Quote:
Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007
^
I was thinking something along those lines as well.
There are cognitive benefits of being bi-lingual. At least in and around Montreal, a lot of people are bi-lingual, so I wonder if that's what's causing the effect.
My experience in Montreal a few weeks ago made me start wondering if French-English bilingualism should be expanded into Canada outside Quebec. Imagine if, say, someone traveling to Calgary finds out that a quarter of the population there speaks French, and a large % of the population is bilingual. In addition to the cognitive benefits, it would really make Canada even more distinct from the US. |
In and around Montreal a lot of people are
tri-lingual.
I always found this linguistic map of Montreal to be fascinating:
I expect the "Persian" areas of this map will see more rapid growth as Iran continues to be a basket case of misery and repression, or even if regime change does happen in the near future. Iranians seem to have no issues learning French and most would probably feel more at home in Montreal after living there for a few years and learning the language than dirty Anglos like myself would feel at home in Montreal in the same time period, since few of us would actually become fluent in French over that short period of time.
Most North American Anglophones are simply very lazy language learners, and this stupidly carries over to Canada from the US, despite Canada being an officially bilingual country. For the longest time one of my biggest gripes with the Quebec government was that they did not offer their free intensive French language classes to internal Canadian immigrants that graduated from high school in Canada (
claiming that we had our chance to learn French in high school) 🙄 However, you, Monsieur Bond, would have qualified for these free intensive French languages classes, as you did not graduate high school in Canada. Furthermore, all Francophone immigrants from all over the world qualified for these French classes, despite already being French speakers, because the Quebec government wanted
them to learn proper Québécois French, but did not want
us (Anglo Canadians) to come to Quebec and learn proper français québécois.
However, I guess this has all finally changed, and Anglophones from the rest of Canada finally qualify for the
Quebec government sponsored free intensive French learning program. I only know this as one of my best friends from high school and recent grad from Concordia (who's been living in Montreal for more than a decade now, has finally been allowed to enroll in these courses. Moreover, as far as I can tell, these courses are now available for all English speaking Canadians that have recently moved to Quebec and not just Quebec residents, which is great, because Quebec has the longest waiting period for residency in Canada for internal Canadian migrants (12-24 months if education is involved) I really hope this recent development isn't something that a new PQ government would touch, as I've always found it incredibly hypocritical that they claim to care about the preservation of their language and culture, but have historically been opposed to Anglo-Canadians arriving to Quebec taking these free, intensive Quebecois-French classes.
I always got after my friend to try and sneak into these classes since he's of latino heritage from Central America and would probably have an easier time sneaking into these classes than me pretending to be a British or American person
... but he's too honest. If it was me living there the past decade, I definitely would have tried to sneak in and pretend to be an American or something... for me, it's not about equalization payments going from the prairies to Quebec, it's just a matter of principle, and absurdity, if the Quebec government thinks its worthwhile to provide free French classes to Americans, and even people from France, then they sure as hell should provide those same classes to other Canadians that actually want to move to Quebec and learn the language. I definitely don't follow the day to day of Quebec politics very closely, and I know Francois Legault's CAQ are very much on the way out, but I still think this opening of the free intensive French classes to Anglo Canadians is an extremely positive development that deserved a lot more national media attention that it got. If it wasn't for one of my close friends living in Montreal and recently enrolling in the classes, I probably would have assumed these classes were still off limits for Canadians from the rest of Canada.
Shifting gears eastward, here's a look at much less dynamic linguistic map of Canada east of Quebec, including Canada's only officially bilingual province, New Brunswick/Nouveau-Brunswick)
Red - English speaking majority, less than 33% of French speaking
Blue - French speaking majority, less than 33% of English speaking
Orange - English speaking majority, more than 33% of French speaking
Green - French speaking majority, more than 33% of English speaking
Biege - allophone majority (natives)
Grey - no data available
New Brunswick has quite poor support for Anglophone Canadians that move to New Brunswick and want to French in Canada's only officially bilingual province. Moreover, on the front of the school system (which is, imo, one of the most important aspects of language learning for kids) New Brunswick has poor bilingual education. French immersion in New Brunswick only starts in grade 3, and very few high school graduates from the NB Anglophone French Immersion system actually attain or maintain fluency. Furthermore, many students in the French Immersion in NB quit before or shortly after entering high school. This isn't the case in many other provinces, as not only do French immersion programs start in kindergarten or earlier in most other Canadian provinces, they also retain more of their students through to grade 12.
