Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Odd that the French government of Quebec would give all those educational choices to resident Anglophones including the Various degrees of French immersion schools but restrict its own Francophone demographic to French school only, unless they want to pay for private school.
My kids like yourself came through their schooling fluently bilingual to the point you'd have to ask them if they were English or French.
In todays global economic market it seems a step backward for the Quebec government to handicap its younger generations in such a manner.
So I guess Quebec's anglos are so hard-done-by after all, then?
Thank you madam Marois,we are not worthy of your compassionate gifts. cough, gag, wretch.
So what is with the educational handicapping of the Francophone youth?
OK i'll take a guess at why Quebec doesnt make it easier for Francophone kids to learn English.
The Quebec governments are attempting to keep a goodly portion of its Francophone demographic unilingual francophone,thereby relegating them to cultural prisoner status in Quebec, a demographic that cant chase better opportunities elsewhere and only get to hear the party line from the very biased Francophone media,
Any other guesses at why francophone governments dedicated to the elimination of English would make it so hard for the average Francophone kid to learn English yet give every opportunity to the Anglo kid to become fully bilingual?
Yes, 11 years of mandatory English as a second language courses (+ 2 mandatory ESL courses in Cegep) is a good way to keep francophones unilingual...
The English classes in the French system are a joke. Sure there are some bilingual programs but this is not the norm.
As a francophone or alophone if you don't speak English at home or with your friends you are not going to get anywhere near an acceptable level of English. Many francophones go to an English Cegep or University because they are aware how badly the French schools teach English.
I got that too. The only way to not be "educationally handicapped" and "a cultural prisoner" is... to go to English-first schools where everything is taught in English.
An English class every once in a while wont make a student bilingual, going to English public school will do it but Francophone kids arent having the option to do that unless they want to go the private route
My (Anglo) kids went to the local English school where the curriculum was 80% french from Kindergarten to grade 4 where it then went to 60% French till grade 8 and the rest of high school was 50/50.
They are now fluently bilingual.
The newest generation of francophone children here in Quebec have excellent English. I don't know when some of you went to school, but I have been in the school district myself as recently as a week ago and the program is excellent quality. It is true that there is difficulty hiring qualified TESL-subject teachers but overall, the anglais curriculum in Quebec schools is top notch, especially when you compare it to the regular French curriculums in non-Quebec anglophone schools. I have not seen the details of the regular French instruction in the anglo schools yet (I'm a TESL teacher - I don't work in the anglo district!) but if you look at what is required in 6e annee anglais for francophones, grammatically, it is quite comprehensive.
That and let's not even get into how much English they are exposed to through the internet/social media/movies these days. These kids do actually want to learn it, so that makes them even better at it. People who want to learn English do a lot better than those who don't (duh).
But that's just my opinion, as a TESL instructor here in Quebec
I have two kids in a francophone Quebec elementary school. Note that in spite of the fact that we are on the Ontario border, kids at our school do not speak English between themselves in the school yard here. So any local influence there is comes mostly from parents who already know English themselves and can help with homework, etc. This is not so present in most other parts of Quebec I realize.
We do not really speak English at home so most of what my kids pick up is from school. Maybe a bit from popular music as well.
The eldest can have basic conversations at this point. Understands in my estimation about 95% or more of English conversations.
The youngest is more shy and speaks only a little bit when there is no other choice. Understands probably 80% of conversations in English though.
As far as their friends it is all over the map. Obviously there are a few kids who have an anglo parent and so they are fluent. Overall my kids are among the better ones in their English class, and they do have classmates who sit in on the same lessons as them and who seemingly know almost no English at all.
It really does depend on external factors too and motivation, of course. Our close friends have two kids, 10 & 12. The 10 year old knows some basic vocabulary but her brother, only two years senior, is conversationally fluent and proudly told me all about his school trip to Toronto. At that age, peer shyness and attitude towards using the target language can make a big difference.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
