EPTI see many posters on TL who post in awful, awful, non-native English who are listed as coming from Canada. I often think 'must be a migrant student' to myself but is it because the Quebecois et al are basically entirely French?!
French Canadians?
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sc4k
United Kingdom5454 Posts
I see many posters on TL who post in awful, awful, non-native English who are listed as coming from Canada. I often think 'must be a migrant student' to myself but is it because the Quebecois et al are basically entirely French?! | ||
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Taurent
Canada401 Posts
In my opinion tho, our English classes are pretty crappy. Felt like I was taught the same thing year after year, and some people are still very bad at the end of high school. | ||
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
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PoP-sicle
Canada418 Posts
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jello_biafra
United Kingdom6641 Posts
On February 18 2010 10:50 PoP-sicle wrote: We are surrounded by english(ontario,usa,new brunswick), of course we learn it at school, im interest of how well you speak and write french tho. Not very well, not very well at all... Studied a little bit for a few years but stopped that like 8 years ago, the few times I've been to France though the little I do know has proved useful. | ||
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L
Canada4732 Posts
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sc4k
United Kingdom5454 Posts
So I guess the divide is somewhere similar to the Greeks and Turks living in Cyprus?! Or maybe not that bad? It just always seemed quite surprising I guess, because English is such an important language for movies and music, and what with the French Canadians living in a predominantly English-speaking continent, it's surprising it doesn't rub off. If I were being confrontational and stereotypical, I would put it down to Gallic stubbornness  .But I mean have you seen (heard) Georges St-Pierre, the UFC fighter speak? And then he wears a Canadian flag and I'm like Juh :S?! Though I guess he does have a Fleur de Lys on his calf. | ||
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Lexpar
1813 Posts
In fact, theres a huge movement to preserve French culture, stupid laws are put into place, like for instance, any sign or logo must have the French version of the logo at least twice as big as the English one or something close to that. Law 101 prevents children of French parents from attending English school, etc etc. They basically stupefy the entire province to preserve the language. | ||
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sc4k
United Kingdom5454 Posts
On February 18 2010 10:50 PoP-sicle wrote: We are surrounded by english(ontario,usa,new brunswick), of course we learn it at school, im interest of how well you speak and write french tho. Do you consider yourselves like, a separate country then? Because I don't really get many homeland vibes from Canadians lol; I mean do you learn history from a French perspective, you know, learning about Napoleon in detail, and the French revolution and such? And my standard of French is passable, about 90% of the country is dire... | ||
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synapse
China13814 Posts
(yes, they do - in high school I think..) | ||
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PoP-sicle
Canada418 Posts
On February 18 2010 11:05 sc4k wrote: Do you consider yourselves like, a separate country then? Because I don't really get many homeland vibes from Canadians lol; I mean do you learn history from a French perspective, you know, learning about Napoleon in detail, and the French revolution and such? And my standard of French is passable, about 90% of the country is dire... The history we learn isnt about europe , its mostly about america and is colonisation and I dont concider quebec as a different country, its part of canada ,I dont really know how you got that conclusion from my post . Lastly yeah the native language of GSP is french and his english skill is meh but I think you can understand him rather easily. | ||
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sc4k
United Kingdom5454 Posts
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CTStalker
Canada9720 Posts
On February 18 2010 10:50 PoP-sicle wrote: We are surrounded by english(ontario,usa,new brunswick), of course we learn it at school, im interest of how well you speak and write french tho. what? like half of NB is french | ||
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
Not very well, not very well at all... Studied a little bit for a few years but stopped that like 8 years ago, the few times I've been to France though the little I do know has proved useful. What I find amusing are the numbers in the UK row of the EU linguistic survey conducted a few years back. Read it for yourself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union#Language_skills_of_citizens | ||
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Skyze
Canada2324 Posts
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ShaLLoW[baY]
Canada12499 Posts
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
On February 18 2010 11:57 Skyze wrote: I live in NB and hell.. Its almost impossible to get a decent job in Moncton unless you are bilingual.. Its the lamest thing ever, and the reason im going back to Halifax asap. Why not take the opportunity to become bilingual? That's what any young European would do. | ||
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Thratur
Canada917 Posts
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Mastermind
Canada7096 Posts
On February 18 2010 11:56 MoltkeWarding wrote: According to Stephen Harper Quebec is a nation. And yes, Canadians in general do not learn European history in school. In school, I was taught Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, CPR and Metis revolt, War of 1812, Vimy Ridge and D-day, the 1972 hockey series against the USSR and a lot of miscellaneous nonsense. What I find amusing are the numbers in the UK row of the EU linguistic survey conducted a few years back. Read it for yourself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union#Language_skills_of_citizens What? I learned a fair bit of European history in school. I guess we do things differently here in BC. | ||
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Wr3k
Canada2533 Posts
