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Don't Australians learn a second language at school? Do most students still (if they ever did) speak it fluently 10 years later?
If you don't have occasions to speak that second language, you lose it. The vast majority of people in Quebec never (as in never, ever) have to speak English in their daily life.
Well I'd think Quebeckers would watch American TV rather than exclusively Radio-Canada.... They'd be surrounded by English everyday with the media. English is different than just another language you learn in school and lose after 10 years. English is an international language and has a big influence everywhere so it would be hard to just lose it when you're surrounded by it.
Seriously, I thought Canada was bilingual? Do these people not even LEARN English in school??
Canada presents itself to the world as being bilingual. But what it presents is a long way from being de facto bilingual.
The vast majority of Canadians speak English. English is the de facto (though it may not be de jure) official language of seven or eight out of ten provinces, and the three territories. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, and that is mandated by the constitution. Quebec has declared itself officially French; and Ontario has declared itself bilingual, though the vast majority of Ontarians speak English, and English only. Laws passed by the legislature of Manitoba must be equally accessible in French as in English. However, English is the everyday working language of Manitoba and Ontario.
The federal government provides bilingual services in all provinces and territories. The provinces provide bilingual services as warranted. Here in Alberta, for example, French provincial services are provided in areas where French speakers predominate (e.g. Beaumont, Alberta). They are not provided where French speakers are unlikely to be, or if they are, they would reasonably be expected to know English (e.g. Lethbridge). That being said, however, French immersion programs are available in schools in all Alberta cities (Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, etc.).
In the end, most Canadians speak English just as well and as fluently as Americans, British, or Australians do. Some Canadians are bilingual, and some speak French only; but for you, Postman, I think it's a safe bet that if you encounter a Canadian on the streets of Australia, he or she will speak English much better than French.
Canada presents itself to the world as being bilingual. But what it presents is a long way from being de facto bilingual.
The vast majority of Canadians speak English. English is the de facto (though it may not be de jure) official language of seven or eight out of ten provinces, and the three territories. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, and that is mandated by the constitution. Quebec has declared itself officially French; and Ontario has declared itself bilingual, though the vast majority of Ontarians speak English, and English only. Laws passed by the legislature of Manitoba must be equally accessible in French as in English. However, English is the everyday working language of Manitoba and Ontario.
The federal government provides bilingual services in all provinces and territories. The provinces provide bilingual services as warranted. Here in Alberta, for example, French provincial services are provided in areas where French speakers predominate (e.g. Beaumont, Alberta). They are not provided where French speakers are unlikely to be, or if they are, they would reasonably be expected to know English (e.g. Lethbridge). That being said, however, French immersion programs are available in schools in all Alberta cities (Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, etc.).
In the end, most Canadians speak English just as well and as fluently as Americans, British, or Australians do. Some Canadians are bilingual, and some speak French only; but for you, Postman, I think it's a safe bet that if you encounter a Canadian on the streets of Australia, he or she will speak English much better than French.
Good assessment. I would add though that Ontario has not declared itself bilingual. It does provide a fairly high level of services in French, where numbers warrant again. And though things have improved there, in some critical areas like post-secondary education and health care it lags behind what Quebec offers in English, for example.
Overall, Ontario is in third place for what it provides to its linguistic minority, behind New Brunswick and Quebec.
Well I'd think Quebeckers would watch American TV rather than exclusively Radio-Canada.... They'd be surrounded by English everyday with the media.
What makes you think that's the only channel we have in French? I am sitting in front of my TV right now and I have over 40 channels covering every topic available to me in French.
And in any event the most popular programs tend to be Quebec-made shows here. Usually 17 or 18 of the top 20 are Quebec-made.
I can also go see the new Spider-Man movie just down the street from me in French if I want to this week.
English is different than just another language you learn in school and lose after 10 years. English is an international language and has a big influence everywhere so it would be hard to just lose it when you're surrounded by it.
English is the most useful language to know internationally which at least partly explains why the number of bilingual French Canadians is four times as high as the number of bilingual English Canadians. But still, many people in Quebec don't have that use for English as they live their lives entirely in French.
The area of Canada where you can get by just in French is over 2000 km from west to east or as vast as the area from the Atlantic coast of France to the border between Poland and Belarus. Within this area most people are able to find meaningful work and so they don't tend to migrate for jobs outside of it that much.
Sure there is travel but many people travel to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico where the language is Spanish (similar to French), not English. And some people also go to Florida and stay in areas with large concentrations of French Canadian snowbirds.
In any event, if you travel to the US or other parts of Canada once in a blue moon you don't need an advanced level of English, just the basics. Plus there will usually be someone in your family or travelling party who can speak English, or you might run into one of those bilingual English Canadians as well.
That might be your perception, but I don't know anyone who would bother spending years learning and practicing a language, which requires a lot of effort, and who would then pretend that they do not speak it. Unless the person in front of them has been rude or something...
I gave my personal example in an earlier post and would only suggest you have not met many separatists if you have never met anyone who would do such a thing. Nice deflection back to the other person in the equation though.
Not sure if you would count this as pretending not to speak English, but my wife was raised as a francophone in Ontario and even though her and her siblings are fluently bilingual, they were taught to use French-language services when available because every once in a while you get these Don Cherry types in positions of authority who want to eliminate anything in French and trot out statistics about how no one uses the services.
Not sure if you would count this as pretending not to speak English, but my wife was raised as a francophone in Ontario and even though her and her siblings are fluently bilingual, they were taught to use French-language services when available because every once in a while you get these Don Cherry types in positions of authority who want to eliminate anything in French and trot out statistics about how no one uses the services.
That is not pretending and certainly not lying; that is exercising a right-of-option accorded by law.
That simply makes good common sense as if no one uses a feature provided it will become redundant and probably disappear in todays environment of budget conscious politics.
When dealing with Bell over internet service, or the lack thereof, I used that old canard, often repeated via the internet, of selecting French for the chat troubleshoot because at least then I'd be sure to get someone fluent in both French and English rather than some guy speaking rapid fire Urdu who you had to tell to repeat himself thirty times in a 2 minute exchange of unbridled frustration. It worked brilliantly.
One nice young lady even asked me why I had selected French when I could only speak snippets and laughed at my explanation: "At least this way I get to talk to someone who can speak English I can understand."
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Just because Quebec is very close to the USA or English Canada does not mean they all speak or understand it. Proximity does not mean anything. There are dozens of European languages and people live within an hour or two from borders yet few speak the neighbor country's language.
That is not pretending and certainly not lying; that is exercising a right-of-option accorded by law.
That simply makes good common sense as if no one uses a feature provided it will become redundant and probably disappear in todays environment of budget conscious politics.
When dealing with Bell over internet service, or the lack thereof, I used that old canard, often repeated via the internet, of selecting French for the chat troubleshoot because at least then I'd be sure to get someone fluent in both French and English rather than some guy speaking rapid fire Urdu who you had to tell to repeat himself thirty times in a 2 minute exchange of unbridled frustration. It worked brilliantly.
One nice young lady even asked me why I had selected French when I could only speak snippets and laughed at my explanation: "At least this way I get to talk to someone who can speak English I can understand."
That is hilarious but totally believable.
Another gamble is whether you select English or French depending on which line you think will answer fastest.
Will there be fewer people on the French line and it will answer faster because there are more anglophones than francophones in Canada? Or has the company adjusted its service levels and so there are fewer operators on the French line anyway, so it comes out even?
Last edited by Acajack; 05-05-2014 at 06:14 PM..
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