1 in 5
Well,
Check this out:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/4087900p-4686618c.html
Apparently 1 in 5 Canadians is now foreign born. I thought this was excellent. Apparently though, this influx is causing a lot of strain on our largest cities. I think there is a lot we can do as individuals to help these people out. One is not reacting like a small town hick, as mentioned in the article with regards to some areas of Quebec.
I know a few people will be loathe to hear me say this, but the redundant insistence on this country to push French as a language is not useful at this point in our history. I think we would ease a lot of racial tension in this country if we concentrated on language education outside of French. For example, instead of having French class everyday of the week, we could have 1 French, 1 Mandarin, 1 Hindi-Urdu, 1 Tagalog, and 1 option. We have plenty of qualified teachers coming in from countries that speak these languages. I think a system like this would honestly take the heat out of a situation like going to a 7-11 where the unfortunate teller speaks only Tagalog and very little English. Instead of thinking “Oh god….”, the child could think “Cool I can try out my Tagalog”.
Being able to speak the languages of our largest groups of immigrants, literally 1 in 5 of us, we could help streamline their entrance into Canada and culturally enrich ourselves as well.
The only problem with this is it would discriminate against smaller minority groups not speaking, English, French, Mandarin, Hindi-Urdu, or Tagalog. Also what would happen if in 10 years time immigration flipped and we had a large influx of people from Spain or Italy?
I guess you can’t please everyone, but having a language education system that reacts and changes quickly to help us help out our new arrivals would be ideal. I think it would help a lot in phasing out antiquated racist thinking. Communication is the first step in understanding.
My father claims he is now “A foreigner in his own country”. He says this because when we go to places like Super Store it is common to see a large proportion of Filipino customers and the staff is largely Filipino as well. Most of what you can here around the store is Tagalog, but my constant response to him is “So what? Would it kill you to learn some Tagalog?”. This country is a Mecca for immigration and should be a beacon of tolerance and cultural acceptance. The challenge for us as born in Canada Canadians, is to walk the talk and move from just saying multiculturalism is a good thing, to actually participating and believing in it.
-S-
Check this out:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/4087900p-4686618c.html
Apparently 1 in 5 Canadians is now foreign born. I thought this was excellent. Apparently though, this influx is causing a lot of strain on our largest cities. I think there is a lot we can do as individuals to help these people out. One is not reacting like a small town hick, as mentioned in the article with regards to some areas of Quebec.
I know a few people will be loathe to hear me say this, but the redundant insistence on this country to push French as a language is not useful at this point in our history. I think we would ease a lot of racial tension in this country if we concentrated on language education outside of French. For example, instead of having French class everyday of the week, we could have 1 French, 1 Mandarin, 1 Hindi-Urdu, 1 Tagalog, and 1 option. We have plenty of qualified teachers coming in from countries that speak these languages. I think a system like this would honestly take the heat out of a situation like going to a 7-11 where the unfortunate teller speaks only Tagalog and very little English. Instead of thinking “Oh god….”, the child could think “Cool I can try out my Tagalog”.
Being able to speak the languages of our largest groups of immigrants, literally 1 in 5 of us, we could help streamline their entrance into Canada and culturally enrich ourselves as well.
The only problem with this is it would discriminate against smaller minority groups not speaking, English, French, Mandarin, Hindi-Urdu, or Tagalog. Also what would happen if in 10 years time immigration flipped and we had a large influx of people from Spain or Italy?
I guess you can’t please everyone, but having a language education system that reacts and changes quickly to help us help out our new arrivals would be ideal. I think it would help a lot in phasing out antiquated racist thinking. Communication is the first step in understanding.
My father claims he is now “A foreigner in his own country”. He says this because when we go to places like Super Store it is common to see a large proportion of Filipino customers and the staff is largely Filipino as well. Most of what you can here around the store is Tagalog, but my constant response to him is “So what? Would it kill you to learn some Tagalog?”. This country is a Mecca for immigration and should be a beacon of tolerance and cultural acceptance. The challenge for us as born in Canada Canadians, is to walk the talk and move from just saying multiculturalism is a good thing, to actually participating and believing in it.
-S-