Any laws regarding language and signs will have to deal with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Group to petition Richmond, B.C., to police Chinese language signs in city
- Thread starter Machjo
- Start date
I agree with some posters commenting on the article Group to petition Richmond, B.C., to police Chinese language signs in city. “It's understandable if they want to have signage in their native language, but there should be an accurate English translation below or beside the Chinese seeing as this is Canada.”
Where I live we have Chinatown, Little Italy, ‘Avenue of Nations’ and many, many more areas of different nationalities. Most signs I have seen are in both English and the language of the store/restaurant owners. No I do not want to see language police in other parts of Canada. Bad enough they are in Quebec. When I was younger, we always went to this 1 café for coffee. It was Greek owned, called Hot Box; if I remember correctly their menu was in both English and Greek, that was almost 40 years ago.
I agree with damngrumpy, if I cannot read any part of the sign or menu, I’ll leave. No big deal. The way I look at it is, if you don’t want to put any English on your sign, you don’t want/need my business. That’s their choice, then… oh well…
Well, maybe there should be accurate English translation but there should not be any language law.
I do my grocery shopping at Safeway, to be totally honest, I have a problem with.. when I want to look for/at an item, the french side is facing me. In Edmonton, in Alberta.... Am I the only one?
Where I live we have Chinatown, Little Italy, ‘Avenue of Nations’ and many, many more areas of different nationalities. Most signs I have seen are in both English and the language of the store/restaurant owners. No I do not want to see language police in other parts of Canada. Bad enough they are in Quebec. When I was younger, we always went to this 1 café for coffee. It was Greek owned, called Hot Box; if I remember correctly their menu was in both English and Greek, that was almost 40 years ago.
I agree with damngrumpy, if I cannot read any part of the sign or menu, I’ll leave. No big deal. The way I look at it is, if you don’t want to put any English on your sign, you don’t want/need my business. That’s their choice, then… oh well…
Well, maybe there should be accurate English translation but there should not be any language law.
I do my grocery shopping at Safeway, to be totally honest, I have a problem with.. when I want to look for/at an item, the french side is facing me. In Edmonton, in Alberta.... Am I the only one?
Give it a generation and it'll start hurting their business. In the meantime, no language police. This ain't Quebec.
Lousy immigrants.
If they want to speak Chinese, they can go back to China!
If they want to speak French, they can go back to France!
If they want to speak English, they can go back to England!
If they want to speak Chinese, they can go back to China!
If they want to speak French, they can go back to France!
If they want to speak English, they can go back to England!
My bad. I meant only about 80% know English. Sorry.
The Official Languages Act was a collective power grab between English and French Canadians in collusion: I don't think very highly of it. As for knowing English before coming to Canada, plenty of immigrants to Quebec only know French, and according to Statscan2006 about 15% of Nunavummiut speak neither official language well. I wouldn't call them immigrants seeing that they'd been living up north for millennia.
English and french because we decided out oft hin air that, poof, we're 'two founding nations' and indiegenous peoples aren't included in that description. How convenient. If you read the B&B Report, it's just a bunch of pseudoscience about 'founding races' and all that jazz/
Most if not all Nunavummiut are born in Canada, and if they're not, then they have a parent who is I'm sure. Hardly immigrants even if 15% of them don't know our languages.
Bad example, like in Canada, some indigenous Brazilians do not speak Portuguese. Portugal might be a better example.
An easy-to-learn auxiliary language would suffice, no? If that's your argument, and you consider that few French and English Canadians learn one anothers' languages, and that even some indigenous Canadians fail to learn our languages well, then according to your argument for the need for a common nation-wide language all can learn, then Esperanto or some other extremely easy to learn language would be preferable, no?
Again, many indigenous Canadians, especially in the North, do not speak our languages, or at least not very well. Are they foreigners?[/QUOTE]
So you should learn signs on your business? I don't follow? What does putting signs on your business have to do with learning the language? I was born in Canada, am fluent in both official languages, and want the right to put up a sign in Arabic if I want to.
My sentiments exactly.
Hmmm...
