that someone who shows such hostility to pretty much everywhere in the country east of his own corner of it, and who seems so intent on emigrating even from there, really shouldn't give so much of a damn about its linguistic policy. And in any case, French is not an official language in BC. It's federally official, which makes sense because the federal government must serve the entire country, in which there are two major languages spoken. Nobody gives a damn if you speak French, and as long as you're planning on moving to the US (take it from somebody who's from there), German won't be of any more use there than French is in BC. You'd have been better off taking Spanish. But then again you can't expect the BC Ministry of Education to tailor its curriculum choices only to people who want to emigrate to the States.

[kenmore]

Rates of French–English bilingualism in Canada
Rates of French–English bilingualism have steadily increased since the early
1970s and nearly half of all Canadian Francophones speak English. However,
progress has been slower among Anglophones and fewer than 10% speak
French (Figure 1).
So whats the problem for the English? learning difficulties?

[ASLplease]

Why do you assume that everyone needs to speak only 2 languages? And why is it so damn important that one of them is french? To me it seems so bigoted and prejudicial.

Furthermore, making comments like "learning difficulties" isn't helping your case.

I know that Alberta and Manitoba don't share a border, how about you?

[Zipperfish]

kenmore kenmore:

Rates of French–English bilingualism in Canada
Rates of French–English bilingualism have steadily increased since the early
1970s and nearly half of all Canadian Francophones speak English. However,
progress has been slower among Anglophones and fewer than 10% speak
French (Figure 1).
So whats the problem for the English? learning difficulties?

Funny how you thorw the term racist around and then post an implicaiton that English Canadians people are dumber than French Canadians. Not that I'd expect any more from you.

I think that you'd find that, at elast in Alberta and BC, there's not a lot of incetnive to learn French. It doesn't serve any practical purpose for most of us--very few people speak it. If you work in a federally regualted business (airlines, railways) or for teh federal government, there's an advantage. Some people probably learn in because theya re trying to be good Canadians. But most people can't be bothered. Even if you do learn it (like we do in school) it's very difficult to hang on to it--no one speakes it out here. There's no opporutnity to practice it.

Conversely, French in Quebec have a strong incentive to learn English, in that English is the primary language spoken by just about all their trading partners.