Canadian Language Education Questions

[Berkut]

Racist.

[Martinus]

Racist.

And Anglo-wannabee.

[Grey Fox]

Queen lover!

[garbon]

Queen lover!

I think Mart is a proponent of the "No fats, no fems!"

[Eddie Teach]

Freddie Mercury was neither of those. 

[Martinus]

Freddie Mercury was neither of those. 

No handlebar moustaches.

[Admiral Yi]

Translation: bureaucrat appointed to office designed to promote official bilingualism finds: opposition to bilingualism the worst example of bigotry possible.  Is completely unable to understand why unilingual anglophones feel disadvantaged in the federal jobs department compared with folks from Quebec - so the notion must be bigotry, not rational self-interest. Because lord knows, if there is one thing completely alien to a federal bureaucrat, it is rational self-interest.

Me too. 

[Grallon]

Well Viper, how do enjoy being the laughingstock of a self satisfied crowd?  Have you learned your lesson yet?



G.

[Eddie Teach]

I would never laugh at Viper when I could laugh at Grallon instead. 

[Barrister]

Translation: bureaucrat appointed to office designed to promote official bilingualism finds: opposition to bilingualism the worst example of bigotry possible.  Is completely unable to understand why unilingual anglophones feel disadvantaged in the federal jobs department compared with folks from Quebec - so the notion must be bigotry, not rational self-interest. Because lord knows, if there is one thing completely alien to a federal bureaucrat, it is rational self-interest.

Me too. 

The argument is quite simple, really.

If you grow up in Quebec or a few other pockets (Ottawa region, parts of New Brunswick) you're almost certain to grow up bilingually without any particular struggle or issue.  Hence most people there are bilingual.

If you grow up elsewhere though, becoming bilingual is a major undertaking.

And, anecdotally, I can tell you that far from Quebec, Quebecers are disproportionately over-represented in federal government management roles.

[Admiral Yi]

Fair enough, but by the same token I don't think that's true of folks from the backwoods of Quebec.

[Malthus]

Translation: bureaucrat appointed to office designed to promote official bilingualism finds: opposition to bilingualism the worst example of bigotry possible.  Is completely unable to understand why unilingual anglophones feel disadvantaged in the federal jobs department compared with folks from Quebec - so the notion must be bigotry, not rational self-interest. Because lord knows, if there is one thing completely alien to a federal bureaucrat, it is rational self-interest.

Me too. 

What BB said.

The net effect has been that, over time, people from Quebec are way disproportinately represented in federal government positions. Figures I have seen (dunno how accurate) is that, in senior fed positions, people from Quebec have one in three, while people from Quebec are around one in five in the country.

In much of English Canada, outside of some places in Manitoba, Ottawa, or New Brunswick, there is essentially no benefit to learning French (over the benefit of learning any other language) other than to get a federal government job - as essentially only a very tiny minority of people around you speak it: in Toronto, for example, as many people have "French" as their mother tounge as have "Gujarti". The net result is that, looking at it in terms of cold hard rational self-interest, the bilingual requirements disadvantage anglo Canadians on average, at least in terms of the chances of getting a federal government job - the net benefit is making Jacob feel comfortable on the one hand, and keeping the country grudgingly united on the other. 

[Barrister]

Fun fact - when I was hired to work for the Feds, the position I was in required a bilingual prosecutor.  Whoops!

Thankfully, a month or two later (and well before they discovered this little quirk) they had already hired a bilingual Quebec prosecutor, so we just swapped our positions (on the ground of course nothing changed whatsoever).

[Grey Fox]

Maybe the Canadian government should work on expanding Francophone presence in western provinces.

[Duque de Bragança]

Another note - personally, as an anglophone - when returning to Canada from overseas, the presence of French language stuff is comforting and familiar. Whether it's getting on to Air Canada and hearing announcements in both official languages, whether it's the customs forms on the plane, or the signage at the airport, seeing French and English side by side is a welcome sign of home.

I know I'm not the only anglophone who feels that way.

So anglo-chauvinists who mouth off about how French is a waste of resources or doesn't represent Canada most certainly do not represent me or my point of view. I'm very happy with official bilingualism in this country, and I'm sympathetic to the idea of the distinct society of Quebec.

That does not mean, however, that I can't find individual language based policies in Quebec to be ridiculous or counter-productive or wrong-headed even if I'm sympathetic to the preservation of Quebec culture and the French language.

This is reassuring for francophones, I believe. Though I suppose the question that could be debated now is the amount of desired or even possible change and/or improvement in the language policies in Québec, since a significant enough proportion of francophones want them to stay, for good reason IMO given the situation of the French language in Canada and North America. The bigotry shown by some in the rest of Canada and elsewhere, gives yet another proof they still have a raison d'être.