I quite enjoy the mystery of what the shop sells, until you enter and find out when cruising in Markham.
I've found some very fine dining establishments, where you can enjoy authentic Chinese, Laotian, Thai, Cambodian, and even Japanese cuisine that way. Hell, if you go over two blocks to the west from Markham Rd. and turn south, you can get some of the best Mediterranean and East Asian foods and Halal, you'll fined in Ontario.
I can understand what LW is getting at, but on the other hand, I know most Paramedics know their areas pretty well around these parts.
I quite enjoy the mystery of what the shop sells, until you enter and find out when cruising in Markham.
I've found some very fine dining establishments, where you can enjoy authentic Chinese, Laotian, Thai, Cambodian, and even Japanese cuisine that way. Hell, if you go over two blocks to the west from Markham Rd. and turn south, you can get some of the best Mediterranean and East Asian foods and Halal, you'll fined in Ontario.
I can understand what LW is getting at, but on the other hand, I know most Paramedics know their areas pretty well around these parts.
I always thought that cities that a real Chinatown did have signage like that on shops? Why is everyone so up in arms about it? Xenophobes?
I know! Some folks out there must be paranoid or something, lol.
It's not like they'll turn you away if you try to get service there or anything.
Yeah, you can. My experience with most Asians and their culture is that they (mostly)will bend over backwards to be hospitable, but it's kind of superficial because they really segregate themselves too. That's just an observation. But I've found that their kids, born here, seem to really integrate quicker than a lot of other immigrant groups. Again, don't know if that's actually true, but that's been my observation.
I get the segregation you see, I think it's a comfort thing, birds of a feather and all.
I've experienced inclusiveness and exclusion. But nothing that was any different from any other neighbourhood or region.
Anytime SCB, the boys and I have gone exploring in Markham, we've always left with a smile.
It really doesn't matter where you go really, I think if you go with the mindset of exploring new and pleasant things, you will likely find what you're looking for.
Umm... I was born in Canada, I speak english, (or I thought that's what it is.) According to you, If I want to speak english, where do I "go
back to"? What language do you speak? Where do you come from?
Asked and answered. England.
American Sign Language, English, some French, German, a little Japanese, Shawnee, and some Spanish.
Turtle Island.
Hey! Me too, last time I looked around, there was enough room here for everyone. No matter what language they spoke.
I actually miss most of the street signs back in Canada.
You don't notice it much, but most of the signs are image / icon based.... such as when a lane is about to end, you get the graphic of two lanes with one ending to the side.
http://www.strassman.info/kyodai/roadsigns.jpg
Here in Australia, many of the same signs are long worded signs....
http://www.roadsignsaustralia.com.au/portals/0/images/Product Guide July 2011-3.jpg
^ So you end up spending more time with your eyes off the road and trying to read wtf is going on. You get used to it, but it's still annoying..... and must suck for the people who don't speak/read english very well.... maybe that's a good thing, but what's even funny is how you drive along their freeways and almost every overpass has a huge billboard jammed right in your face....
.... and the best thing?
The billboards from Vic Roads in big bold text: "DISTRACTIONS LEAD TO DISASTER!"
No Sh*t!! And I just read that going 100kmh down a 5 lane freeway surrounded by train trucks.... Fk'n made my day!
What's my point?
If you have multiple languages in a country, or even just one to worry about.... images work a hell of a lot better... the universal language.
In regards to the OP, I don't mind Chinese or any other language on signs, so long as there is some English on them as well. I wouldn't go so far as Quebec does in that they want the language removed or to have French take 75-90% of the sign, etc... but at least having something on there in English.
However, in the linked article, they should have used a photo of a relative sign in question.... the photo used has English easily readable and taking up the majority of the sign with the Chinese at the top in a much smaller size.
^ If they're upset over that, then they're wasting everybody's time.
How about some of the Gaelic signs in Cape Breton? Should we tear those down??
What about all the Inuit Signage in the North?
Think I'll ask for a bill to be passed that everyone needs a permit to speak anything except Klingon. The language is near extinction.
