Quoted from machine.slave

Ditto!  I'm actually pretty envious of people who can speak more than one language.. it's a great skill to have, IMO.

Nice spin on this.  You are right, believe it or not two languages now a day is almost a minimum, if you speak three then perfect.  I raised my kids in both French and English and although my household is predominantly Franco my two sons speak to each other in English......why because they are gamers i.e World of Warcraft.  Thus they shop talk all the time about that virtual world.

However, they could not care less whether you are an Anglo or a Franco. Why? Because I raised them that way.  English is a very useful tool around the world but not everywhere and there were places that I got by with the French only.

The planet is getting smaller so you should get going on "mandarin" if you want to get a head start.

Salut (translation: salut)

[quote=371]



Like it or not Phil, English is the dominant language on this corner of the globe.. I'm sure the Spanish, Chinese and Hindu speaking cultures are perfectly okay with it.

C'est vrai que la langue anglaise est"dominante" dans ce coin de planete mais aussi dans le site de Maaca,je considere avoir le droit de m'exprimer a ma guise dans une langue qui est reconnu dans mon propre pays et ce surtout sans avoir a subir les sarcasme de gens qui se disent incompris parcequ'il ne sont pas foutu d'avoir au moins une toute petite ouverture d'esprit pour comprendre qu'il peut y avoir une difference de culture et de langue dans ce plus beau pays,L'inconnu crée la peur chez les peureux,aussi dernierement sur le site des n'importe quoi a propos des différence de "culture"ont été écrit sur ce site,moi j'pense que derriere un clavier certaine personne se sentent brave et écrivent certaine choses qui parfois dépassent leurs pensées,ça ne peut que dégénéré
Quand je lis "english is the dominant language",ça sous-entend pas que je vais me faire dominer et aboutir a m'obliger a parler anglais contre mon grés.Dominer c'est ça
En passant le peu d'anglais que je parle,je l'ai appris avec Maaca et je suis bien content

Quoted from machine.slave

Blame our Government for not forcing us to learn French if you like.

I don't like to be like you so I won't do it.

Quoted Text

Outside your province though, it's rarely spoken - if at all.  The other languages I mentioned are far more dominant, especially in the GTA.

That's not true. Lots of them everywhere. Perhaps you should travel a bit.

    * Franco-Ontarians (or Ontarois)
    * Acadians (in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island; also present in portions of Quebec and Newfoundland)
    * Franco-Manitobans
    * Fransaskois (in Saskatchewan)
    * Franco-Albertans
    * Franco-Columbians
    * Franco-Terreneuviens
    * Franco-Ténois (in the Northwest Territories)
    * Franco-Yukon(n)ais (in the Yukon)
    * Franco-Nunavois (in Nunavut)


The fact that you think everyone else talks english brings you that much closer to beeing an american...

Je suis fier d'être Québécois et différent.

Bonsoir.

Hey all I know is when you play pool they tell you to put English on the ball. Never French... English. Just trying to contribute something meaningful to this thread.

To machine slave -

Words are so important these days, in this so called age of communication where no one really understands eachother anyway. More ways to communicate than ever before, yet less and less understanding, just fragmented thinking left behind as an afterthought to an exchange of words and/or symbols.

Just avoid the word "dominant" in your discourse, doesn't go over well here and everything should just be "honky dory".

RAB

Quoted from RAB

To machine slave -

Words are so important these days, in this so called age of communication where no one really understands eachother anyway. More ways to communicate than ever before, yet less and less understanding, just fragmented thinking left behind as an afterthought to an exchanged and so called conversation of sorts.

Just avoid the word "dominant" in your discourse, doesn't go over well here and everything should just be "honky dory".

RAB

Ok, how bout cold hard facts then....

In accordance with the statistical findings and analysis of the Canadian census of 2006, the number of Canadians speaking French was approximately 6.7 million. This constituted 21.5% of the country’s population which was 32 million at that time.

High percentage of Canadians who speak French live in Quebec. There were greater than 5.8 million people speaking French among the 7.5 million citizens of the province. Approximately 79% of Quebec people chose to identify themselves as having the capacity to speak fluently in French. The legal procedure of Quebec is based on French civil law in contrast to the remaining part of Canada where it is dependent on English common law.

About 488,000 people in Ontario spoke French in 2006 forming the largest Francophone population outside Quebec. Acadians form one third percentage of the total population in New Brunswick.

Gents,

I put the link on so to avoid a huge debate.  Nothing good will come out of this!!!  No one is right and no one is wrong.  We have a common hobby so let's not ruin it.  I simply gave a tool to everyone so we could all follow.  

Beer anyone......

take care

Nice try Sylvain, but you can not translate culture.

The Toronto Star (sorry the Toronto Sun I meant to say, that rag) and the Calgary Sun are published by Quebecor, and the head lines bash Quebec regularly as seperatists and people who want to destroy their country and profit from the Canadian system.

You can't blame our anglo brothers for disliking us, the media controls "the mind", it has been said over and over again.

The only way to break their control over us is to talk to eachother and question who profits from the conflict  and sells newspapers and hype.


Beer is fine too, transcends many things that people are coaxed to get hung up on. Language is only one of the facets that makes up a culutre.

I wish I could communicate in another language other than english...  ...I've had enough chance to learn French, German or Danish, but never succeeded.    I blame all the others who can speak English to me   , 'cause of course it can't be my fault!  

Yes, I too failed to grasp French fluently despite it being introduced to our education system as mandatory learning when I was in Gr. 7 . Then, I failed to learn Hebrew despite my first wife being from Israel originally and her habit of speaking with family in her language while I stood there clueless.  And funny enough, her Egyptian born parents were fluent in French but she couldnt speak a word.

Some people are just not drawn to learning multiple languages, unfortunately.

Oh, and Sylvain, that video is F#@*#@# hilarious!

Next Tuesday, my 6-year old daughter will be starting Grade 1 ... french immersion. I really hope she sees it through high school. My wife and I think it's a great idea since neither of our parents taught us their native tongue (danish/greek) as they were learning english since they got off the boat in Montreal, way back when, and moved to Toronto to start new lives for themselves.

I think MAACA has been great for bringing people with a shared passion together despite minor language differences. This is the only place I can try to exercise that tiny bit of French that lingers from high school. J'ai marqué un 51 en 13e année classe de français que parce que madame Odell pensé que j'étais drôle. (Thank you Google Translate quick-key button up on my browser! )  

We share a common language - pinball ! ... but I hope my daughter will eventually help my wife and I improve our french.