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La Langue Francaise
| Neutral [0]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Fri Feb 8, 2008 @ 7:24pm |
 Coolness: 150555 | I've been debating about this shit with my friends for a long time, and I would like to hear some of your opinions on the subject.
This obviously has to do with the debate on Reasonable Accommodation; the pressure on the Quebec Liberal Government to increase the powers (or whatever you want to call it) of Bill 101. I would also like to hear your personal views of the state of French dans la Belle Province. So yeah, if any of you guys give a shit about local affairs, I think this is a good topic to discuss. Post any articles concerning any of these topics --and I know there are a lot of them, and DISCUSS... please. To get this started: LANGUAGE FRENZY FEELS FORCED Montreal census findings cast in alarmist light Saturday, January 26, 2008 MONTREAL -The report's findings are so explosive that the Quebec government has been sitting on them for over a year. When the frustrated author shared some of his findings with two Montreal newspapers this week, he was quickly muzzled by the government agency that commissioned his study. What shocking truth had he uncovered? That the proportion of francophones is declining in Quebec, and that by 2021, if current trends continue, French speakers would be a minority on the island of Montreal. As cover-ups go, it is not exactly high-level corruption or toxins in the water supply. What's more, the researcher, Universite de Montreal demographer Marc Termote, had told a university publication much the same thing in 2006 shortly after he completed his report. Results from the 2006 census published last month confirmed the trend, finding that less than half the residents of Montreal island claimed French as their mother tongue. (A slight majority spoke French at home.) "In Mr. Termote's study, when it is finally made public, I think people will say, 'Well, that's what the 2006 census showed,' " Robert Bourbeau, director of the Universite de Montreal's department of demography, said in an interview yesterday. "There's nothing extraordinary there." What is extraordinary, and what appears to have frightened Jean Charest's Liberal government so badly they botched the handling of the Termote report, is the current social climate. Some Quebec media, politicians and pressure groups are whipping up hysteria over the language issue, much as was done a year ago over the issue of "reasonable accommodation" of minorities. "There is a political context that means some people have an interest in lighting a fire," Mr. Bourbeau said. "The relative weight of French will always be a sensitive subject." The first match was struck by the tabloid Journal de Montreal, the same newspaper that fanned the flames over reasonable accommodation. In a week-long series this month, the Journal reported that a journalist posing as a unilingual anglophone was able to find jobs as a sales clerk in 15 shops during the pre-Christmas rush. (She applied to 97.) The Journal's conclusion: "Despite 30 years of Bill 101, francophones still have a hard time being served in their language in Montreal." Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Quebecois, ludicrously claimed that the situation was as bad as before Quebec introduced Bill 101, the language law that, among other things, made French the normal language of commerce in Quebec. A survey published last year by the Office quebecois de la langue francaise, which found that service was offered in French in 90% of the 2,500 stores visited in downtown Montreal, was dismissed as unscientific. The season was open in the hunt for language grievances. The TVA news network reported that in 2007, 15 patients -- out of more than a million patient-visits a year -- had complained to Quebec's language watchdog that they had been unable to receive care in French in Montreal's English-language hospitals. PQ spokesmen mused that the time had come to make toddlers from immigrant families attend French-language daycares to ensure they integrate into Quebec society. (Bill 101 currently says these children must be instructed in French when they begin school.) Others protested that Bill 101's language requirement should be extended to Cegeps, the pre-university colleges, after it was found that 48% of students whose mother tongue is neither English nor French are choosing to attend English-language Cegeps after completing high school. After news broke this week about Mr. Termote's study, which the Office quebecois de la langue francaise says it will release in March along with other data, Mario Dumont, leader of the Action Democratique du Quebec, denounced the Charest government's decision to increase annual immigration levels to 55,000 from 45,000. "A radical increase in immigration is going to have an even greater, even more accelerated impact on the presence of the French language in Montreal," he said. Once lit, these fires are never easily extinguished. But it is worth remembering another statistic from the 2006 census. It found that among recent immigrants to Quebec who speak English or French at home, three-quarters speak French, the highest proportion ever. Old-stock francophones are having fewer children and moving to suburbs off the island of Montreal, but the allophones who replace them are not choosing English. Even Mr. Termote acknowledged that. "When we look at the language spoken in the home, French is in decline, but not to the benefit of English," he said in 2006. Rather, it is Arabic, Spanish, Mandarin and a host of other languages that are being spoken, just as is happening elsewhere in Canada. [ www.nationalpost.com ] |
