🚀 go-pugleaf

Elie Charest <turgon@mlink.net> wrote:


>Well, all I can say is this. I lived for two years in Toronto, the
>metropolis of this supposedly bilingual country. I never spoke french,
>and I would not have lived in French if I had wanted to. Paradoxically,
>I lived for a year as an anglophone in Montreal (lived with anglophones,
>studied in english, worked in a Westmount boutique). I never had a
>problem, only when I called back home in Quebec (my vocabulary
>seemed...distant).

>What we have here are two visions: one in the realm of the "official"
>word, where Anglophones cannot put signs in English only and Francos
>outside of Quebec can supposedly live in French. The other is the actual
>real world, where it's a LOT easier to live in english in Montreal than
>it is to live in French in the greater part of Anglophone Canada. This,
>of course, from personal experience - though I know of other who've
>shared similar experience.

I shall pick up the gauntlet. You have done a fine job of comparing
apples to oranges. The Anglophone/Allophone minority in Quebec is HUGE
comepared to the Francophone minority here in Manitoba which has the
largest Francophone population in NA outside of Quebec. I am sure you
are aware that most of the non-Francophone population in Quebec lives
in Montreal so it should be no surprise that English is such a common
language in that area. I am of Ukranian descent. The Ukranian
population in Manitoba is larger than the French population yet it is
easier to get French services. I guess my culture isn't as good as
yours. There are also several German communities near Winnipeg. It is
difficult to do business in those towns without speaking German. I
have yet to hear them lament the lack of Geman language services.
--

*Opus*    
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