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Oh, how cute.
Feb. 4th, 2004 12:30 amNon-Canadians, hell, non-Quebecers can be just cute as all get out.
We were talking about Bill 101 (REALLY long story short, a law that makes French a VERY dominant language in Quebec) in Social Problems tonight, looking at how anglophones (English speakers) are discriminated against by francophones (French speakers). The professor asks us what repercussions there are from this heavy-handed attempt at trying to protect the French culture, and this guy from Southern California, who has obviously not spent a lot of time in Canada, asks (trying to prove the teacher's question invalid): "Apart from the language, does this province even have a separate culture from the rest of Canada?"
The ENTIRE CLASS looked at him and we all started cracking up. Poor boy. I would have patted his head in a sort of "Aw, don't fret, you'll catch on to the insanity that is our province" way, had I been sitting near him. ;)
(Er, if that wasn't clear? YES, Quebec has a separate culture from the rest of Canada. It's not just the language thing, although that's a large part of it.)
On the same subject (Bill 101), I found myself defending this law, which has basically outlawed languages other than French, in so many fashions. I think it was needed at the time it was introduced (1977), but I think we've gone overboard with it of late, and it can certainly be trimmed back a little.
Also, schools need to be more bilingual and less unilingual with lame second-language courses, and we all realized that if it wasn't for Montreal, there would be no opposition to Bill 101, which would basically mean Bill 101 wasn't needed in the first place.
This amuses me enough to ignore the fact it took me forever to get home because Nature has decided to randomly drop a foot of snow on our fair city tonight.
Bedtime, because, you know, I gotta be up in six hours.
We were talking about Bill 101 (REALLY long story short, a law that makes French a VERY dominant language in Quebec) in Social Problems tonight, looking at how anglophones (English speakers) are discriminated against by francophones (French speakers). The professor asks us what repercussions there are from this heavy-handed attempt at trying to protect the French culture, and this guy from Southern California, who has obviously not spent a lot of time in Canada, asks (trying to prove the teacher's question invalid): "Apart from the language, does this province even have a separate culture from the rest of Canada?"
The ENTIRE CLASS looked at him and we all started cracking up. Poor boy. I would have patted his head in a sort of "Aw, don't fret, you'll catch on to the insanity that is our province" way, had I been sitting near him. ;)
(Er, if that wasn't clear? YES, Quebec has a separate culture from the rest of Canada. It's not just the language thing, although that's a large part of it.)
On the same subject (Bill 101), I found myself defending this law, which has basically outlawed languages other than French, in so many fashions. I think it was needed at the time it was introduced (1977), but I think we've gone overboard with it of late, and it can certainly be trimmed back a little.
Also, schools need to be more bilingual and less unilingual with lame second-language courses, and we all realized that if it wasn't for Montreal, there would be no opposition to Bill 101, which would basically mean Bill 101 wasn't needed in the first place.
This amuses me enough to ignore the fact it took me forever to get home because Nature has decided to randomly drop a foot of snow on our fair city tonight.
Bedtime, because, you know, I gotta be up in six hours.
