I'm American and strongly support ONLY French signs and law! (high schools, best)

[newdixiegirl]

Originally Posted by lexdiamondz1902

Nobody is "abolishing" English, it's just not an official language of Quebec. Anglophones in Quebec can still access services in English, can go to school in English, and in many cases work and live almost exclusively in English. It is considerably easier for an Anglophone to live in Quebec than it is for a Francophone to live in any province other than New Brunswick.

As for Spanish having a stronger formal presence in the US than English does in Quebec...that's nonsense. I live in a neighbourhood in NYC that is 90% Spanish speaking and while there are services available in Spanish, a monolingual Spanish speaker has almost zero chance of making it into the middle class, whereas an English Quebecker could attend one of the best universities in N. America on the taxpayer's dime and not learn a word of French.

And even given the limited recognition of Spanish in the US, people still complain. Plenty of people complain. The English-only movement is a thing, with considerable support in the US.

I know English is not abolished in Quebec. I'm responding to the OP's suggestion that it should be.

Limited recognition of Spanish in the US? You've got to be kidding. I don't know about your particular NYC neighborhood, but to suggest that the social status of monolingual Spanish speaking immigrants in the US is due to lack of recognition of Spanish is neither fair nor accurate. As a resident of the US, I would think that would be obvious to you.

I live and work around many monolingual Spanish speakers, too, so I know a little about it. The reason some of those immigrants might have "zero" chance of making it into the middle class, as you claim (a huge overstatement, because many of them in the US ARE middle-class), has more to do with socioeconomic and cultural factors than it does lack of opportunities or Spanish language services. After all, there are other immigrant groups in the US and in parts of Canada, like Southern Ontario where I largely grew up, who are comfortably middle class, while speaking, reading and writing little or no English (and they have received ZERO services in their native tongues). I know the same has been true for those same immigrant groups in Montreal, as well.

So, how are those monolingual Spanish speaking groups different? First, some (perhaps many) monolingual Spanish-speaking immigrants are very poorly educated and illiterate in their first language. Second, they tend not to place the same emphasis on educational achievement that other immigrant groups do or that many native-born Americans and Canadians do. That's NOT a judgment call on my part, as neither of my own immigrant parents graduated from high school (though my father went on to become a business executive in Canada). But that happens to be the truth. Lastly, many monolingual Spanish speakers (perhaps most), arrive in the US poorer than do other immigrant groups. Therefore, they ultimately begin their lives in the US with at least a couple of disadvantages that other immigrant groups might not.

Anglo Quebecers, on the other hand, are literate and already middle class, broadly speaking. Besides, you're forgetting, as PBeauchamp pointed out, that English is one of the official languages of Canada, (and Quebec technically remains a province of Canada); Spanish is not an official language of the US.