"canada is too big to fail" o rly

[beemo]

It takes a century and a half of political imagination, heroic toil and, to be sure, great geopolitical luck to build a country like Canada. It takes but a year or two of hubris, lassitude and ignorance for the whole thing to be lost.

There is today in Canada a dangerous line of argument that must be checked by all thinking citizens: It holds that

Comments

Re: on the topic of french in school

[lurkch]

No need to apologize. I cited one instance, you had no way of knowing I wasn't basing my opinion solely on that instance.

It's good to know there is English immersion. The single language class per day model is much less effective for developing fluency from what I've experienced. Maybe politics will settle down when learning English doesn't turn out to kill the uniqueness that is Quebec? As a cultural experience, aside from the exchange students, I did rather like Quebec as it is much more European in many ways.

I went to a French-speaking Faculty at an English university (outside of Quebec) before having to transfer out due to lack of courses for my degree. Not sure what the split was on French/English speaking students but there were quite a few from Quebec--more than I was expecting.

I do get that the fear is of losing the language, I just don't understand the fear--as you say, it may be a generational thing that is fading. I understand it being a concern but I just don't understand it taken to the level that some have taken it, particularly the language laws in Quebec (and the laws some of the parties say they want to enact if they are elected).

Re: on the topic of french in school

[wisdomsawoman]

I think the idea of losing French is a very complicated one in Quebec society. If I can take myself as an example, I love English, I think it's an easy language to learn, and I can communicate with so many people with it. But French is my heart, it's who I am. Therefore I am all for learning English, but I am also very protective of my language. I even sometimes worry that people around me are going to perceive my going to an English university as a betrayal (though no one ever said it to my face, except an old weird guy once...) I'm not sure it's easy to comprehend to people outside Quebec. We were lucky enough to never lose our language, but we did it with perseverance, and with laws like Loi 101. So I can say that, although sometimes these laws take it a bit far, at the end of the day they're doing their job.