Comments on: Tory goes to summer school

By: Phantom

Phantom — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 20:27:44 +0000

I agree, rose, having more than one official language demonstrates how Cosmopolitan Canada is and how out of touch the American model really is.

By: rose

rose — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 20:10:35 +0000

The truly wonderful thing about having French as our third language is – that it distinguishes Canada from the U.S. of A. — how great is that !

By: Phantom

Phantom — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:28:41 +0000

Anole:
Your rant against French being one of the official languages of Canada is old and only demonstrates your bias. French is one of the founding languages of Canada (other that First Nations). Yes, I am aware that the French were defeated by the English at the Plains of Abraham. But, in the infinite wisdom of the founding Fathers, they allowed French to continue to be spoken and French law to be used.

While French in France is heavily legislated, the French spoken in Canada is a Colloquial form of the language, which is still very vibrant within Quebec and other parts of Canada. Having two official languages is not a hindrance to Canada. It helps demonstrate our openness to others. In case you are unaware, a large number of refugees freely choose to settle in Quebec and learn French.

It is debatable to say that French is dying out, or simply evolving. And as to your comment that “The only difference between Latin and French is that Latin has real classic liturature(sic),” makes absolutely no sense. French has a lot of excellent classic literature. If you meant that Latin is a classical language, I would point out to you that French is as well.

By: rose

rose — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:39:30 +0000

among the worlds well of unremarkable people….

By: rose

rose — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:35:46 +0000

As an English speaking Canadian, I have always felt that Canada’s first language should be one of First Nation, after all, were they not here first? We are the invaders…it should not be English 1st and French 2nd…how egoistic of us to even think that way. Mr. Tory should be touring the lovely First Nation reservations and picking up some traditional words from them….I am sure that would open his eyes a bit.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:11:42 +0000

As previously stated, French is an official state language, there is a French Language Services Act in Ontario and 542,340 Francophones live in this province. I think it shows shades of his federal aspirations more than anything else but it certainly wouldn’t hurt for Mr. Tory to know French while serving in politics in the Province of Ontario.

By: Ronny

Ronny — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 10:51:50 +0000

Anole, you may be right about the french language dying out…but its not because of why you say so (Paris not allowing words to be added). True, the language is legislated quite heavily in Paris, but one would probably be more correct in labeling the french language ‘dead’ because of its increasing obsolescence in the western world. Most notably because of the increasing dominance of english. The two largest native french speaking areas in the western world, Quebec and France, are completely surrounded by large powers that prefer to use english for international communication (english canada and the USA for quebec, and the UK, Germany, netherlands, belgium, and spain for France). So I think this is more the reason why the language could be considered ‘dead’ or at least not as useful. In any case, if you go to France, you better get ready to speak it. The language is as vibrant as ever within the country.

I for one am happy to see the canadian goverment see to it that their employees are bilingual. Last time I checked, Canada was still officially a bilingual country. If anything, this adds to a national identity in a postive manner. We are not viewed as unilingual morons throughout the world, even though much of canada does in fact fall into this category. For some reason we get away with the image though and people respond to it.

I also have no idea what ‘the difference between French and Latin is that Latin has real classic literature’ means.

By: anole

anole — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 04:01:46 +0000

While it is nice that Mr Tory is learning our other “official language” in order to appease that other 23% of our population, I think that to learn French is a waste of time.

French is going the way of Latin. No words can be added to that language without the permission of the Legislature in Paris. The language is no longer dynamic. Anything that cannot evolve will eventually become extinct.

Rather he should learn Spanish, as that would stand him better stead in this hemisphere, either that or the language of the most prevalent of the Refugee peoples that are taking advantage of our soft immigration laws.

The only place where French is spreading is in Canada because the Feds in their infinite wisdom have dictated that all government employees should speak that language, whether they work in Sandspit BC, Montmagne PQ or Dildo Nfld.

Go figure, our government is setting emphasis on us being required to learn something that everyone else realizes is Dying Out.

The only difference between Latin and French is that Latin has real classic liturature.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 03:49:59 +0000

Wouldn’t that mean that Mr. Tory-Tory would be spending the summer circling Uranus with the other Klingons?

By: Phantom

Phantom — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 01:28:31 +0000

Johnny Says:
July 26th, 2006 at 8:52 am

Why doesn’t Mr. Tory learn how to speak Martian? Need I say any more. lol. Better yet, Klingon.