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Are there any vibrant Francophone communities left in Manitoba? By "vibrant" I mean are there any places in Manitoba where you can go and hear French spoken by all ages... as in a restaurant by server and all members of family and by people at adjoining tables... or as in the local park on a nice summer evening , where kids are running around screaming to each other in French, young couples have picnics and converse in French... where, if you speak French, you can use the language everywhere you go and have no barriers to communication?
Are there any vibrant Francophone communities left in Manitoba? By "vibrant" I mean are there any places in Manitoba where you can go and hear French spoken by all ages... as in a restaurant by server and all members of family and by people at adjoining tables... or as in the local park on a nice summer evening , where kids are running around screaming to each other in French, young couples have picnics and converse in French... where, if you speak French, you can use the language everywhere you go and have no barriers to communication?
I've long wondered about this, but have never been to that part of Canada. They still exist in Nova Scotia and, obviously, parts of NB and ON.
What you describe (as summed up in bold) only truly exists in the northern part of New Brunswick and maybe a couple of Ontario towns you can count on one hand like Hearst and Hawkesbury. It doesn't really exist in Nova Scotia - I have lots of family there in Acadian communities.
Franco-Manitoban communities where French is most vibrant are probably like the Baie-Ste-Marie region of SW Nova Scotia. French is most definitely still alive and still used very commonly but there is a significant amount of *encroachment* (sorry guys) from English.
Lots of signage is in English only (sometimes bilingual, rarely in French only). Restaurants even in majority francophone towns may or may not have bilingual menus.
A lot of what's "official" and writtten down tends to be English due to a history of things being that way. And even if the situation has in many places loosened up for French and allows for its greater usage, it's tough even to get local francophones to get to use it as their so used to getting their phone bills, doing their taxes and reading a car owner's manual in English that it's jarring for them to be confronted with French in those circumstances.
Even if verbally they may use only French for the better part of their day.
But in places like Caraquet, Tracadie, Shippagan, Edmundston and to a lesser degree Hearst, Hawkesbury, Casselman, you'd probably find most people use French for both official and non-official stuff from A to Z every day.
It's more challenging in St-Boniface which has a lot of francophone history because it's in the middle of large city with only a small francophone percentage.
But some people say that it's easier to get served in French in St-Boniface businesses than in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Vanier, which is in the country's capital city and just five minutes from the Quebec border!
It's more challenging in St-Boniface which has a lot of francophone history because it's in the middle of large city with only a small francophone percentage.
But some people say that it's easier to get served in French in St-Boniface businesses than in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Vanier, which is in the country's capital city and just five minutes from the Quebec border!
St Bonifaz is cool. It's a nice little area. I like seeing the signs in French. They even have a National bank there. The only one in town. lol.
What you describe (as summed up in bold) only truly exists in the northern part of New Brunswick and maybe a couple of Ontario towns you can count on one hand like Hearst and Hawkesbury.
Franco-Manitoban communities where French is most vibrant are probably like the Baie-Ste-Marie region of SW Nova Scotia. French is most definitely still alive and still used very commonly but there is a significant amount of *encroachment* (sorry guys) from English.
Lots of signage is in English only (sometimes bilingual, rarely in French only). Restaurants even in majority francophone towns may or may not have bilingual menus.
I think that, as with a lot of other cultures, the language you speak socially depends upon the company you are in.
Hmhmhm... yes, these French immersion schools (FIS) have become a trend....though most often, the major reason why this French immersion school experience a little surge is neither love for French nor intensive commitment toward's Canada's bilingualism, it's most often social segregation and the parent's wish that their kids go to school that is not attended by many migrants.
French immersion schools are most often attended by kids who:
- are native English, thus they already know English and they have native anglophone parents.
Migrant parents, who most often happen to speak another language than English and whose kids are not native in English, will want to ensure that their kids learn English in the first place, this means that they will send their kids to normal English schools. In these normal Englisch schools will be a lot of other migrant kids for whom English is not the first language.
Yes, English is also taught at FISs but the amount of instruction English is less than at normal Englisch schools, and only kids who are already native in English, can truly master English at FISs, that's why migrant parents prefer normal English schools and native anglophones can afford the luxury of sending their kids to a FIS to avoid having classes with poorer migrants.
So, the purpose of French immersion schools most often is not love for French, it's exclusion of unwanted migrant groups and most parents know that very well.
(There are parents who GENUINELY send their kids to FIS because they actually like the language and think it's a wise choice, but they are in a MINORITY)
Often FIS happen to be public schools as the government, surprise, surprise is ready to finance a school with French, an OFFICIAL language, which looks GOOD, that makes it interesting for less rich parents to opt for exclusive schools.
I read critical comments in the reports of FIS in British Columbia an elsewhere: parents often send their kids there to avoid that they have classes with Chinese migrant kids, who will go to normal schools. And the few Chinese kids who go to FIS, are most often from Chinese upper class parents or highly educated parents, who rival with native anglos.
Most kids in French immersion schools are white, white native anglophone kids and a few are francophone kids who opted for FIS if there was no full French school in the local area, while the kids in other schools are more often migrants with poorer backgrounds.
It's the same with schools who focus on classic music in Europe, it's mostly highly educated parents who send their kids to such classic music schools that teach elitist and traditional values.
Some kids there hate and loathe classic music, but that's okay for parents as long as their kids have not to share the same class room with migrants.
It's the same with schools who focus on classic music in Europe, it's mostly highly educated parents who send their kids to such classic music schools that teach elitist and traditional values.
Some kids there hate and loathe classic music, but that's okay for parents as long as their kids have not to share the same class room with migrants.
Yes and the kids in rest of the schools all blast away to the tune of intercultural rock and roll!
(I wonder if St. Boniface native Lucille Starr (Lucille Savoie) was one of them.)
Just checked into Census 2016 data for Manitoba (couldn't find anything for St-Boniface specifically). That year Manitoba had 1,278,365 residents. Of these 45,580 (3.6%) had French as a mother tongue (alone or with another language) and 20,370 (1.6%) had French as a primary home language (alone or with another language). That gives an assimilation rate of 55.3%!
On the French-immersion-schools-as-a-segregator issue, NB has had to wrestle with this: Early French immersion program has created a two-tier system: education minister | CBC News Special needs kids are overwhelmingly in the English-stream. The better, brighter students are in the French stream. French immersion creates a two-tier school system... but it's great for parents and kids who can get in.
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It would be very good to have Hawkesburry within Québec to have some counterweight against the surge of English in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area. 
