British citizen creates national uproar in Quebec

[Malthus]

The Chinese minority doesn't repress the english majority for being English tho.

How not? They give jobs to other Chinese folks, and very often have signs in Chinese only. Aren't these the examples of "repression" you've provided?

[Grey Fox]

Berkut, no. If you happen to be visiting, let's say Downtown Montreal & shopping there. Atleast 90% of the Cashier would say Hi in english first.

Hell, they do it to me & as HVC, BB, Sask, Malthus & Josephus can attest, I look fairly french.

[HVC]

The difference with NYC though is that they are mean to everyone - including other New Yorkers.

Which is exactly what we were saying about Paris so that really is not a difference.

True. i tried being "portuguese" to see if they were being dicks becasue i was anglo... they were still dicks, but it took longer becasue they didn't know portuguese and my french was bad by that point in time.

[Berkut]

The differenct in Quebec is that the majority of citizens were French speakers while the majority of signs were in English.  A difference case really.

Seems like if that were the case, it would be a problem that the market would sort out rather quickly - since if my products used French, I would stomp those that did not, since the people want their signs in French (apparently).

Why didn't that happen? Was it really the case that the problem was as extreme as it is made out to be, or that the *desire* for these rather radical xenophobia laws was really all that universal?

[Valmy]

True. i tried being "portuguese" to see if they were being dicks becasue i was anglo... they were still dicks, but it took longer becasue they didn't know portuguese.

They just tried some rude gestures on you then?

[Sheilbh]

Parisians are mean to each other.  I knew one once who was amazed at Londoners giving up their seat on the tube for elderly people and pregnant women (this is standard) and she said she was amazed.  She described the Parisian attitude as 'I would rather kill you than lose my seat'

It's a great city though.  I've never found it terribly rude.  But then I thought New York was unusually friendly.

[Ed Anger]

The difference with NYC though is that they are mean to everyone - including other New Yorkers.

Which is exactly what we were saying about Paris so that really is not a difference.

True. i tried being "portuguese" to see if they were being dicks becasue i was anglo... they were still dicks, but it took longer becasue they didn't know portuguese and my french was bad by that point in time.

They was too busy locking up the valuables.

[Malthus]

Certainly. There have been court cases of businessmen fined for not having French "predominate".

and in these cases, there was simply no french.

Moreover, it isn't really significant to my point whether the laws are enforced stringently or not, as business people doing due dilligence have to assume that they will obey the existing local laws, not flout them because they aren't strictly enforced - and plan for the costs of doing that. Which, in Quebec, always means printing up special "Quebec only" materials to conform to Quebec's bizzare language laws.

You know, nowadays, everything produced in the NAFTA is printed in English, Spanish and French at the very least.
I just bought a Polar watch last week.  It came with instructions in English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and some other.

My Windows Ultimate allow me to switch between French&English menu, as well as 40 other languages.

Silly me.  Of course.

I should see that writing instructions and packaging for every language of the world is not a problem, unless you happen to ship to Quebec.

Silly me.

What's a problem is that the signs which the company may have on hand for places like France will not do in Quebec, because typically they will be bilingual and so French does not "predominate" to the degree required by Quebec sensitivities.

[HVC]

True. i tried being "portuguese" to see if they were being dicks becasue i was anglo... they were still dicks, but it took longer becasue they didn't know portuguese.

They just tried some rude gestures on you then?

lol, i added to that. after the portuguese stuff i started speaking bad french.. it didn't help, though it was very amusing

[Berkut]

The difference with NYC though is that they are mean to everyone - including other New Yorkers.

Which is exactly what we were saying about Paris so that really is not a difference.

The perception is that the French are generally nasty to the non-French, and especially to Americans.

[crazy canuck]

Seems like if that were the case, it would be a problem that the market would sort out rather quickly - since if my products used French, I would stomp those that did not, since the people want their signs in French (apparently).

Why didn't that happen? Was it really the case that the problem was as extreme as it is made out to be, or that the *desire* for these rather radical xenophobia laws was really all that universal?

Why it didnt happen is one of the great questions of Canadian History.

Oex would be much better able to explain it then I.

[Valmy]

It's a great city though.  I've never found it terribly rude.  But then I thought New York was unusually friendly.

Yeah I never found Parisians or New Yorkers very rude and I have visited both cities multiple times...

however I am pretty tolerant and patient with people and their foibles so I might not be a good judge.  Despite the fact I love to rant and rave irrationally on Languish alot I am pretty laid back IRL.

[Grey Fox]

Certainly. There have been court cases of businessmen fined for not having French "predominate".

and in these cases, there was simply no french.

Moreover, it isn't really significant to my point whether the laws are enforced stringently or not, as business people doing due dilligence have to assume that they will obey the existing local laws, not flout them because they aren't strictly enforced - and plan for the costs of doing that. Which, in Quebec, always means printing up special "Quebec only" materials to conform to Quebec's bizzare language laws.

You know, nowadays, everything produced in the NAFTA is printed in English, Spanish and French at the very least.
I just bought a Polar watch last week.  It came with instructions in English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and some other.

Silly me.  Of course.

I should see that writing instructions and packaging for every language of the world is not a problem, unless you happen to ship to Quebec.

Silly me.

And yet....nobody needed to pass a law demanding that your watch have instructions in German, did they?

Rather, it simply made economic sense for your watch maker to include them since they would like to sell their watches to the Germans, so they did so.

No xenophobic language laws required at all...

Germans are what 60 millions?

There's about 5 millions of us in North America. THey wouldn't print anything in french. They did not before the law.

[HVC]

The difference with NYC though is that they are mean to everyone - including other New Yorkers.

Which is exactly what we were saying about Paris so that really is not a difference.

True. i tried being "portuguese" to see if they were being dicks becasue i was anglo... they were still dicks, but it took longer becasue they didn't know portuguese and my french was bad by that point in time.

They was too busy locking up the valuables.

porkchops aren't theives... we're just lazy


*edit* aren't

[Berkut]

What's a problem is that the signs which the company may have on hand for places like France will not do in Quebec, because typically they will be bilingual and so French does not "predominate" to the degree required by Quebec sensitivities.

Clearly they are Imperialists then, and are not wanted in Montreal anyway.