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I'm an Anglophone from Quebec, for what that's worth.
What used to happen until quite recently (and while I was in school in Quebec) was that Anglophone Quebecers would learn French from grade 1 and French Quebecois would learn English from grade 4 (sometimes, even later). Because language acquisition is easier the younger you are, there are consequences to this policy.
The opinions of a few language-zealots aside, anglophones roughly my age are really well-versed in French and don't often mangle the language - though we have noticeable accents and it does happen occasionally. Francophones roughly my age who started learning English later tend to have REALLY strong accents and to botch up English phrasing/grammar a lot more often, especially when writing.
As a policy to trump up the level and amount of French spoken in Quebec, it has worked a treat.
As a means to give French Quebecers additional/equal job/economic opportunties, I think it's backfired horribly because many native English speakers acquire professional-level French proficiency in school and the converse is not true for many native French speakers.
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On February 18 2010 13:47 Imagist wrote:
I'm an Anglophone from Quebec, for what that's worth.
What used to happen until quite recently (and while I was in school in Quebec) was that Anglophone Quebecers would learn French from grade 1 and French Quebecois would learn English from grade 4 (sometimes, even later). Because language acquisition is easier the younger you are, there are consequences to this policy.
The opinions of a few language-zealots aside, anglophones roughly my age are really well-versed in French and don't often mangle the language - though we have noticeable accents and it does happen occasionally. Francophones roughly my age who started learning English later tend to have REALLY strong accents and to botch up English phrasing/grammar a lot more often, especially when writing.
As a policy to trump up the level and amount of French spoken in Quebec, it has worked a treat.
As a means to give French Quebecers additional/equal job/economic opportunties, I think it's backfired horribly because many native English speakers acquire professional-level French proficiency in school and the converse is not true for many native French speakers.
This is countered by the fact that francophone wages in the province have surpassed anglophone wages for equivalent jobs.
That statistic, however, is in turn countered by the fact that the best and brightest anglophones simply move to new york or toronto because wages there are 50-100% higher in most professional circles.
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With significant cost-of-living increases, however.
Though for some people, it's worth the extra costs just to be out of Quebec. Its economic outlook isn't fantastic these days.
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On February 18 2010 13:05 Tien wrote:
You have to take into consideration their spoken english is a lot better than their written english.
My written French is 10x more atrocious than my spoken french.
it's usually more like the opposite, most people here have terrible spoken english, but fine written english, at least from what I've witnessed 
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its far easier to write any second language with proper grammar than it is to speak it with proper accent, flow, and syntax.
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On February 18 2010 15:51 intrudor wrote:
its far easier to write any second language with proper grammar than it is to speak it with proper accent, flow, and syntax.
In my own experience (5th year Chinese student, speak English and Spanish at home) this is 100% true. It's also easier often to read a language you are learning than to understand it spoken, although that could be less true in terms of French, the Chinese speak OMGWTFfast
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On February 18 2010 13:29 MoltkeWarding wrote:As long as they don't call themselves First Canadians, there's no need to argue. Show nested quote +While I agree with your complaint, the reason french is spoken at the Olympics is because it is one of the three official languages Why do you agree with his complaint then? Do you think that the world should adopt English as its official language? Further details on language use in the IOC: 1. The official languages of the IOC are French and English. 2. At all Sessions, simultaneous interpretation must be provided into French, English, German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. 3. In the case of divergence between the French and English texts of the Olympic Charter and any other IOC document, the French text shall prevail unless expressly provided otherwise in writing.
No, since the topic of this/his post relates to Quebecois I was simply agreeing with what I assumed to be his complaint regarding the strict language laws in Quebec. I was not implying english should be adopted as the world's official language, I really can't see how you interpreted it that way.
Edit; Your details are in regards to the charter and rules themselves, not broadcaster announcements and the like, which fall under English, French and the native language of the host country.
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EPT
