Live in french in Montréal
- Thread starter Queb
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And Inuktitut in most of Nunavut and Innuinaqtun elsewhere in the territory.
And if course private businesses should be free to function monolinguals in the language of their choice too.
An organization should impose an official language only on its own administration and not on other organisations. Governments are no exception.
There is nothing wrong with businesses in Toronto doing business in Chinese only. Let the market decide.
That is you opinion.
My opinion is that we should not give english services in Québec... but we do. But it's my opinion.
Don't... honestly
That about sums up my experience with speaking en francais with someone who's determined I'm not talking the "right" French to him/her
Do you really want me to talk about canadian that are pretending that they don't understand me ;-)
You mean government or business services?
As for provincial government services, I agree. Translation is expensive so monolingualsm is preferable. As for municipal government, maybe if English is the majority language, English could be the sole official language if the municipality. Business services, leave it up to the business to decide.
It's all about communication. If nobody tries, nobody does it ... and you're exactly where you are now
Government. Private Business they are free to do anyways
haha Translation is nothing
Just think about uges hospital, schools, university, colleges, direct services.
and... where I am ?
Out on the lake with powerboat and bait.... I believe we call it trolling. I don't give a damn what you call it....
If you would butt pull your head out of your a$$ monsewer...
a smart computer might make a writer of you yet
Another reality to consider is that the rate of exogamy among French Canadians outside of Québec is extremely high at over 40%, usually to an English speaker, sometimes to a speaker of another language. Second-generation exogamy exists too. So French Canadian culture outside of Québec is very different than in Quebec even within the family.
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the question is:
"If Chinese language at Toronto became ubiquitous to the point that a large proportion of people came to use Chinese nearly exclusively at work and in all their dealings with the public in Toronto what would be your reaction? How would you feel if the Chinese became so used to that even Toronto for a waitress or a barber would become mandatory to know how to speak Chinese ? How would you feel if in many businesses we speak to you in Chinese. How would you react if immigrants from around the world chose to learn Chinese before English? Honestly .... how would you react?"
Nobody answer the question.
But the situation in Richmond is a good way to answer.
The canadians in BC and Richmond feel bad about the large place that take chinese language in the sign.
They don't have to live with chinese imposing their language in the every day life in the principal city..... but they feel bad about this. They don't have to live with people imposing this language to work. They don't have to live with people imposing their language in the restaurant or at the barber shop. But, they feel bad about this.
I don't feel bad about it. Canada is a very young country. It is only in the 1900's that English Canada's geographical boundaries started to take today's shape! In Cascadia, Chinuk Wawa was the predominant auxiliary language until around 1900 in Canada when English started to dominate and it was still even used in Seattle especially in the fishing industry and between whites and Chinese until around 1930. Now it's spoken only in Grande Ronde reserve in Oregon.
Germans sent their children to school in German in Berlin Ontario until around WWI. Even today Inuktitut is more widely spoken than English in Nunavut.
Younge Street in Toronto was originally ploughed by a German colonies that the Federal Government later stabbed in the back.
So the predominant feature of linguistic history in English Canada has always been change. Change has been the only constant.So why would history stop now? Language demographics change and we adapt. We will probably be moving from Quebec to Toronto soon to exploit its Chinese business environment. And I'm sure many Anglos will either learn another language or leave Toronto.
Eventually at least some Chinese themselves will need to learn English to do business with Toronto's other language communities and neighbouring municipalities. People could feel bad about it, but they won't propose that the government starts legislating that history stop in its tracks. Or at least I hope they don't. Let society evolve.
the question isn't whether it is possible that it happens. the question is how the canadians will feel if it happens.
By the way, english company do not make business in french in Quebec. It never happen.
so, what if. What if chinese do the same in Toronto.
What if chinese peoples expect to have everybody speak to them in chinese at Toronto ? how will you feel ? (not you because you are not an english-canadian but canadians from the ROC )
As an old trucker, you know that the squeaky wheel get the oil......
One wheel has had a permanent squeak in this forum for a while now and in Canada also.....
How am I not an English Canadian? I myself come from Anglo-French exoganous parents.
By English Canadians, do you just mean old stock ethnically English of British origin?
I don't know. But they're a small majority now, a very small majority. And that's if they are still a majority.
I'm a francophone, an anglophone, and an allophone, so I admit that probably affects my world view.
Instead if government intervening, there are ways to intervene in the free market.
Let's say Toronto's Anglos don't like the loss of English. One option is orthographic reform. A phonetic spelling could help English compete more effectively against Chinese characters for example. Another option would be for the non-Chinese of Toronto to form an alliance to promote an easier language like Esperanto. Chinese simply could not compete against such an easy language all other factors considered.
Another option would be an English revenge of the cradle. Just have lots of English babies.
But the moment the English ask the government to impose their language is the moment the English will have admitted that English just cannot compete otherwise. In some respects, the English are already imposing their language through the Official Languages Act and so are already admitting that English is just not that efficient a language.
But what you seem to be asking is whether English is so inefficient that we might need to impose it even more through new laws.
The free market could improve linguistic technology. For example, it might pressure the English to simplify English orthography or promote an easier alternative like Esperanto.
The moment government protects English, English development stagnates. Why should the English simplify English orthography for example if the law gives it a monopoly anyway. That would remove any motivation to improve the language. It would be like the government forcing all car buyers to by a model T Ford.