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I am a first generation Canadian. My late father was Polish-born, and me late sainted mum was Scottish born.
When I was a kid, I spoke some Polish, but since my mother didn't, as I grew older I stopped speaking Polish with my father. I really regret that.
I speak English, French and can carry on a conversation and read in Spanish.
What did you speak at home rather than Polish? What was the common tongue shared by all your family members, English, or French? The answer usually has implications for which communities in Quebec one most strongly identifies with. With a Scottish mum, I expect it was likely English, and you'd be a typical Quebec Anglo with functional abilities in both languages, but who usually tends towards English language entertainment and cultural products during downtime. Not atypical, it seems alot of us have some recent-ish immigrant ancestry.
She has a slight accent, on a level similar to mine actually. But she speaks really well - she's worked as the Montreal reporter for an Anglo-Canadian entertainment show.
There are certainly quite a few Canadians who consider themselves both anglophone and francophone. The PM is likely one of them.
And of course there are gradiants in terms of fluency/bilingualism.
The PM is both anglophone and francophone and is comfortable holding a conversation in either language, but he seems to "think" more in English than French.
Is it practical to try to shoehorn people into Anglophone, Francophone, or Allophone categories? What about Pierre Trudeau, son of Francophone father and Anglophone mother? Or Anne-Marie Withenshaw, daughter of Anglophone father and Francophone mother? Or Alex Trebek, son of Ukrainian immigrant father and Francophone mother?
Mouldy, why are you so fascinated by French in Canada? Why do all of your threads in the Canada sub-thread deal with French in some way?
By way of answer to your question, "Francophone," "Anglophone," and "Allophone" mean nothing in Canada outside of Quebec. At least, not here in Alberta.
Is it practical to try to shoehorn people into Anglophone, Francophone, or Allophone categories? What about Pierre Trudeau, son of Francophone father and Anglophone mother? Or Anne-Marie Withenshaw, daughter of Anglophone father and Francophone mother? Or Alex Trebek, son of Ukrainian immigrant father and Francophone mother?
I can only try to imagine the internal struggle people with both British and French roots must be going through on a daily basis. Over here we a have a saying which goes something like 'the French way of doing things' which means something like: leaving things unfinished or doing things improperly and inefficiently.
So one day you wake up and your French side dominates and you slack off all day. Other days you wake up and your British side dominates and you do your work properly and efficiently.
By way of answer to your question, "Francophone," "Anglophone," and "Allophone" mean nothing in Canada outside of Quebec. At least, not here in Alberta.
It's definitely not as loaded as in Quebec but it usually does mean something. Franco-Albertans are definitely an identifiable community with some parallel institutions in relation to the anglophone majority (the latter are probably seen as just normal Albertans by a lot of people, as opposed to "anglophones").
But I'd agree though that allophone doesn't mean much outside Quebec.
I can only try to imagine the internal struggle people with both British and French roots must be going through on a daily basis. Over here we a have a saying which goes something like 'the French way of doing things' which means something like: leaving things unfinished or doing things improperly and inefficiently.
So one day you wake up and your French side dominates and you slack off all day. Other days you wake up and your British side dominates and you do your work properly and efficiently.
Yeah it's really tough for them. They have their own dedicated psychiatric facilities and everything.
And of course there are gradiants in terms of fluency/bilingualism.
The PM is both anglophone and francophone and is comfortable holding a conversation in either language, but he seems to "think" more in English than French.
This is true. He is more at ease in French than he used to be, though, as his family life with wife and kids is definitely in French.
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