Yup. Quebec is so paranoid that if they don't force people to speak French with laws and regulations then the language will die out. But French is a globally recognized language spoken in dozens of countries and the UN. Quebec is literally the only French speaking area that says they need to enforce it or it'll die out.
My opinion? It's a more acceptable form of xenophobia. They're not worried people will stop speaking French. They're worried about immigration and use language laws as a way to make moving to Quebec seem unappealing.
France has a whole host of laws to keep France French as well.
Quebec and Montreal are wonderful because they’re so different and yet so close.
It’s hard for me to hold a grudge against them for that. It’s not like they’re saying you must speak French to go to school there - they’re just saying you have to try to learn French if you want to go to school there.
This government (CAQ) has done many xenophobic thing. Restricting access to services in foreign languages to accommodate new immigrants is probably the best example of that. But this university thing, I don't think it is. Most of the time, if you go and follow and Bachelor's degree in another country, then you have to learn the language of that country because not every class is given in English only (of course there's exceptions, but most of the time it's like that). And you have to pay a hefty premium to go and educate yourself abroad.
This situation is way different, studying at university of Toronto is 16 000$ if you are from Ontario and 17 000$ if you are from another province. So it was often cheaper for people to go and study in Québec. This fee raise doesn't have anything to do with xenophobia or anything, this is merely bring the prices to the "market value". Yes there's a bit of language protectionism, but it's not all that inconvenient, and as someone already said, just trying to learn French is probably sufficient to get around it.
In short, I agree that there is xenophobic things that happens in Québec. I agree this provincial government doesn't have a great track record on that front. But this change isn't motivated by xenophobia, but other reasons. Up to you to decide if they're valid or not in your opinion.
Speaking of xenophobia, you should look in the mirror.
Quebec trying to protect its francophone cultural heritage in a whole anglophone continent with so much American cultural influences through media, music and the internet is not xenophobic. It's actually even a problem that other countries outside North America are facing.
In really sick and tired of the discrimination of Quebec and French Canadians coming from people like you who twist everything to fit their racist narrative.
The only reason you're so mad is that you can't come live a life here speaking the only language you know, English, and it pisses you off that you have to learn a second language. You simply wish the the French Canadians would finally just all fold over, speak English and the whole French Canadian culture to disappear so it could stop be an inconvenience to you. I think THAT'S pretty xenophobic, actually.
Je suis bilingue. Ma mère est francophone et je vis à Gatineau depuis 7 ans. Il n'y a que les francophone du Québec qui s'énervent quand je dis "bonjour hi".
Pour revenir à ton commentaire, Peut-être qu'il y en a quelques uns qui vont s'énerver, mais certainement pas autant qu'il y a des anglophones ailleurs au Canada qui grimpent dans les rideaux dès qu'on mentionne le fait français au Canada et au Québec. Ce fil de discussion en est un très bel exemple.
Thank you for editing your response after figuring out from my other response that only saying "that is factually wrong" wasn't good enough.
There's so much I would want to say about your answer and why is all irrelevant that I could write a book.
You know, I was hoping I could find more civilized discussions here than on Reddit. But as soon as Quebec is mentioned absolutely anywhere on the internet, Canadians will come out in droves to talk shit about them all over the place. We are constantly facing this kind of narrative everywhere we look and it's god damn tiring. It's nothing short of discrimination and racism towards our people.
It's funny that whole communities get banned for acting the same way about people of other nations, but being racist towards Quebecois always gets a free pass...
A chunk of New-Brunswick, a chunk of Eastern Ontario and a chunk of Northern Ontario, that's pretty much it. There's a couple of French communities left in Manitoba (when they were a big part of the province's population until 100 years ago or so)...
There is very little French spoken in New Orleans. There’s more creole, but is absolutely not used virtually anywhere as a part of daily life.
I haven’t been to Baton Rouge, but a quick googling suggests the same. It is not an official language and not part of daily life. It is heritage more than practice.
There is very little French spoken in Louisiana. There’s more creole, but it’s still single digit percentages. It is not common and their curriculums are certainly not in French.
The entire towns website for Berlin, NH is in English: https://www.berlinnh.gov/. There’s not even a French translation.
I think you are severely overestimating the prevalence of French as an official language in North America - and even as a lingua Franca.
Oh... So lemmy is also a good place for Québec bashing... Awesome. I don't think this latest move to attempt to slow the degradation of the French language in Quebec was very wise, but you just couldn't resist pouncing on the occasion to attack big evil Quebec. Very civilized. 👌
When all the online interactions you see concerning your culture are people who barely have any knowledge of it taking a shit on it, you tend to not have the patience to be the bigger person.
I’ve only ever really been to Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Canadian Niagara Falls. Montreal is fun and different, Toronto is like a baby NYC, Vancouver was cool but just ok. I’d go back to Montreal before I went back to any of the other places. Except in winter.
I don't want to live in Montreal but that's because I don't like cities in general so whenever I go to Montreal I try to make it quick... Well, I take the time to eat at one of the tons of awesome restaurants 🤤