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.
What transformation are you seeing and what other stuff are you referring to.?
AS noted I thought English was readily available to be used now than in '75. If the 'threatening' atmosphere was the possible loss of the French language, this hasn't happened in my estimation even with the prevalence of more English spoken. Again this is from a perspective of an individual who does not make Quebec his home.
Us Anglophones (both old-school and newer arrivals) seem to do just fine in the community outside Montreal where we accept it as normal to speak English in the home and French outside the home. Seems mostly the older anglo communities in Montreal that are so resistant to these changes. It's not even an issue amongst my weekly group of English gals who meet for a coffee chat, in fact we encourage our kids to attend French garderies (daycare) and school by choice, because the written French language is more difficult so it gives them a boost. Some Quebecois can be quite vicious in their attack against the Anglophones (jerks exist everywhere) but likewise there are some Anglophones that need to get a grip and realize this isn't 1965 anymore either.
Us Anglophones (both old-school and newer arrivals) seem to do just fine in the community outside Montreal where we accept it as normal to speak English in the home and French outside the home. Seems mostly the older anglo communities in Montreal that are so resistant to these changes. It's not even an issue amongst my weekly group of English gals who meet for a coffee chat, in fact we encourage our kids to attend French garderies (daycare) and school by choice, because the written French language is more difficult so it gives them a boost. Some Quebecois can be quite vicious in their attack against the Anglophones (jerks exist everywhere) but likewise there are some Anglophones that need to get a grip and realize this isn't 1965 anymore either.
Most Anglos i know in Montreals west island dont have a problem with bilingualism in fact most embrace using another language, what most are resistant to is laws that marginalize their culture and language,living in a place where in many instances what language you speak or what language you post signs in,for some what linguistic schools they can send their kids to Etc,etc, and a department of language police roaming the streets making sure the laws are complied with,living in a place where the government continually comes out with even more insane legislation that marginalizes the non Francophone.
In conjunction with bill101
How about beefing up bill101 with a bill14, http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...aking-english/
And Proposed c rap like this is upcoming .PQ to unveil secular
A charter of Quebec values???
I do think it's a minority in most cases, my anglo grandmother was one of those who was pretty aggressive about ANY change requiring her to be even functionally bilingual, so she left.
And Proposed c rap like this is upcoming .PQ to unveil secular
A charter of Quebec values???
My God, I really did not know I was walking in a minefield on those beautiful sunny days among the Quebec stones. Quebec can lull a 'sleepy' traveller I'll tell you that.
My God, I really did not know I was walking in a minefield on those beautiful sunny days among the Quebec stones. Quebec can lull a 'sleepy' traveller I'll tell you that.
Well... our friend jambo is a bit over the top with the foreboding and sombre nature of his posts.
Things are on the whole quite relaxed in Quebec on an everyday level - so what you saw was the real deal and not a façade.
Of course, there is also a tendency in Quebec public discourse to debate and discuss issues to death, that seems to have been inherited from France.
My God, I really did not know I was walking in a minefield on those beautiful sunny days among the Quebec stones. Quebec can lull a 'sleepy' traveller I'll tell you that.
Sorry for being the proverbial bull in a china shop
but there are issues here in Quebec that irritate many Anglos who have to live here and are subjected to all this linguistic insanity on a daily basis.
For tourists and visitors you can enjoy those beautiful sunny days among the Quebec stones and never have to worry about the separatist governments weird aspirations, be assured most people in Quebec are really nice,the geography is some of the best on the continent
I hate to interrupt the global barn raising planning and care package preparations for the victims of pastagate in Quebec, but something interesting in the news today...
A few years ago, a small ship sank off the Iles-de-la-Madeleine in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The ship ran into trouble and a Canadian Coast Guard ship was dispatched to assist and rescue. The coast guard ship towed the small ship but something went wrong during the towing and it capsized, killing four of the six men on board.
During the investigation it was found that no one on board the coast guard ship could speak French, and that the men on the ship to be towed spoke little to no English. Instructions for the towing and communications were done in an emergency situation with little understanding from either side. And the towing ended in tragedy because some things were not done as they should have.
The investigation was carried out by the coast guard itself, so perhaps it is not surprising that it found that in spite of the communication problems, that lack of crew members on its ship who could speak French was not a contributing factor to the tragedy.
The families and quite a few other people beg to differ, as does Canada's official languages commissioner.
The reason it was in the news again this week was that a new report has found that the Canadian Coast Guard can still not provide services on the water to French-speaking Canadian citizens in their language in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and other eastern waters, in spite of the fact that a huge chunk of the users on the water in this area are French-speaking.
Can you imagine of the shoe was on the other foot and something as tragic as this was even remotely related to the absence of services in English?
Can you imagine if an English equivalent to Bill101 and related legislation including language police were perpetrated on minorites including Francophones living in the rest of Canada? if it were i think you'd be a little more vocal on the issue.
Also that story must have been quite a few years ago as heres a list of todays coast guard bases in Quebec, its would be a stretch to say theres a lack of Francophone staffers at these bases,.
Quebec Region;[3] email for access to the Cartographic Interface
Can you imagine if an English equivalent to Bill101 and related legislation including language police were perpetrated on minorites including Francophones living in the rest of Canada? if it were i think you'd be a little more vocal on the issue.
Also that story must have been quite a few years ago as heres a list of todays coast guard bases in Quebec, its would be a stretch to say theres a lack of Francophone staffers at these bases,.
Quebec Region;[3] email for access to the Cartographic Interface
This is misleading as I believe the only one of these locations that has rescue ships based in it is Quebec City. And the Canadian Coast Guard (from what I heard on the news today) wants to close down the station at Quebec City and serve all of Quebec from Halifax but it can't because service in French would be even more lacking than it already it is today.
It's really odd than in 2013 providing a federal government emergency service to Canadians in French in the province of Quebec (we aren't talking about BC on the west coast here) is not a given and a no-brainer.
And of course, none of this will bring back the four dead Madelinots.
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.
