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2005-04-01 Great White North
French speakers must get French education
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Posted by Steve 2005-04-01 9:19:39 AM|| || Front Page|| [11135 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Pigeons coming home to roost. The Quebecois were so adamant about making French the official provincial language, now they're stuck with it even if it cuts their kids off from better paying jobs and entry into the best colleges.
Posted by anon 2005-04-01 9:45:20 AM||   2005-04-01 9:45:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 
Gee, and here I thought Canada was a free country
Good one, Steve! Silly you.

Maybe the best option for all concerned is for all English speakers to move out of Frogistan-lite. And for all Quebec schools to teach ONLY Phrench.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut  2005-04-01 9:50:04 AM||   2005-04-01 9:50:04 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 The issue here is Quebecois getting swamped by immigrants who choose to educate their children in English. The equivalent is immigrants to the USA who refuse to learn English.
Posted by phil_b 2005-04-01 9:51:25 AM||   2005-04-01 9:51:25 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Didn't California have a law (might still have it... I dont know) where immigrants (and illegal aliens) from Mexico and Centra/South America had to be taught only in spanish for the first 5 years or so? Or perhaps it was a proposed law...

It was a windfall for the Teachers union (had to hire lots of spansh speaking teachers).

I remember thinking that it would be a real pisser if you were from Brazil (language: Portugese).
Posted by CrazyFool 2005-04-01 10:04:22 AM||   2005-04-01 10:04:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 CF - It actually cut the bi-lingual ghettos these kids were sent into. They were pushed into English-immersion programs (like all previous LEGAL immigrant generations) and are doing much better in school - the Aztlan, Raza, bi-lingual and open-borders wingnuts hate it
Posted by Frank G  2005-04-01 10:09:16 AM||   2005-04-01 10:09:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Crazy, it actually does help to teach very young chuldre (the first 5 years) in their native language. If they don't become literate in their native language first, usually only spoken at home, studies show they will not become literate in English. As silly as it sounds I have seen it in action and I believe it to be true.
Posted by Deacon Blues  2005-04-01 5:13:01 PM||   2005-04-01 5:13:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Maybe Deacon but kidz under five can learn in just about any language. The so called age of linguistic genius.
Posted by Shipman 2005-04-01 5:29:02 PM||   2005-04-01 5:29:02 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 It's true children under 5 have a propensity to learn languages but learning a language is not the same as being literate in that language. You could spend enough time in Spain to learn Spanish but that doesn't mean you could read and write it.
Posted by Deacon Blues  2005-04-01 7:28:30 PM||   2005-04-01 7:28:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 This is great. Now the Anglo Canadians can be blamed by the Quebecois for keeping them down by making them learn frog. Those clever Anglos. Bwahahahaha.

Barb, Quebec is too much of a frog colony now. The best thing to do is probably keep pushing them in that direction so they'll realize what a mistake it is and assimilate voluntarily.
Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-04-01 7:59:32 PM||   2005-04-01 7:59:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Three years ago, I drove up to Quebec Province to a little town named Victoriaville with a friend who was competing in a pentathlon. Quebec was eerie...fewer people spoke English there than in Paris! When we arrived, we struggled to make our way around the event and communicate thru pidgin Franglais and sign language. Suddenly a pair of teachers at the only English school in town made their way thru the crowd and introduced themselves...they were delighted to have some Merkins to practice their English with. It turns out Kent was the first American ever to participate in this event. We were treated like rock stars...(except the quebeqois athletes who used French seulement to plot their strategy against Kent.) I remember my Quebec visit fondly. And they did not hate English, either.
Posted by Seafarious  2005-04-01 9:02:42 PM||   2005-04-01 9:02:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 phil_b has got it right. The backstory here is that immigrants to Quebec (and they are many) have little inclination to become native French speakers. The schooling law is about forced assimilation for recent arrivals and not about keeping the natives on the reservation. Quebecois culture is bomb proof. It's four hundred years old and is in zero danger of going away.

The truth is, you co-exist with the Quebecois, often very happily, but you are rarely assimilated. It is a remarkably insular culture that is a throwback to 17th century France.
Posted by Classical_Liberal 2005-04-01 10:17:22 PM||   2005-04-01 10:17:22 PM|| Front Page Top

23:37 Captain America
23:28 Alaska Paul
23:21 Alaska Paul
23:21 Barbara Skolaut
23:19 Alaska Paul
23:14 Alaska Paul
23:08 Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood
22:57 Bomb-a-rama
22:48 Brian H
22:18 ex-lib
22:17 Classical_Liberal
22:16 OldeForce
22:11 James
21:53 3dc
21:39 JosephMendiola
21:33 3dc
21:27 3dc
21:12 Atomic Conspiracy
21:06 JosephMendiola
21:02 Seafarious
20:07 Frank G
20:06 Frank G
20:02 Alaska Paul
20:01 Frank G









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