Bilingual Signage, etc..............

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Last time I was in Canada (BC) not everything was bilingual, as I recall, but a lot was. Again, it wasn't street signs and traffic signs, just things like "Hommes" and "Entre/Sortie" signs. If I remember correctly, in Quebec the final result was bilingual signage with French before/above English.

The thing I remember most about Quebecois was their habit of pretending not to understand when you address them in English. On the other hand, they were much more tolerant of attempts to address them in mangled French than are the French themselves. There's a reason why "chauvinism" is a French word.

John

I note that the hotel concierge in Paris asked me to speak English, he did not like my French. Felt much better when a French Canadian friend had exactly the same experiment. The older ladies with their kiosks on the Left Bank told me that my accent was very good. The younger Parisiens are pretty much all like that, they get up mad and it is downhill from there. The last thing you would want to do is rent a car in Paris, the drivers are totally insane.

After I moved to Ottawa anytime I found myself back in Montreal I always spoke english in the shops and restaurants, you want my money you speak my language. One night the people I was assisting and I went out for a late dinner. The two girls - not realizing that I spoke French - started giggling and made some rather uncomplimentary remarks about the two Frenchmen at a nearby table. Turned out that they were from France and I gather that the Quebecois do not think highly of them.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by merrylander

After I moved to Ottawa anytime I found myself back in Montreal I always spoke english in the shops and restaurants, you want my money you speak my language. One night the people I was assisting and I went out for a late dinner. The two girls - not realizing that I spoke French - started giggling and made some rather uncomplimentary remarks about the two Frenchmen at a nearby table. Turned out that they were from France and I gather that the Quebecois do not think highly of them.

After I wrote what I did I began to recall that the feigned ignorance of English was pretty much restricted to areas away from Montreal and Quebec City. Trois Rivieres stands out in my memory as being particularly bad. In the big cities with large Anglophone populations and lots of foreign visitors probably can't afford the luxury of thumbing their noses at non-Francophones.

I believe that the French don't consider Quebecois to be in the least bit French and regard their speech as an abomination. That's not likely to put them in high regard in Quebec.

John

[Boreas]

Hmmmm......

Either my memory is faulty or things have changed. I'm going with things have changed.



Damn! Can't read the sign! Anyway, it's all in French.

John

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Boreas

After I wrote what I did I began to recall that the feigned ignorance of English was pretty much restricted to areas away from Montreal and Quebec City. Trois Rivieres stands out in my memory as being particularly bad. In the big cities with large Anglophone populations and lots of foreign visitors probably can't afford the luxury of thumbing their noses at non-Francophones.

I believe that the French don't consider Quebecois to be in the least bit French and regard their speech as an abomination. That's not likely to put them in high regard in Quebec.

John

What is forgotten is that the bulk of the French initially in Quebec came from Brittany where they spoke Langue D'Oc a different language than modern day French. The Parisian French call Quebec French Joual (they claim that is how the Quebecois pronounce Cheval.

Since our family inter-married with Quebecoise we got along just fine with all but the devoted seperatists.

[Zeke]

Perhaps it is my physical appearance but, when I studied Spanish in Guadalajara (MX), I got credit just for trying to speak Spanish...

And, yes, I might retire there as my Spanish is good enough that I could AND living costs are inexpensive. I can't recall the name of the American retirement community that I visited, it's been twelve years...

[merrylander]

We contemplated packing up and moving to Majorca at one time, Florence speaks Spanish and since they are sort of similar my French background should let me learn fairly quickly. I recall getting a cab driver in Madrid to get me from my hotel to the main post office with no problems, nor did I have any trouble getting a cold beer in the Plaza Major.

[piece-itpete]

Kinda related, the Feds are requiring Cleveland to use biligual ballots under threat of pulled funding of some sort or another.

It'll cost them half a mill to print.....

Overall I say, simply require all signage to be in English, defined by X dictionary.

Pete

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Kinda related, the Feds are requiring Cleveland to use biligual ballots under threat of pulled funding of some sort or another.

It'll cost them half a mill to print.....

Overall I say, simply require all signage to be in English, defined by X dictionary.

Pete

Personally I support a national language. Until we have one however how can we not print ballots in different languages and be fair to our citizens?

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Kinda related, the Feds are requiring Cleveland to use biligual ballots under threat of pulled funding of some sort or another.

It'll cost them half a mill to print.....

Overall I say, simply require all signage to be in English, defined by X dictionary.

Pete

A half a million to print or a half a million more than it would to print them in English only? Man, ink sure is expensive in Cleveland!

Oh, and is this part of HAVA? You know, Bush's bill?

John

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Kinda related, the Feds are requiring Cleveland to use biligual ballots under threat of pulled funding of some sort or another.

It'll cost them half a mill to print.....

Overall I say, simply require all signage to be in English, defined by X dictionary.

Pete

Odd, to become a citizen you must speak English and as far as I know, only citizens get to vote.

Yes we are a country of laws and many of them are downright stupid.