Forced Canadian Bilingualism

[shamus11]

National Bilingualism My Friend

By

James Bredin

National bilingualism pounded in and in,
Every day and every night so only they can win,
Their Ottawa bilingual propaganda says it’s great,
If you can’t speak French, you only hear half this debate.

They’ve built a curious culture and you don’t belong,
Multicultural bilingual hierarchy strong,
And English unilinguals are afraid to react,
Canadians reluctant to recognize this fact.

Might be called narrow minded, Nazi or red neck,
The pointed finger of a lounge Liberal from Quebec,
So hurry away and hide in a Cornerbrook corner
You outcast unilingual who might be a foreigner.

And Stephen Harper’s suggestion about linguistic groups,
Has them running around in circles going oops,
They crave to continue their bilingual status quo,
And we better get it right and learn to kowtow.

And the secessionist types that the Liberals like,
Hold Ottawa to ransom ‘cause they might take a hike,
Send those equalization payments and plenty more,
Or they’ll have another referendum and score.

National unity party politics might be at risk,
So pay the royal ransom and make it brisk,
And don’t let some minor corruption and theft interfere,
Can’t interrupt a Liberal political career.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

http://jamesbredin0.tripod.com/numbereight/id16.html

 

[peapod]

interesting site shamus, and an interesting poet.

 

[Andem]

Clever political poem, shamus ;p

 

[Scott]

RE: Forced Canadian Bilin

Shamus, been a long time since I've seen you around. Still writing good political themed poetry I see.

On the issue of Canadian bilingualism, I personally used to hate having to do French when I was in grade school. But now that I'm out of that for a few years now and attending a multicultural unversity where I live with people from Quebec in addition to the usual crowd, I'm glad I learned French in school - and I wouldn't have if it wasn't for the national bilingualism laws. Having a second language is an excellent quality that will benefit anyone in the long run career wise (if you have a career where you will find yourself travelling a lot).

For those who can't understand French (or are French and can't understand the English), Parliament offers full translation services so you don't get just half of the debate on important issues happening there.

Accordingly, your comment "If you can’t speak French, you only hear half this debate. " is totally false if you bother to take the effort to tune into CPAC or CBC where there's always a translator on hand, or just read the Hansard of each day on Parliament's website where it's all translated into English or French, whichever is your fancy.

 

[HTO]

Re: RE: Forced Canadian Bilin

Brain anatomy differs in bilinguals: study
Last Updated Wed, 13 Oct 2004 20:55:14 EDT
LONDON - Being bilingual produces changes in the anatomy of the brain, scientists say.

Researchers found people who speak two languages fluently have more grey matter in the region of the brain responsible for language.


Scientists saw physical differences in the brains of bilingual speakers.
Andrea Mechelli of University College London and her colleagues compared the brains of monolinguals with the brains of English-Italian bilinguals who had acquired their second language either as children or as adults.

They found the earlier people learned their second language and the better they performed in that language, the denser was the grey matter in their left inferior parietal cortex.

The finding suggests mastering a second language before age 35 may physically affect the brain.

For the study, researchers compared the grey matter in the brains of 25 people who speak one language, 25 people who learned a second language before age five, and 33 subjects who picked up their second language later in life.

Scientists don't know if the change is caused by an increase in the size of brain cells or the number of connections between them.

The study appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Written by CBC News Online staff

People who speak different languages have a larger vocabulary, and are more appreciative of differences, i.e, other cultures.

I believe Canada benefits from having two languages.

 

[sj007]

ah yes but as my french teacher would say are u bilingual or do u make a stew of both laguages ruffly translated from french we dont realy have billingualisme in our official languages i also find it intressting that the brain if effected