User talk:MySamoanAttorney

History
Hello MySamoanAttorney!

Sorry for not replying sooner! I started writing you a reply, then as usual it was too long so I had to stop. I just came back to it now. I made it shorter.

The Métro de Montréal is not multilingual: it is in French. In a number of places, it uses universal symbols (pictures, colors) because some people cannot read, but it is in French. In the majority of Canadian cities outside Quebec, the signs are going to be in English only. There is no debate on the question over there : you speak the language of the majority or you die.

Being from Europe, you probably think the signs should be in all the languages in the world. For the sake of security, for the lost refugee who doesn't speak French, I would agree. But since we can't put them all, which ones are we going to put on? The answer is "only those spoken by large linguistic communities". In America, that means English in the North, Spanish to the South and maybe some others in certain areas. But what tells us that our lost refugee speaks any of these two languages? Nothing. The odds are that if he is a refugee, he speaks a language most people have never even heard of in America.

So we put up a sign with big great red letters that says Sortie. What message does this send to people who understand French : the exit is here. What message does it send to people who do not understand even basic words of French? It sends the message that in this place of the world, Montreal, Quebec, French is required. French is the language people are expected to speak to some degree. This of course doesn't mean they should forget the other language(s) they may speak. It only encourages them to learn French if they do not speak it already.

Is there a universal sign for exit? If there were one, I would agree that it could legitimately replace Sortie. But there is a reason why the Sortie sign was put in French only. It was done on purpose by people who care about worldwide linguistic diversity + the freedom of the Quebec people to speak its own language at home. We want French to be universally spoken by all the citizens of Quebec (as a first, second or third language) the same way that English is universally spoken by all in the rest of North America. That is the only way to safeguard Quebec French and the Culture of Quebec in the long run. This strategy is necessary to keep Quebec a French-speaking state, otherwize, French would rapidely make way to English in the current geopolitical context.

People are encouraged to learn other languages in Quebec. However, the reality is that people here feel an enormous pressure to all learn the same language : English. If we did all learn English, Montreal, a North American city, would be recolonized by a majority of English speakers in less than 100 years and it would be for good this time. Thinking that we are so open minded by learning English and using it daily in Montreal is collective suicide. Whenever we speak English in Montreal, we are sending the signal that there is no need to learn French in this city. We are saying to the world: Montreal is like Boston or Toronto, no difference. Bilingual Francophones become invisible: they become Canadians who can speak English with a funny accent. Why learn their language? We don't do it for any other community, do we?

For the sake of security, we want the security messages to be understood by the greater number. Since that is not possible (we can't write all the languages on the sign) we discriminate the less spoken languages. Welcome to Quebec : discriminating against the less spoken languages is not something we believe in.

When I am in Boston, I speak English out of respect for the people who live there. Yes, I know that all the nationalities of the world are represented in this city. All minorities of Boston speak English or want to learn it if they don't: that's normality. The minorities accept that they are in the USA and that in the USA the culture is English. It would be as straightforward in Montreal if Quebec were an independent state. But it is not: It is a former French colony turned into a British colony by force in 1760, then crushed in 1837-38 when it tried to emancipate.

Are we going to be a colony of Canada forever? Are we going to be swimming against the current forever?

On language policies
In North America, there is a pressure to learn English. This pressure is of course felt in Canada where the majority speak English. It is even felt in Quebec where 82% of the people speak French primarily.

To get the correct picture, imagine that, let's say, France somehow takes over Germany during a great war. After this war, France initiates programs to implant a French population in their newly acquired territory. Of course, to calm the German population down, the French imperial government gives the Germans "provincial autonomy" and the illusion of equality. The Germans are told: "We will treat you as equals. You will have all the same rights that we the French nationals have, and on top of that, because we are very generous, we will let you speak your German language. In the German province, we will set up bilingual institutions." Because the Germans are an intelligent people, some of them replied: "But to be treated as equals, wouldn't we need for the bilingual institutions to be setup in France as well? Because otherwize, it seems to us that what will happen is that French speakers will speak French in France as they did before and speak French in Germany because of the bilingual institutions. Meanwhile, We the German speakers will not be able to speak German in France, because the institutions will be French only, and we will have to speak French and German in Germany so that the French settlers may better ignore our language."

This scenario might seem really silly, but that's the history of Quebec. We were a French speaking colony on its way to become a nation (like all other colonies in America) but then one day our beloved country fell to the British army. The British goverment decided to do what France or Spain would have done in the same position, they decided to transplant a population of its own nationals to Quebec to assimilate Quebecers. To make a very long story short, let's just say that because our ancestors didn't find it funny to let a handful of unelected British nobles decide the faith of our culture, they struggled to preserve their language, their religion and all their institutions. Being the good voyageurs that they were, they paddled against the current with great success! Millions of French-speaking Quebecers were ultimately assimilated to the English language throughout history, but they managed to remain strong in Quebec against all odds. Today, in 2005, as you can imagine, we are pretty sick of paddling against the current.

If you are interested in demolinguistics, I recommend you read these articles:


 * Demolinguistics of Quebec
 * Demolinguistics of Canada
 * Demolinguistics of the United States
 * Demolinguistics of Switzerland

-- Mathieugp 20:49, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)