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You may be right...and I assume all school children in Quebec now learn English and will be bilingual. If they aren't, that's just criminal.
For better or worse, English will probably grow, maybe not at the expense of French (although there may be erosion).
Not everyone learns English in Quebec because not everyone has to. I think you fail to fully grasp how much Quebec is a fully functional French-speaking society.
Don't worry. Quebec speaks English when it has to: for international business, for dealings with the rest of Canada, the States and other countries, with tourists, etc.
Quebec also speaks other languages (think Spanish for example) as well when it has to, and does so a lot better than the rest of Canada and even much of the U.S.
I guess it would be beneficial for people wanting to move to Montreal, who can fill a lot of positions without having to speak fluent French. It might help boost the economy a bit.
Quebec City, just down the road from Montreal, has way less of an English presence in the city and its economy and unemployment are quite a bit more favourable than Montreal's. There is no direct correlation between the English language (or any other language) and economic prosperity. I don't see why this is so hard to understand.
Well more and more people in France itself and wanting to learn English, there's no denying it, English is the unofficial lingua franca and in one generation hundreds millions more around the world will be fluent in it. Whether the Quebecois want to adapt, especially being in an English majority country is up to them. Perhaps if they want to continue being French-speaking splitting away from Canada might be a better option after all.
Canada may be English-majority but it is also an officially bilingual country. Once again, I don't think you fully understand just how much Quebec is a society that can function fully in French.
You know those three-wheeled motorcycles called Spyders that started showing up on your roads a few years ago? The were designed and built in Quebec... in French.
Same goes for those personal watercraft (Sea-Doo) you see at the beach...
Well more and more people in France itself and wanting to learn English, there's no denying it, English is the unofficial lingua franca and in one generation hundreds millions more around the world will be fluent in it. Whether the Quebecois want to adapt, especially being in an English majority country is up to them. Perhaps if they want to continue being French-speaking splitting away from Canada might be a better option after all.
So what they have been doing dince 1608 (as in, speaking French) hasn't worked then?
You know those three-wheeled motorcycles called Spyders that started showing up on your roads a few years ago? The were designed and built in Quebec... in French.
Same goes for those personal watercraft (Sea-Doo) you see at the beach...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Not everyone learns English in Quebec because not everyone has to. I think you fail to fully grasp how much Quebec is a fully functional French-speaking society.
Don't worry. Quebec speaks English when it has to: for international business, for dealings with the rest of Canada, the States and other countries, with tourists, etc.
Quebec also speaks other languages (think Spanish for example) as well when it has to, and does so a lot better than the rest of Canada and even much of the U.S.
I suppose so...that's why all packaging has to be in two languages, despite the fact most Canadians don't speak French. It's bilingual regionally but it seems most Canadians are monolingual. It would be of more benefit to French Canadians to learn English, but I respect and understand they are functioning fine speaking just French.
I suppose so...that's why all packaging has to be in two languages, .
And it goes a lot further than packaging. If you live in Quebec, basically every single government service is available in French (federal, provincial, municipal). Passports, tax returns, customs forms, etc. Some government services in Quebec are also available only in French.
Plus, pretty much everything from private enterprise is available in French as well. If you buy a Toyota you can get the owners' manual in French, McDonald's is in French, Microsoft Windows is available in French.
I think that people who come from a country with a single official language have difficulty grasping the reality of multilingual ones.
If you go to Switzerland, in schools in Geneva everything is in French, and the kids sing stuff like Frère Jacques. Then you just drive an hour or two west to Bern, Luzern or Zurich, everything is in German and the kids might sing Alle vögel sind schon da.
It's still the same country - just different language zones. Not a big deal really, and there is nothing artificial about it. In fact, what would be artificial would be to impose German on Geneva (after centuries of it being French) just because the majority of the Swiss speak German.
And it goes a lot further than packaging. If you live in Quebec, basically every single government service is available in French (federal, provincial, municipal). Passports, tax returns, customs forms, etc. Some government services in Quebec are also available only in French.
Plus, pretty much everything from private enterprise is available in French as well. If you buy a Toyota you can get the owners' manual in French, McDonald's is in French, Microsoft Windows is available in French.
You name it.
And the costs to provide all of those manuals and road signage and other services throughout Canada are absorbed by who? All of us, regardless if we will ever speak one word of French in our lifetime, but hey, who's counting?
Any culture worth sustaining should survive on it's own merits and NOT need legislation to "protect it". Nor should it require the rest of a predominantly english speaking nation to carry those costs.
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