Multilingual Reality

~ Clarissa

I have to keep reminding myself that language means something different to most other people. I have moved between several languages easily my entire life, so I can’t comprehend the reality of the people who only have one language. They are terrified of other languages because they genuinely can’t imagine not feeling like crap in a different linguistic environment.

Quebec is having yet another language freakout, and I’m trying to be understanding. They have excellent coffee, so I’m willing to cut a lot of slack.

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Published by Clarissa

16 thoughts on “Multilingual Reality”

  1. I do not think it is a freakout, I think it is a quite cynical move aimed at nation-building, Quebec style.
    It is actually very smart – a) undermines the anglophone parallel institutions, b) redistributes money to institutions serving CAQ base (although it is not clear if there will be much to redistribute) and c) severs some ties with the rest of Canada without formally separating or even talking about the referendum.
    And what upsets me – while outside Anglos, especially conservative ones, are calling it out for what it is, the local ones are responding with pleas and promising to expose the students of the Anglophone universities to more French… The Eastern-European in me finds this degree of conflict-avoidance really disturbing…
    v07

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  2. And what is the latest language freakout from Québec? (Apart from the atrocious kind of French spoken over there, which is pure torture to the ears of anyone raised on Paris French).

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    1. Increasing tuition for out-of-province students by a factor of about 2 (so it becomes higher than anywhere in Canada, except for some elite programs in law and medicine, so outside students will come here only if they are very determined and wealthy enough) AND redistributing the money to the Francophone universities. Justification – saving money and defending French language. 2/3 of the nation-building bingo, they forgot “restoring historic justice”…

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      1. There are also efforts to squeeze English speaking students from CEGEPs.

        And by the way, this is not how you build a nation. This is how you make sure you never have a nation. People do this kind of thing after they have completely given up on ever having a nation.

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          1. This war on English they are waging isn’t against native speakers of English. These are the immigrants who have no interest in French. Instead of trying to extort these many, many uninterested immigrants into using French, what might be an alternative solution?

            Hmm…..

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            1. “what might be an alternative solution?”

              Embracing English (the language of neoliberal rootlessness) would just hasten the integration of Quebec into the rest of Canada until it’s no more distinct than Alerta or Manitoba (I know both exist but can’t think of an interesting thing about either). And it wouldn’t help Canadian nation building (a far from finished process) either….

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              1. “Alberta or Manitoba (I know both exist but can’t think of an interesting thing about either)”

                I lied… I can think of one interesting thing about Alberta, it hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics, the last winter olympics in which the Soviet Union took part.

                So trade it out for One of those other huge boring vertical strips….

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              2. The solution is, in my view, to help integration through French language courses, with government funds. If immigrants are not interested in learning French, and they are completely in their right no to be, then there is a sea of Englishness in Canada.

                I think that Cliff is right. Without strong linguistic policies, French would just be another color in post-national, neo-liberal Canada.

                Ol.

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        2. The latest freakout being the recent bill to raise tuition for international and ROC students, or the desire to limit access to francophone to CEGEPs? Os is there another linguistic freakout of which I am unaware? Perhaps the latest complete absence of the French language during the Grey Cup finals? There are sooooo many linguistic breakouts there. I lost track of them.

          Regarding the CEGEP situation, I thought that the plan was to keep Anglophone CEGEPs for “anglophones” and requiring the rest of the population to go to Francophone CEGEPs, thus limiting the growth of the former. Am I wrong?

          Regarding the university situation. It is indeed infuriating at least for Canadian students. And this is even infuriating if we are to follow (theoretically) the desire to promote French as the reason to implement such policies, because Francophone students outside of Canada will pay the same tuition to non-Francophone students.

          Post-secondary anglophone institutions definitively should have put some more efforts to promote French, to the point to make a French minor mandatory. I think that would look extremely appealing internationally, perhaps too much so in fact. An institution like McGill has the money to do that. More complicated for Bishop or Concordia. But that is my very personal thought.

          Oh, and the CAQ is a complete disaster. Managing to make such a wealth province that miserable on every level is quite an achievement.

          Ol.

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        3. I am not as optimistic as you.
          As long as the majority (so they can claim it is a democracy) has enough power and enough sticks, they can force the minority into doing almost anything. Especially if the minority is reasonably civilized (not prone to violence) and reasonably wealthy (has something to lose). Past some point the reasonableness or “goodness” of the majority’s value system does not matter any more. At this point it becomes a selection process – those who disagree just leave, and the percentage of those sharing majority values is increased, and those values get further normalized. Come on, there are enough nations in the world that are united around nation-building constructs that from the outside look ridiculous. We just have some intellectual barrier (aka prejudice) against accepting that such things can happen in Western societies.

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          1. Yeah, I don’t know. The wokes are the tiniest of minorities, yet they have us all terrorized. And they have no real sticks at their disposal. I don’t see this “power of the majority” thing. The majority seems really impotent right now. And it’s precisely its value system that leads it to take endless beatings. We are sitting quietly in meetings while some angry “non-binary” fellow insults us in every possible way because we don’t want to hurt his feelings. I don’t think we even have a national idea any more beyond not hurting anybody’s feelings.

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    2. “atrocious kind of French spoken over there, which is pure torture to the ears of anyone raised on Paris French”

      I actually prefer it to France French…. and remembering several European French speakers over the years saying how awful it sounds to them just makes me like it more.
      And listening to a non-trivial number of English speaking Canadians ridicule Quebeckers for their English makes me like Quebec French more…
      And they’re the only non-English speakers that make decent country music so that’s on their side too.

      Just for you (you are so welcome!)

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