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Most Canadians have no daily interaction with french speakers.
With the exception of french canadians and quebecer canadians or people who have french speaking parents or live in the 400,000 french communities outside of quebec or so. Bilingual Canadians really don't exist anymore than they do in america outside maybe a narrow stream of academia where people who are native english speakers don't generally speak more than a few words of basic french they remember from high school like oui= yes non= no etc. its like saying non hispanic americans who know spanish. I live in Canada and had an EASIER time learning spanish from hispanic friends than learning french. Because Spanish is easier to understand for an anglo ear. Further it is easier to learn words when people speak it around you everyday and the words are clear than to understand french, a language where they routinely slur (liasion) their words based on how and where they appear in a sentence and invert words. You can learn to official word for arab = arabe. But a french might not even use that word, they might use an inverted form called beurette. Well clearly the 2 sound nothing alike and this make learning french just far more harder. Also french lacks a distinction in sounds. Often 1 simple sound (-eh as in eh you) or (-ah as in apple) can mean like 8 different words and it become context dependent. Like -ah sound can mean (to) or it can mean (have).
I took french up until the 3rd level in university, the course was entirely in french, english was not allowed to be spoken. I would not say I was fluent but I understood all the instructions even if I missed a few words here and there. I have not studied it for a while but when I finished the course I understood a great deal of the french channels content not counting news cast. Like regular show I understood most of. But this is not fluency.
One would have to actively go out of their way to study french as in spending hours a day just to maintain not loosing their french. It is a pain in the butt really if you do not live or have daily interactions with french. As for french immersion. Forget it, you will lose it once you stop studying french and most people who do study it end up being very confused when they have to go and learn concepts in english again. I had a ukranian friend who spoke fluent russian and he found it quiet taxing mentally because he'd have to translate french concepts into english then back into russian.
Agreed,without using a language frequently you start to lose it, in my case having worked almost entirely in a French milieu for 30+ years my French was adequate, now 5 years into retirement and socializing with a mostly English crowd i'm losing my ability to think in French thus my speaking of the language is not what it was 5 years ago,if you dont use it you definitely lose it..
One major reason why Anglo Canadians don't know French is that the French taught in schools is primarily standard or European French, not the French actually spoken in Quebec. In the United States, where Spanish is becoming more common, our schools do not teach European Spanish, but the Spanish of North America.
One major reason why Anglo Canadians don't know French is that the French taught in schools is primarily standard or European French, not the French actually spoken in Quebec. In the United States, where Spanish is becoming more common, our schools do not teach European Spanish, but the Spanish of North America.
This is not really a big issue to be quite honest. At least not if people had an impetus to acquire even the most basic functionality.
I learned Latin American Spanish and I do fine in Spain BTW.
For some one who will never use this other language it seems more like a waste of time rather than a broadening of horizons, studying a musical instrument or becoming proficient in a hobby seems more practical than studying another language you'll never use.
I've used Spanish on numerous occasions in travelling or just seeking out interesting cultural things.
BTW, it's a lot tougher to get know people, engage them in conversation, get to know about their culture and way of life or even ordering food or asking for directions through a skill like playing the ukelele or flying model airplanes, than it is by speaking a bit of their language!
Do Canadians outside of Quebec have good knowledge of French? Is it same comparison as Scandinavian and Dutch having great knowledge of English?
The Dutch and Scandinavians, nearly 90% of their population knows how to speak/understand English. How many percentage of that is in Canada not counting Quebec?
Are you in the 10%? Non-Quebecers who knows good French ? that know good French
French language has never been under threat in Quebec. There is no need to "protect" it with discriminatory language laws. There is no excuse to "protect" it with discriminatory language laws.
I lived in Vancouver 26 years. There is absolutely zero comparison. You also need to realize that the GVRD and British Columbia can be two different worlds. The demographic is completely different. You are dealing with a wealthier immigration population (many of whom are already educated in basic/intermediate English skills) and here in Quebec now you are dealing with a vast majority population of all classes who live and work in the same language for 100's of years. It is apple to oranges. The Chinese in BC have never expected the rest of the population to adopt their language and there are only a very tiny majority (usually elderly within Richmond or other high concentration areas) who do not wish to learn English.
And many (English-speaking) youth desire to learn Mandarin or Japanese in school. When I was in high school (and I'm talking 15 years ago), many of us chose Japanese/Chinese (or Punjabi in the fraser valley) as our second language rather than French, because we knew it was useful for career and practical purposes. I've taken 3 semesters of Mandarin myself.
With all due respect, a bit of wikipedia and a news article does not mean any insight into the way life in the GVRD is.
I lived in Vancouver 26 years. There is absolutely zero comparison. You also need to realize that the GVRD and British Columbia can be two different worlds. The demographic is completely different. You are dealing with a wealthier immigration population (many of whom are already educated in basic/intermediate English skills) and here in Quebec now you are dealing with a vast majority population of all classes who live and work in the same language for 100's of years. It is apple to oranges. The Chinese in BC have never expected the rest of the population to adopt their language and there are only a very tiny majority (usually elderly within Richmond or other high concentration areas) who do not wish to learn English.
And many (English-speaking) youth desire to learn Mandarin or Japanese in school. When I was in high school (and I'm talking 15 years ago), many of us chose Japanese/Chinese (or Punjabi in the fraser valley) as our second language rather than French, because we knew it was useful for career and practical purposes. I've taken 3 semesters of Mandarin myself.
With all due respect, a bit of wikipedia and a news article does not mean any insight into the way life in the GVRD is.
Research what the Franco-Columbian community has contributed to BC. Their community deserves official bilingualism. Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese are not official Canadian languages, and therefore, regardless of what some British Columbians might claim, are far less useful than French in our country.
Research what the Franco-Columbian community has contributed to BC. Their community deserves official bilingualism. Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese are not official Canadian languages, and therefore, regardless of what some British Columbians might claim, are far less useful than French in our country.
You're joking, right? I can't tell sarcasm over text so, I'll assume you are absolutely joking.
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