[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Grey Fox]

No, they don't. They *still* produce a lot of unilingual anglos too.

There is atleast options.

[Oexmelin]

?

And so there are in all francophone schools.

[Josephus]

I wish I could speak French - the only one in the CC household who can't 

I can't either and it is embarassing I can't speak the nation's second language. I put it down to our education system, they should really make it compulsory all the way to Grade 12

Grade 10 is the last year, right? or it was when I was in school. Even if they did 12 a couple of hours a week isn't going to stick for most once you're out of school

In my time, yes Grade 10 was last year.

[Jacob]

?

And so there are in all francophone schools.

How does the English proficiency of the students in the French students in Quebec compare to the French proficiency of the English students? And how do the levels of bilingualism compare to the students of the French and English schools outside of Quebec?

[HVC]

Serious question: what's objectionable about it? Specifically.

"Can you believe that still today in learned society, in houses of government, unfortunately, we're still debating and still questioning whether humans have a role in the Earth warming up or whether even the Earth is warming up, period," she asked, her voice incredulous.

"And we are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process let alone, oh my goodness, a random process."

Yes.  We're still debating whether life was a divine intervention.  A great many Canadians believe in God, and that the existence of life was not some "random process".

I get that maybe you're an stone-cold atheist, to whom God means nothing.  But literally millions of Canadians do believe in God (of whatever particular faith).  If Payette wants to take pot-shots at horoscopes, fine.  If she wants to critique climate change sceptics, good.  But why of why does she want to insult anyone who believe that God created life?

Going back a  bit, but I saw this quoted somewhere else and though it apt

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.

Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.

If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.

[Grey Fox]

?

And so there are in all francophone schools.

Can't speak for all Anglo school boards.

Wilfrid Laurier school board has different "path" one of those is French immersion from 1st grade thru high school where students start at 100% french to 60/40 french/english in Grade 5 & 6 back to 100% for the early high school years & ending at 60/40 for Grade 11/12.

Francophone school boards don't do anything close to that.

[crazy canuck]

Serious question: what's objectionable about it? Specifically.

"Can you believe that still today in learned society, in houses of government, unfortunately, we're still debating and still questioning whether humans have a role in the Earth warming up or whether even the Earth is warming up, period," she asked, her voice incredulous.

"And we are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process let alone, oh my goodness, a random process."

Yes.  We're still debating whether life was a divine intervention.  A great many Canadians believe in God, and that the existence of life was not some "random process".

I get that maybe you're an stone-cold atheist, to whom God means nothing.  But literally millions of Canadians do believe in God (of whatever particular faith).  If Payette wants to take pot-shots at horoscopes, fine.  If she wants to critique climate change sceptics, good.  But why of why does she want to insult anyone who believe that God created life?

Going back a  bit, but I saw this quoted somewhere else and though it apt

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.

Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.

If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.

That is a good explanation for why the Catholic Church takes no issue with evolution.

[saskganesh]

Based on their words and deeds, most Christians seem to worship a false god made in their own image, so I wouldn't take them seriously. Good thing I am not in politics.

[Valmy]

I am glad you said 'most'. #notallchristians

[Admiral Yi]

Eh, we suck at teaching english too.

The Anglo schools boards in Quebec do a really good job of teaching French but it is politically unworkable to emulate them on the Franco side.

I'm surprised.  Granted my sample is limited to downtown Montreal, but in particular among younger people, say 35 and younger, it seems everyone is bilingual, to the point I can't tell if someone's crib language is French or English based on how they speak.  Particularly interesting was how groups of friends would switch back and forth between languages, often within the same sentence.

[Habbaku]

I'm surprised.  Granted my sample is limited to downtown Montreal, but in particular among younger people, say 35 and younger, it seems everyone is bilingual, to the point I can't tell if someone's crib language is French or English based on how they speak.  Particularly interesting was how groups of friends would switch back and forth between languages, often within the same sentence.

My experience in Montreal is much the same. My experience in other parts of Quebec, however, is that speaking in English got me broken-English responses in some cases and mostly-fluent in others. Montreal is a bit of a special case.

[crazy canuck]

Eh, we suck at teaching english too.

The Anglo schools boards in Quebec do a really good job of teaching French but it is politically unworkable to emulate them on the Franco side.

I'm surprised.  Granted my sample is limited to downtown Montreal, but in particular among younger people, say 35 and younger, it seems everyone is bilingual, to the point I can't tell if someone's crib language is French or English based on how they speak.  Particularly interesting was how groups of friends would switch back and forth between languages, often within the same sentence.

Montreal has a significant anglophone community 

[Grey Fox]

Eh, we suck at teaching english too.

The Anglo schools boards in Quebec do a really good job of teaching French but it is politically unworkable to emulate them on the Franco side.

I'm surprised.  Granted my sample is limited to downtown Montreal, but in particular among younger people, say 35 and younger, it seems everyone is bilingual, to the point I can't tell if someone's crib language is French or English based on how they speak.  Particularly interesting was how groups of friends would switch back and forth between languages, often within the same sentence.

We consume American pop culture, we learn the language. I didn't learn english in school.

[Josephus]

We consume American pop culture, we learn the language. I didn't learn english in school.

Yeah no kidding.





Just kidding GF, your English is just fine.

[Grey Fox]

It's freaking awesome you mean. Sure my grammar is bad but ask Oex, it's also bad in french.

Compare to my francophone bosses, I sound like english is my 1st language. Their english is really deplorable for people with MBAs from American Universities.