[Vision2020] Words Bring Pause

[Ralph Nielsen]

Sorry, Sue, not quite right.

Belgium has 3 official languages" Dutch, French and German. Flemish  
is officially the same as Dutch, per agreement between the  
Netherlands (Holland) and Belgium in 1973. Walloon is the same as  
French. German is used by a small (100,000) minority of people next  
to the German border.

Canada is officially bilingual federally but Quebec recognizes only  
French. The only officially bilingual (English and French) province  
is New Brunswick, more to please the Acadians, some of whom returned  
from forced exile in Louisiana, than the French in Quebec. In Quebec  
all signs must be in French but may be followed by the same wording  
in English underneath the French.

In Flanders I noticed that all road signs were in Dutch only, just as  
in Quebec they are in French only. But in Brussels they are  
bilingual, probably because it is the capital of the country.

In Montreal, Quebec, I saw ONE highway sign in English: a large sign  
on the main freeway, pointing south, saying USA, not EUA/USA. In  
Ontario road signs in bilingual areas are in both languages. In  
federally controlled parts of Canada, such as national parks, the  
road signs are in French/English.

One of the favorite gripes of many Anglophone Canadians, like my  
sister in Victoria, is about how dreadful the French are. This  
extends to France as well. I understand that many Quebecers feel the  
same about "les anglais."

When I was young and beginning to learn German in high school, a  
Swiss-Canadian, who spoke both German and French, told me about how  
narrow-minded many English tended to be. They made no effort to learn  
anybody else's language, but loved to complain, "Ehoh, they cahn't  
speak English!"

It must be nice to have somebody to look down on.

Enough said.

Ralph



Sue Hovey suehovey at moscow.com
Sun Mar 11 20:13:43 PDT 2007

And so does Canada.

Belgium has three, I think: French, Walloon, and Flemish

Why now?  We have always been a nation of immigrants, and most of  
them are
eager to learn English. When we pass restrictive laws such as this one,
there should, at a minimum, to be a mechanism in place to provide
non-English speaking adults with the classes to help them.  Didn't  
happen,
though.  We're big into telling folks what they must do if they want  
to live
here, we aren't much into helping them do it, though.

Sue Hovey