Dont get me wrong, I am not a fan of the french seperatism movment. French Canadains piss everyone off ;)

The statement above I thought was funny though. As a someone who is white, Canadian born, and I am a very proud Canadian, it pisses me off to see things like bank machines and signage in Chinese, Japanese, or whatever. Listening to phone recordings in Mandarin makes me want to stop doing business with the company I just called. I realize those companies are just catering to there customers and looking to grow the customer base, but it still pisses me off.

We are in Canada, learn French or English, those are our official languages, I dont care which you learn. Funny enough, I dont even speak French. Am I racist? Probably...........

(side note, we are not a state)

french immersion ruined my life :(

Thanks MOM and DAD :(

How so? I've thought about putting my kid in it, my niece is starting next year as well. It's funny because I'm like 89blkcivic, I hate everything to do with the French but I do realize speaking it in Canada can only help you especially later in life with a career. I myself was kicked out of french in grade 7 for telling the teacher to get fucked and then my dad signed off so i didn't have to take it after that to graduate.

Having lived in Montreal, I can understand your frustrations. I had to learn the language when I lived there mainly becuase one can't get by without the ability to communicate. It didn't help that I live in East Island, a predominantly french area.

While there, I was managing a plastic manufacturing plant. One day I had a visit from the language police. Apparently someone in the company had called me in as an anglophone manager, which is illegal in Quebec. I had to take a french language test to prove I could communicate in french.

The worst though was when I sold my car. We had to go to the motor vehicle branch, which is a provincial office. In the province of Quebec, they don't have to offer services in English, and many take that as an opportunity to promote their own anti-anglo ideologies. Ever try to transfer a car in french with a pig-whore making comments behind the desk?



taylor makes a good point that the french culture would be gone if they didn't fight so hard for it. But as someone who has lived there, and been to France numerous times, I wouldn't miss the french culture one bit.

wasn't really complaining about the keyboard being fucked up as much as the fact some Americans think we are all French and live in igloos and use dogleds as a form of transportation.

Especially on the east coast, or in Ontario.
French is a bigger asset to government jobs than a degree.

That said, if I had a kid right now I would be encouraging learning many languages: English, French, Mandarin, Spanish to start, maybe Japanese, German and Russian too.

Language will be a good way to differentiate yourself from other job candidates, especially in fields that sell globally (French/Spanish is spoken in many places) or doing business in China.

My family may not be white, but we have been in Canada for four generations and I am just as proud, if not more, to be Canadian than any white person in Canada.

Like you, it pisses me off that signage is in Chinese and Punjabi. If it is a store like Fujiya or T&T or a Punjabi fabric shop, it's OK. I don't, however, approve of places like Staples, a nation-wide chain store, putting up signage in some foreign language. In fact, I would rather see French on there along side English than Chinese.

If someone puts up signage or has recorded messages in any other language, then they should put up every other language on this planet. If a public school teaches Christianity, for whatever reason, then they should teach all other religions. Private schools, private businesses, not a problem.

(on a side note, we are a state - general term)

How do they get away with this? I thought law in Canada was that French and English are considered equal.

Making it mandatory that French be 1st & Larger on signs, mandating french language requirements of employees and offering government services ONLY in french is contradictory to that law, no?

they're not french ok they're Québécois

ps. J'aime la bon bon

Big deal. We live in a multicultural place. If your livelihood depends on the sales generated from a multicultured population, you're gonna be wanting to put the major languages on your marketing scheme whether they are the official ones or not. It's not like they are substituting your beloved English/French with Punjabi and Chinese. The extra languages are right under the official ones and only helps business. What sort of nation-wide store is stupid enough to ignore a large chunk of potential sales... Though it may piss people off, you can't deny its importance.

Lots of kids hate it when their parents put them in French Immersion. My daughter, on the other hand, begged me to put her in French Immersion. Why? Because it's an excuse by some to have a private school in a public school setting.

