You speak French.
Almost all people I’ve met have assumed this. It’s interesting that bilingualism is so strongly associated with Canada when according to Wikipedia only 17.4 percent of the population speaks both English and French.
Interesting. I wonder what percent speak English and what percent speak French? I can’t seem to locate my Google.
Also according to Wikipedia 98% speak either English or French. 57.8% speak English only and 22.1% speak only French.
Not sure if those numbers take other languages into account other than English or French although I think they don’t considering the huge immigration numbers.
Here’s a link to further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Canada.
Not sure if those numbers take other languages into account other than English or French although I think they don’t considering the huge immigration numbers.
I’d say they’re believable. Our immigration system is partly designed to make it easier for immigrants who speak one or both official languages to get in.
Edit: Official 2011 Census here: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/...314-x2011001-eng.pdf
14.2% of Canadians speak a language other than English or French at home. If the 98% “can speak English or French” (defined as holding a conversation) is true, this means that only 14% of these “other language at home” speakers don’t also speak English or French.
Plausible, yes.
Not sure if those numbers take other languages into account other than English or French although I think they don’t considering the huge immigration numbers.
I’d say they’re believable. Our immigration system is partly designed to make it easier for immigrants who speak one or both official languages to get in.
You’re right and 20% of the population is still a relatively large number.
This article puts it at 17% http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bilingualism-growing-but-not-in-french-and-english-1.1176469
Most of those French speakers are concentrated in 2 provinces (Quebec and New Brunswick).
I suspect that in BC you have 10 Mandarin & Cantonese speakers for every French speaker & In Calgary in Toronto you have 5 Hindi / Bengali / Tamil speakers for every French speaker.
great, two groups of people I don’t care about.
I quit taking French in grade 10, which means that I had 7 years in total of daily (or every other day) French classes.
Even now, I can just barely get by when speaking French. In Europe, I tried to speak it (I ended up saying “speak slower” a lot) but was able to get my point across most of the time. I think that because we study it in school for so long, we end up at least being able to make a token effort at it when travelling, if we have to.
And outside of Quebec, those that are bilingual ( english /french ) either live in Ottawa or work for the Federal Government.
Also according to Wikipedia 98% speak either English or French. 57.8% speak English only and 22.1% speak only French.
Not sure if those numbers take other languages into account other than English or French although I think they don’t considering the huge immigration numbers.
What they speak in Quebec is NOT French. At best, it is Franglais or Quebexican (OK, maybe Quebecois, if we’re being polite). But not French. It does not follow the all the rules of the French language, it mixes in English and slang, when convenient, and is generally a very lazily spoken rendition of what could once have been referred to as French. But NOT French.
I quit taking French in grade 10, which means that I had 7 years in total of daily (or every other day) French classes.
Even now, I can just barely get by when speaking French. In Europe, I tried to speak it (I ended up saying “speak slower” a lot) but was able to get my point across most of the time. I think that because we study it in school for so long, we end up at least being able to make a token effort at it when travelling, if we have to.
I had 6 years in total and (almost) can’t speak a word of French. I think there are many problems with the system but a major one might just be the fact that growing up one doesn’t see it as a good thing or necessity. I would venture to say I don’t think anyone I went to school with would now be able to truly “speak” the language.
C’est Le weekend! Les temps pour le biere foid!
“What they speak in Quebec is NOT French.”
I was talking to a woman from Paris about Quebec not that long ago. She says Quebecois is just as much French as any of the variations of the English language spoken throughout the world is till English. Any Quebec person can make themselves understood in Paris albeit the accent and some of the expressions are quite different.
In my experiences I’ve noted that to Europeans bi-lingual means bi-lingual in as much as everybody in Belgium speaks both Flemish and French for example. In Switzerland they all seem to know German, French and Italian. They are quite surprised when I tell them that my French isn’t that good, despite my father being originally from Quebec. Most Europeans I’ve met are usually multilingual. I’ve met Euros that can easily switch between three or four languages.
Any Quebec person can make themselves understood in Paris albeit the accent and some of the expressions are quite different.
But, conversational Quebecois, is most certainly not French. Loosely based on it? Sure. Perhaps a Quebecois person in France could get by, but I wonder about the opposite scenario. Is the language spoken, and its intricacies, enough to completely confuse them? Maybe François could be of service here. He spent a number of years in Montreal.
C’est Le weekend! Les temps pour le biere foid!
Are you saying that people in France don’t say weekend while people in Quebec do or you’re just telling to drink cold beer because it’s the weekend?
On that note I understood both sentences without needing to translate so I do have some sort of passive knowledge.
Well, I know when we lived in Europe when I was growing up (air force family stationed in Germany) whenever we used to visit France my father had no trouble conversing in France with his Quebec French. Sometimes I have to listen closely to someone with a thick rural Scottish or a Jamaican accent to understand them, or when I visit my mother’s relatives in Wales, but we’re still all speaking English. Ask any German and they will tell you how regional their language is with people from Bavaria speaking quite different from Hamburg, etc. But the written language is the same as it is with Quebecois and (France) French.
In my experiences I’ve noted that to Europeans bi-lingual means bi-lingual in as much as everybody in Belgium speaks both Flemish and French for example. In Switzerland they all seem to know German, French and Italian. They are quite surprised when I tell them that my French isn’t that good, despite my father being originally from Quebec. Most Europeans I’ve met are usually multilingual. I’ve met Euros that can easily switch between three or four languages.
I also speak 4 languages (English, German, Italian & Czech) and my university is in fact trilingual with all courses being held in those first three languages. Going back a few posts back to when I said part of the reason why I think I didn’t learn French is the “lack of necessity” in Canada, I think the flipside of this is the reason why there are so many multilingual people in Europe. There’s simply a much higher chance that you’ll be mingling with people who speak different languages and a lower number of people who speak your native language as a percentage of the whole “region” (If you’re comparing Europe as a region to North America).
Well, I know when we lived in Europe when I was growing up (air force family stationed in Germany) whenever we used to visit France my father had no trouble conversing in France with his Quebec French. Sometimes I have to listen closely to someone with a thick rural Scottish or a Jamaican accent to understand them, or when I visit my mother’s relatives in Wales, but we’re still all speaking English. Ask any German and they will tell you how regional their language is with people from Bavaria speaking quite different from Hamburg, etc. But the written language is the same as it is with Quebecois and (France) French.
German might possibly be one of the languages with the most variation in dialects. Especially compared to English. If you took two people from the places you mentioned, Bavaria and Hamburg, and they spoke in their natural way of speaking then they truly might not understand each other. Or more specifically because the German in Hamburg is standard and the Bavarian version is dialect the Bavarian would understand the* Hamburger* without any issues while the Hamburger would be completely out of it.
As for “our English” vs. Scottish, Jamaican and other versions of English I read about mutual intelligibility recently and a major factor, if not the biggest, is exposure. This is usually the reason why we as North Americans might not understand those from other areas while they have no issue understanding us because they grew up watching shows in American English while the most of us haven’t seen too much Scottish or Jamaican TV. In the case of German exposure would also obviously help but one could probably make a very strong argument for the dialects being their own distinct languages.