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Has New Orleans lost any of it 's character and charm now that it's mostly English speaking?
It's certainly lost any French or francophone character that it had but it's true it has morphed into something unique because of the particular forces at play down there.
But this would appear to be a fairly unique case, at least in Canada and the US.
There are scores of places in North America that used to be French-speaking or of another language and culture and which have anglicized and are now basically generic Anytowns.
You don't seem to get it, Acajack. Laurentian University in Sudbury and the University of Ottawa are bilingual. Neither McGill or Concordia are English-only anymore, so that almost evens things out in university education .
Laurentian and Ottawa U are most definitely not the equivalents of McGill and Concordia for the linguistic minority communities. If anything they contribute to the assimilation of francophones by offering an English-dominated milieu as the only place you can study in French, as well as only partially French degree programs in many fields.
Don't try to dick around with me on francophone education in the ROC - I know what I am talking about.
We want to be treated as equals in the eyes of Quebec's government, and that hasn't been the case for over 30 years now.
Except for maybe in New Brunswick, francophones in the ROC aren't treated as an equal "founding people" by their governments either. The areas in which this unequal treatment occurs may differ - and I'd venture to say that the effects in the ROC are much more disastrous on the communities' viability than the cosmetic obligation to have French on store signs (and which does not ban English BTW).
Francophones would gladly accept an obligation to have English mandatory on their store signs (they already almost always have English on their signs BTW - because they respect the fact they are in Ontario) if the trade off is all the other goodies the Anglo-Quebec community gets.
You know, way back in the early days of the first PQ government, they proposed a reciprocity agreement between the ROC provinces and Quebec, regarding the treatment of the minorities. Basically, anglos in Quebec couldn't get anything that francos in the ROC couldn't. And vice verse. Well holy cow didn't everyone backtrack quickly on that so fast that it made your head spin. Everyone in agreed that it would be grossly unfair to the anglos of Quebec to do this! Even the federal government got involved to stop it from happening on this basis! And even the PQ itself eventually agreed that it would be too unfair to Quebec anglos to treat them like francos in the ROC!
I started with saying "Bonjour" and "Parlez-Vous Anglais" at least. I mastered few words....
I would be very mad and annoyed if I was greeted with Hello first.
Oh the Irony, You want everything in Quebec to be in French, but still ask for service in English.
And shame on the rest of you for falling for this troll's bait.
Has New Orleans lost any of it 's character and charm now that it's mostly English speaking?
For tourists, no. Have you read any French literature from francophone Americans about the loss of their heritage? I think they would argue that yes, it has lost it's character and charm. Not that anyone cares about what they think, but that's part of the problem.
Oh my gosh, Acajack. I don't know why I even bother replying to your posts. You seem to have no problem with double standards concerning language as long as they are in your favour. You have an extremely one-sided view of Canada.
Oh my gosh, Acajack. I don't know why I even bother replying to your posts. You seem to have no problem with double standards concerning language as long as they are in your favour. You have an extremely one-sided view of Canada.
Sorry buddy, but I've got family roots as a francophone outside Quebec going back 400 years, I've spent the better part of the past 25 years following and studying these issues extensively, and I have even worked in the language rights field.
Chatting about this with me is obviously going to be more challenging for you than on the summer backyard BBQ circuit in Oakville you are used to and where everyone just nods their head in approval and you can easily pass for some type of ordained resident expert on the topic.
Sorry buddy, but I've got family roots as a francophone outside Quebec going back 400 years, I've spent the better part of the past 25 years following and studying these issues extensively, and I have even worked in the language rights field.
If all of this is true and you still don't understand the anglo perspective, that's pathetic.
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