I've always found it strange that Canada's only officially bilingual province has such a seemingly poor and underfunded French immersion school system, when many other provinces where French is far less prominent (like Saskatchewan) have comparably great French immersion school systems with more students that stick with the program through high school graduation. I've long been of the opinion that NB's English public school system (which includes the French immersion system) should be replaced by a mostly
bilingual school system, considering this is Canada's only bilingual province. However, when our previous premier proposed that very such idea, the highly influential Acadian group,
Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick along with many parents of current French Immersion students, were highly opposed to premier Higgs's proposal to replace the French Immersion system with a Bilingual system.
Higgs Scraps French Immersion Plan
What was really disappointing is that Premier Higgs folded like a cheap tent on this, and let his minister of Education take all the heat, when Higgs has long complained that Anglophones aren't given proper opportunities to learn French in New Brunswick, which is maybe the one thing I actually agree with him on. This proposal was one of Premier Higgs very few good ideas, and I'm still highly disappointed that he gave up on the idea so quickly. With the way language learning has evolved over the years, his plan to replace the Anglophone/French Immersion system with a Bilingual System would have had hugely positive impacts on the rates of bilingualism among Anglophone NB high school grads, and basically set up all Anglophone NB public school students with the basic foundation needed to pursue French fluency during and after their time in the school system.
I'm a bit biased on this issue, as my father was born in Saint John, NB, but raised in Montreal (where he attended a 50/50 bilingual school), but I'm pretty sure the stats would back up my stance if we were to compare the Montreal bilingual school system with the New Brunswick/Nouveau-Brunswick French Immersion system for Anglophones... Also to be clear (since I didn't mentioned this specifically yet) the French public school system is entirely separate from the English public school system (which includes French Immersion). The French public school system in NB is literally untouchable/ protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so no matter what happens to the completely separate public school system for Anglophones in NB, the French public school system in Nouveau-Brunswick will be unaffected by any changes to the Anglophone school system. I find it incredibly frustrating that Canada's only officially bilingual province has sub standard bilingual education compared to non officially bilingual provinces, and that NB provides very little support to Anglophones wanting to learn French. The
University of Moncton does at least offer
somewhat affordable French courses, but I think it's quite ridiculous that aged 65+ residents of New Brunswick qualify for tuition free French courses that those of use under the age of 65 (and very much still in the workforce) do not qualify for. Policies like this are revealing, as to me, the vibe I get from that is not "we want Seniors to learn French", but rather, "we don't want to make it too cheap, or too easy, for people under 65 to learn French".
One final, interesting tid-bit that I've discovered over the years of exploring the NB education system and options to learn French in New Brunswick, is that while the NB French school system does not allow the child of two Anglophones to enroll in the French system, they do allow children with at least one parent who's native language is not English to enroll. I assume many shrewd newcomer families have taken advantage of this policy distinction, so I wonder if the recent surge in international and internal migration has put some strains on the French School System in New Brunswick.
New Brunswick's bilingual status should be one of its greatest and most unique strengths as a Canadian province, yet, bilingualism remains a very controversial subject to this day in New Brunswick. Very few Anglophone and Francophone New Brunswickers seem interested in bringing about transformational solutions to raise levels of bilingualism across the province. Imo, raising levels of bilingualism is a very noble goal that all the people of New Brunswick/ Nouveau-Brunswick should unreservedly support. Yet, the reality is that most New Brunswickers either don't care about raising levels of bilingualism or don't want to see major change happen since they and their families benefit from the the current linguistic situation, since they are part of the 34% or so of the province that are bilingual in both English and French. Of that 34% of bilingual New Brunswickers, the overwhelming majority are Francophones, not Anglophones. Plus, official statistics don't even show a fully accurate linguistic picture either, at least not in terms of bilingualism in NB, since many bilingual or mostly bilingual Francophones in New Brunswick declare themselves to be unilingual Francophones on the census, for their own, personal reasons.
Personally, I think both Anglophones and Francophones NBers alike should be ashamed at the state of bilingualism in the province... it remains a boogeyman to many New Brunswickers, when it really should be seen as something positive. Anways, I've said about all I can on the subject... but I'll end the post with this link from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick | Commissariat aux langues officielles du Nouveau-Brunswick:
Let’s Set the Record Straight – Myths and Realities about Official Languages in New Brunswick
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