My daughter has an IQ in the top 2% of the population. She loves learning, but hated going to school, because learning was impeded by the idiots in the class taking up so much of the teacher's time. It's a fact of life that Public education has to take everybody, including the real dumb ones and the dangerous, violent ones, and the ones who don't want to be there. We couldn't afford private schooling, so French Immersion it was. I lined up a day and a half before registration in sub zero temperatures in the middle of winter to get her into a class for the following year. I was 19th in line for 30 open spots. By the time registration opened in the morning, the line up was 125+ long. BTW, this was for a Late French Immersion class (starting grade 6). Not early immersion (Kindergarten up) or Programme Cadre (kids of French speaking parents). There was an unwritten rule that the child being considered for Late French Immersion must be above average. Sort of like University. My daughter told me most of the students she knew who's parents were in the line up were straight A students. This was quite a long time ago. I hear it is a bit different now. The programme is watered down now - accepting just about anyone. This was in Langley. It may be different in other parts of the province. By the time Late French Immersion kids get into secondary school, their abilities with the French language is as good as those who have been in Early French since Kindergarten.

I honestly don't think it was the French language that made those classes perform so well (Fraser Report). It could have been Martian, as long as it kept the rest of the lower achieving kids out. Elitist? You bet.

That's why it's not fair. Then again, to be fair, we don't have French on our signs at all.

And that's all it does.......... piss people like me off. The world continues to spin.

The other reason why it pisses people off was mentioned in a previous post. People who come over here from another country should make an effort to acclimatize themselves to our culture and language(s). Putting up signs and info in their mother tongue doesn't make it easier for them to learn the new language.


Anyway...........

Did you say that in French?

If you did, that teacher should have at least passed you, LOL.

I got through French 8 with a conditional pass. If I promised never to take French again. Back then, you needed French in order to get into university. I later discovered that any recognized language could be used, so I went with that.

In all honesty, learning French is cool if you want a government job here in Canada, but speaking Mandarin and other languages is more useful. Especially in today's world.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Quebec's language laws are compliant with Canadian law because legislation is printed in English and French and the use of English is permitted in Quebec courts.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_101

Do you know what pisses me off... if you call a company like shaw they offer the recording in 2 languages.

1. English
2. Mandarin

WIN x 2

This country has two official languages, and none of us should be upset at seeing either one of them on any signage or communications we receive.

As for the multitude of other languages that are represented in various shops around Vancouver etc., it doesn't bother me so long as I can still see the english/ french info as well. I've been to non-english speaking countries, and there are often english signs around. Especially in regards to travel directions, and in touristy areas. It's as much a benefit to the locals as it is to the tourists.

89blkcivic, I should think your frustrations should be directed at Honda Canada for not doing the proper research into where their spam mail is sent.

Hoooly fuck, don't even get me started on these god damn French keyboards on laptops now. The left shift button is the size of a regular key and you can never fuckin' press it right! Why the fuck do we need TWO \ keys?

Get these fucking hieroglyphs off my keyboard!

What is this, Nazi Germany? It's like turning a Jew over to the Gestapo!

Yep. Did that right away.

Could it be the service manager at the dealership did that as a joke? I know her, although not that well. I think she knows I'm not fond of the French language. Pretty funny........

For all those wondering why I said what I did, it's because having to suddenly learn most subjects in french is really taxing (especially because I was in late french immersion [grade 6 as opposed to starting in kindergarten], so we had to cram a few years worth of french into a year or two ), and having to switch back to sciences in english (chem, bio. physics 11) was somewhat difficult for me. I do admit though, I am lacking in the language department, but french was one of my highest grades after provincials. However, I don't know if it's coincidental but my cantonese has deteriorated greatly compared to back in grade 5.

Ever since taking late french immersion, I've only had to use french twice, once in Montreal when I first started, and oddly once in Hong Kong half a year ago :lol

On a positive note, for those parents who are eager to enroll the children into french immersion, please do them a favour and enroll them into early french immersion.

I'm guessing the minimum wage humpty they hire to stuff envelopes ran out of english, and stuffed yours with one in french.

As an aside, would anyone like to by a WW2 era French rifle? Only dropped once, never fired. ;)

:haha::haha::haha::haha::haha:


The French are lovers, not fighters..........

Not when we're talking the province of Quebec. Federal language rights ensure that you can receive service in both English, and french. Whereas in a provincial office, they only need to offer french, as it's the only recognized language of the provincial gov't.

See below for more info.

exactly.
It's permitted, where I could speak english, but they did not have to answer me in english.

Here's the most important point in your link.
sad.
:(

Although I wasn't placed in an internment camp, it wasn't a fun test to take.

:lol: