...you will get farther [in Quebec] if you speak French because you can communicate with more people....
I was going to stay out of this one until I read that line. By western Canadian standards I am fluently bilingual. I've done media interviews in French, both in France and with French Canadian media. I have worked in the French language in Ottawa. For all that, on a driving holiday between Ottawa and Quebec City not a soul, aucun gen pur laine, understood a word I said. I stopped for gas in a town called Epiphanie, east of Montreal, and ended up acting out "check the oil." In Montreal, sure, they'll understand "proper" French. Of course, being adept business people, by the time the first word has completely departed your mouth they will have switched to English (which made French immersion courses in Montreal challenging, to say the least).
It's true that in the federal civil service if you can demonstrate skills in the language you can get your promotion. Within Quebec, however, while they might pay lip service to fluency in French, the fact is it's a tribal thing, not linguistic. They don't want to hire anglos, no matter how well they might happen to speak French.
I'm all for learning other languages. It's an incredibly valuable learning experience. I happen to love the French language, but it's only realistic to point out that Mandarin or Cantonese are going to be more practical things to know in the future.
Learn French if you want. Middle class Quebecois will be pleased when you meet them. But lets not get all starry-eyed about what it will do for national unity -- the core PQ vote doesn't give a flying, er, fig. |