| I'm feeling cool right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Wizdumb replied on Fri Feb 8, 2008 @ 7:44pm |
 Coolness: 122405 | stuff like this pisses me off
i've been having this debate quite often lately myself and it seems neither side can agree. i don't understand the problem here truthfully. ok, so 1st generation canadians go to french school, fine. but to enforce french upon them into the cegep level???? BS if you're free to CHOOSE what type of education you have, then so be it. and now of course, immigrants are to blame for a potential decline in french speaking quebecers?! that just sounds xenophobic, sorry and then there's this issue of hospitals...i went to a french hospital and they "didn't understand" english and i was reminded i was in a french hospital. yet english hospitals are at fault for being english look i'm all about equal rights and bilingualism in quebec, it gives us an identity that separates us from other cities worldwide and i like really do like that, but this whole priority things reeks i read this article in the metro newspaper recently about how french is not spoken as much as it should in businesses in the west end of montreal. oh sorry, you just happen to have forgotten that this is where most out of province students live and the part of town that attracts more tourists.... personally, i think french culture is as strong as it ever was and is no danger. i respect you and your rights but i don't wish mine to be neglected either. the world is a big place and we need to share |
| I'm feeling battery operated right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» flo replied on Sat Feb 9, 2008 @ 5:47am |
 Coolness: 146420 | ben là, just speak both québécois et angliche pi l'monde s'ra happy enough :) |
| I'm feeling phd powa !!! right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini replied on Sat Feb 9, 2008 @ 9:43am |
 Coolness: 145295 | je suis completement epuiser avec ce debat la, je veux plus etre demander 'c'est quois ta langue maternelle?', ca na aucun sense, vous pouvez vous faire foutre... |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» sex.is.boring replied on Tue Feb 12, 2008 @ 9:42am |
 Coolness: 78365 | moé jrêve en chinese mais jme comprend pas LOL |
| I'm feeling dieing right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Adrianna replied on Wed Feb 13, 2008 @ 11:27pm |
 Coolness: 43025 | I suis a franglophone :P or a frenglish? or a franglaise? whatever sti! Messemble y'on pas managed to regle this debat depuis 30 years. On va pas l'regler today. |
| I'm feeling need 2 pee right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» sex.is.boring replied on Thu Feb 14, 2008 @ 11:33am |
| Coolness: 78365 | ctait trop bilingue comme post, jpas trop sure de comptrendre |
| I'm feeling vedge right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» DrGonzo replied on Thu Feb 14, 2008 @ 11:44am |
 Coolness: 266050 | if i put a finger in my nose, i can sound like a kettle. |
| I'm feeling love in a speaker right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini replied on Sat Feb 16, 2008 @ 4:43pm |
| Coolness: 145295 | what if u put a finger in your bum??? |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» DrGonzo replied on Sat Feb 16, 2008 @ 4:46pm |
| Coolness: 266050 | then my finger smells like a pretzel bakery all year-round |
| I'm feeling love in a speaker right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Mon Feb 25, 2008 @ 4:52am |
| Coolness: 150555 | that's awesome |
| I'm feeling cool right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Jaggery replied on Sun Mar 30, 2008 @ 7:06pm |
 Coolness: 37130 | A language dies every two weeks. They come, they go, they evolve. It's sad but inevitable. Another thing that'll never change is the older generation constantly looking to the younger with disdain for misuse of their language. This can be traced back to Antiquity.
In my opinion, whatever happens, happens. I do think that it'd be a shame to be reduced to one language though, because being bilingual offers a great many advantages. I was raised in English and forced to study in French till CEGEP. Today I can't thank my parents enough for having made that choice. |
| I'm feeling hung over right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» DrGonzo replied on Tue Apr 1, 2008 @ 6:50pm |
| Coolness: 266050 | I have nothing against typos or tiny mistakes that could easily be avoided if we took the time to proofread, but the way the English and French languages are being completely butchered by some people is SICKENING. I hate you all.  (that's only my inner grammar nazi talking).
Smell my finger. |
| I'm feeling skip divided 404 right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Wed Apr 2, 2008 @ 2:27am |
| Coolness: 150555 | Whatever happened to tolerance, eh? |
| I'm feeling cool right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» DrGonzo replied on Wed Apr 2, 2008 @ 9:22am |
| Coolness: 266050 | That IS tolerance:
I have nothing against typos or tiny mistakes that could easily be avoided if we took the time to proofread |
| I'm feeling brusselsprouts right now.. | |
La Langue Francaise
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