French Spoken First at the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics!
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I know...I'll try not to make a habit of it! :lol:
Actually, I don't have any problem with French being spoken first, last, or whenever - I speak it too (not that well anymore), but the figure of 50% kind of jumped out at me...didn't think that was close to being accurate.
On the same site I referenced, and just for fun, here are some of the other language stats I found:
No. 3 in Canada (in 2001) was Chinese at 872,400 (2.9% of total Cdn. population).
Other most common languages are Italian, German, Punjabi, and Spanish. (Didn't see the breakdown of numbers).
The top 3 aboriginal languages were listed as Cree (80,000), Inukitut (29,700), and Ojibway (23,500)...these would each be well under 1% of the population.
It wouldn't matter what anyone did ... or even if the O was held here. Somebody's going to gripe. Hell. it's our national pastime....
...now doing something about things, on the other hand....
...now doing something about things, on the other hand....
VI - Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean she sang it right (traditionally) before the opening ceremonies? I must have missed it, but if she did, that's good.
So why would we present the "revised" version in front of 2 billion people on live TV? The audience wasn't hearing what we (Canadians) know as our national anthem. Whoever made that decision made a rather large mistake, in my opinion. It was hard for me to let the patriotic feelings flow freely while my nerve endings were recoiling in horror from that unpleasant rendition of our anthem.
Not Even Close.. I enjoyed the opening cerimonies last night, dont get me wrong but I found it absolutly unacceptable that our SECOND LANGUAGE was spoken before our FIRST LANGUAGE.
I understand that French is our official second language, and I think it would be wrong if they didn't include it into the opening cerimonies, but there is no way in hell that french should have been spoken before english. It's like it shows the wrong message to the other countries, that "all Candians speak english." I do like the fact that the one guy (I appologize, i cant remember what his name was, nor what he was reading) but it was a long speech, and he was supposed to speak some french, despite the fact that he couldn't, so he was mis-pronouncing it.
I really hope this issue gets adressed on a much larger scale, than simply a small website...
I understand that French is our official second language, and I think it would be wrong if they didn't include it into the opening cerimonies, but there is no way in hell that french should have been spoken before english. It's like it shows the wrong message to the other countries, that "all Candians speak english." I do like the fact that the one guy (I appologize, i cant remember what his name was, nor what he was reading) but it was a long speech, and he was supposed to speak some french, despite the fact that he couldn't, so he was mis-pronouncing it.
I really hope this issue gets adressed on a much larger scale, than simply a small website...
If the Olympics had been held in Quebec City, and the National anthem sung in English by a Francophone...we would hear the same gripping by the same people.......this is a forum after all:lol:
On second thought....there might be riots in Quebec:?:
On second thought....there might be riots in Quebec:?:
Personally I like the traditional national anthem sung note for note as it sets a standard. It seems to me that putting a twist on the national anthems is a bit of a trend. I even get annoyed by the excessive ohhhhh, ahhhhhs and extended warbled pronunciations of the words. I really feel sorry for the Americans that have to listen to idiots like Carl Lewis and Roseanne Barr make a joke out of their national anthem when given the chance to sing.
Historical note here:
A Frenchman had revived the ancient Olympics for the modern age. For this reason, French was the first official language of the Olympics. Only later, as English grew in prominence, was English added to the list of official languages, so now there are two official languages, English and French, just like in Canada. This has zilch to do with Canadian politics and is pure coincidence owing to historical factors. Since French is more traditional of the two languages at the Olympics, it's only natural that the international Olympic Committee had chosen French as the first language. At the Beijing Olympics too, by the way, French and English were included side by side with Chinese, and French again took precedence over English, though I can't remember whether Chinese took precedence over French.
Now having said that, I do disagree with two former imperial languages being used as the official languages of the International Olympic Committee. However, the idea that this decision was made based on anything to do with Canadian politics is ludicrous. They might have even been ignorant of Canadian politics in this regard and were simply acting in accordance with modern Olympic traditions. Are you suggesting now that the International Olympic Committee should react more according to the local political situation? At that stage, we'd have a pretty politicized Olympic Committee.
Trust me, this decision had zilch to do with the Canadian political reality and was solely based on modern Olympic traditions.
I can't get over the fact that all announcements at the Opening Ceremonies were delivered first in French. I'm trying to figure out what the reason was for doing that when just slightly more than twenty percent of the people of Canada claim French at their first language. Was it just another feeble attempt to demonstrate a misguided political correctness. I wonder how many more Canadians were surprised, if not more than a little "miffed", that English took a backseat to the other language. Can anyone give me some insight into why this decision was made ?
Correction: 31% (rounded off to the nearest unit) of Canadian claim to know French.If we consider that statistical comparisons in Europe have sometimes found a discrepancy of up to 10% between self-assessments and objective assessments of language competence, then we must suppose that anywhere from 21% to 31% of Canadians know French. And here's my source:
Population by knowledge of official language, by province and territory (2006 Census)
Knowing how to say Hello! in French does not make one truly competent in the language.
I find that quite humorous....
Sitting here in 'redneck country' last night, not a single one of us gathered got our feathers ruffled by the fact that they opened the ceremonies in one of the official languages of our country. Perhaps because we've taken the time to learn a significant amount of it, and more than half the room was raised speaking it, IN Alberta I might add, has something to do with that?
Redneck... lol.
I can agree in principle with the local language being used over the national language or languages. In the case of Vancouver, the dominant language is English, certainly. But remember that anywhere we go in the world, the International Olympic Committee will always include its two official languages. If the local language happens to be the same as one of tis two official languages, then hey'll limit themselves to two instead of three official languages. Out of respect for the local indigenous language, they might include that too. But again, the decision to put French first lies in the history of the International Olympic Committee, and rightfully so. As an international body, it should not interfere with local or national politics, and instead focus on its own international policies.
Why did they include French and English in Beijing do you think, when only a fraction of Chinese speak either French and English. The International Olympic Committee has three words in it. Look at the first word in it, and that might give you a hint. It's bound by its own policies to use its official languages, and French is its first official language, and English second. Again, this has zilch to do with Canadian politics. If you have an issue with it, then I suggest you write to the International Olympic Committee. In fact, I won't be surprised if French comes before English at the London Olympics either. If you want to prevent that from happening, I suggest you mount a protest now.
Bear in mind though that if you do that, they might decide to drop English too in future Olympics except when it's the local language.
Perhaps some ignorant Canadians need to learn a little more about the Internaitonal Olympic Committee and how it's not a Canadian Federal Government department, but an independent Non-Governmental Organization in its own right. It may receive funding from governments (which I disagree with), but it is still an independent organization not answerable to any government beyond being required to obey local laws.
Wrong again. It's an international event that happens to be in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Wrong. About 50% of Quebec doesn't want to be a part of Canada. To say that Quebec doesn't want to be a part of Canada is like saying all Canadians are Conservative. The majority does not represent the minority, and vice versa. We are not the Borg.
Correct me if I'm wrong, did the IOC produce the opening ceremonies? Im guessing the poor choice to speak in French first was a choice of whoever produced it. Please re-read your closing comment "Bear in mind though that if you do that, they might decide to drop English too in future Olympics except when it's the local language"