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CTStalker
Canada9720 Posts
On February 18 2010 12:06 ShaLLoW[baY] wrote: Maybe it's just because I'm speaking from a military perspective, but 99% of the Quebecois I know speak near-perfect English. if you go somewhere outside montreal or quebec city that quickly becomes not the case | ||
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intrudor
Canada446 Posts
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sc4k
United Kingdom5454 Posts
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
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intrudor
Canada446 Posts
On February 18 2010 12:26 sc4k wrote: lol. Well thanks for the info anyway, I'm interested in Canada, always thought I might live there one day. Watch out if you wanna come here. Prerequisite number 1 for a visa is to be an amazing hockey player. You gotta be really skilled, fast, and solid in the corners. The simple fact of having a fancy British accent makes this very unlikely but you can still apply. We do have positions opens for professional darts players this year, so that'll increase your chances. | ||
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cuteFayth
Canada1167 Posts
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cuteFayth
Canada1167 Posts
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sc4k
United Kingdom5454 Posts
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SwEEt[TearS]
Canada1575 Posts
to give you an idea, I'm completing my last English class till university (in college atm). it's called "advanced business English" and we still have grammar lessons on modals and shit and people take notes, ask questions and genuinely don't understand it's just sad btw, just to point it out: french canadians who post on TL.net probably learned from the internetz, so it's partially your fault. <3 at least I know it was the case for me, I wasn't very good before starting games and really learned with WoW. The thing is the way the education is set up, failure is an option and teachers often close their eyes because it's generally a lost cause. For one thing, hardly anybody can really develop their oral skills because they'd actually have to go out of their suburbs to go to Montreal and find decent English speakers. and rule out their parents, they're probably as bad unless they've had to work in an international business (where they were forced to learn a minimum, but that doesn't magically make them bilingual). So basically we're telling kids "english is only useful during the 2-3 hours/week you have in class. maybe watch tv in english? oh wait it's much easier to just watch it in french." | ||
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jjun212
Canada2208 Posts
But generally, I felt like I never left Ontario, which kinda sucked because Quebecois can spot tourists from a mile away. Anyway. I think Quebec residents are better in English than a lot of people are giving them credit so far in this thread. | ||
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ShaLLoW[baY]
Canada12499 Posts
On February 18 2010 12:23 CTStalker wrote: if you go somewhere outside montreal or quebec city that quickly becomes not the case Fair enough, most of the people I know are from those areas. I also suppose that the majority of the Quebecois who join the military are going to have some grasp of the English language. | ||
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On February 18 2010 12:19 Mastermind wrote: What? I learned a fair bit of European history in school. I guess we do things differently here in BC. That is not true; at least there are some history taught on the World Wars. | ||
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SwEEt[TearS]
Canada1575 Posts
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
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FreeDoM[YA]
Canada855 Posts
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writer22816
United States5775 Posts
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Tien
Russian Federation4447 Posts
My written French is 10x more atrocious than my spoken french. | ||
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L
Canada4732 Posts
On February 18 2010 12:26 MoltkeWarding wrote: I assure you that the Francophone population outnumbers the Cantonese-speaking population in Canada. The Quebecois are treated specially because they are original Canadians, unlike ourselves. Furthermore, French does not suffer from language attrition in Canada, whereas oriental languages do. First nations might want to have a word with you. | ||
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Khos
52 Posts
On February 18 2010 12:19 Wr3k wrote: The only thing I am going to say about this, is that it drives me nuts listening to french announcements for stuff like the olympics, and having laws that require French signage. There are more people in Canada who speak Cantonese, yet the Quebecois have to be recognized and treated specially... While I agree with your complaint, the reason french is spoken at the Olympics is because it is one of the three official languages (The second being english, and the third is the native language of the hosting country), NOT because of the Quebecois. | ||
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
First nations might want to have a word with you. As long as they don't call themselves First Canadians, there's no need to argue. 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. | ||
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Imagist
Australia484 Posts
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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L
Canada4732 Posts
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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Imagist
Australia484 Posts
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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cuteFayth
Canada1167 Posts
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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intrudor
Canada446 Posts
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[NyC]HoBbes
United States803 Posts
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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Khos
52 Posts
On February 18 2010 13:29 MoltkeWarding wrote: As long as they don't call themselves First Canadians, there's no need to argue. 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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