Bilingual?
 

I'm wondering whether to refresh some very rusty French and take some lessons in preparation for a move to Canada. Does anyone have any experience of how valued being bilingual would be in the general job market outside of Quebec?

Re: Bilingual?
 

In Alberta it might be a point against you. Hey, I'm just kidding. But seriously, knowledge of French would be of little use in this province.
x

Re: Bilingual?
 

No great value in day to day life here in Manitoba, unless you plan on living in the St Boniface (the French quarter), or some of the "French" villages outside the City.

Ukrainian, Tagalog, Korean or Punjabi would most probably be more useful.

Re: Bilingual?
 

If the second language was Mandarin, Cantonese or Punjabi it might help here in Calgary. ;)

Re: Bilingual?
 

I sometimes wonder why Canada still calls itself a bilingual country.

In Quebec, northern New Brunswick, and the Ottawa / Gatineau region, French is useful if not essential.

But it is virtually unknown in other parts.

Re: Bilingual?
 

It could still be useful if you wanted to work for a branch of a Quebecois company, or if you want to work for the Federal government. Otherwise, in BC you could live your whole life and never speak, understand, or even hear a word.

Cantonese or Mandarin would be a much, much more useful second language.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Although there's little point in learning Chinese if you're not a native speaker as there are going to be half a million (or so) people who are genuinely bilingual ahead of you.

I'm frequently impressed by the number of languages banks will advertise that they can communicate in. A far cry from the UK where there'd be an outcry if any such concessions were made to immigrants.

Re: Bilingual?
 

And long may that continue!..An extremely expensive aspect of Canadian life...which for the majority of Canadians is just a waste of Federal funding that could be better spent on more productive enterprises!:thumbup:

Re: Bilingual?
 

Is it?

Re: Bilingual?
 

It is often said that you can hear 50 different languages on the streets of Toronto. But none of them are french.

That said, if you want to work for the guvmint, bilingual is the way to go.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Nope.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Thought so.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Well actually, according to some, it is!

See http://www.languagefairness.org/Ineq..._of_Canada.php

Make up your own mind pilgrims...whatever...:cool:

Re: Bilingual?
 

Interesting link

A 'must read' for most new immigrants here.

It takes about 45 minutes to go through it.

Re: Bilingual?
 

$500 million per year - so about $20 each. I don't think I'm going to miss that.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Thanks everyone ... I don't know any Mandarin or Punjabi, not even rusty ... so I suppose I'll stick with English ;)

Re: Bilingual?
 

Like I said, whatever...:zzz:

Re: Bilingual?
 

Wow, great argument.

Re: Bilingual?
 

It's money that would be better spent on the crumbling infrastructure.... it's like driving on third world roads out here in Quebec!!

Re: Bilingual?
 

I don't indulge much in argument....hence my response to your post as that is as much as I felt it merited.


"Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance. -Robert Quillen"

I for one simply feel that $500 Million could be far better spent, even if it only equates to $20.00 a head as you suggest.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Something to consider is the potential loss of valuable immigrants were the country no longer to be nominally bilingual. I, for example, would not have come. I think it's an asset to my children that they went through high school in French, if nothing else it's helped them in mastering North America's second language; Spanish.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Since the topic is bilingualism, and since Quebec hardly promotes it, and since roads are mostly a provincial jurisdiction, any federal monies spent on bilingualism could hardly be diverted to fix our horrid roads.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Oddly enough official coast-to-coast bilingualism is a fact of life and will remain so and this policy will only change if and when Quebec leaves. I myself think that highly unlikely. I know there is some resentment towards bilingualism but remember there are historical, political, and practical reasons for it.

Re: Bilingual?
 

It would be great if they'd dump English as an official language. Imagine how much sexier day-to-day life would be.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Hands off bazzz.

Melissa's mine.

Re: Bilingual?
 

According to the 2006 census, there are about 30,000 people in Toronto (city) that have French as their mother tongue. Around 5,000 of them regularly use both English and French at work (workforce 1.4 million). OK, that's small in percentage terms but we're still talking thousands of people, not none. In Ottawa-Gatineau, which has a workforce approximately half that of the city of Toronto, around 27,000 people speak both English and French at work. Many of those people do not work for the government but in retail, services, tourism, hospitals, education etc.

I would take slight issue with the notion that bilingualism is massively important with regard to working for the Feds in general. Job adverts contain language requirements that are location-specific and job-specific. Many are advertised as unilingual English or French, particularly when you get out of the Ottawa area.

In these parts, a lot of jobs are classified as bilingual. That does not necessarily mean fluent like a native. Jobs asking for bilingualism indicate the required language profile. The profile has three components: reading, writing and speaking. It concerns the person's second language. An individual's profile is determined by tests (and re-tests; it can change). Each item is classified as A (beginner), B (intermediate) or C (advanced), so a job advert might indicate that a bilingual profile of BBB is required. Some positions call for a P classification. Such positions require a very high degree of language ability (eg translating government legislation). It is also possible to obtain an E (exempt) classification, meaning you're way beyond C and there is no need for re-testing ever again.

Souvette's profile is ECE. That's about as close to "official" fluently bilingual as you can get. Her English is good but it's nowhere near what I'd call fluent.

Re: Bilingual?
 

How is your spoken Gatineauese?

Re: Bilingual?
 

She could tell us that the end of the world was coming and it would still sound pleasant.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Souv, my original remark was intended to fit broadly into the category "humour". Although calling the remark original is stretching it a teensy bit.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Not good. I was once, many years ago, reasonably competent at French. I should have been; I spent two years at college in Reims. I have really let it slip, particularly when it comes to speaking.

I find it very hard speaking to Quebeckers. The vocab is not what I learned and the accent is almost impenetrable to me. I have much less problem talking with French/French. Souvette got the shock of her life when we were on holiday down south last winter. We met a guy from France and I started chatting with him. In the ten years she'd known me, she'd never heard me speak French so much or so easily.

Re: Bilingual?
 

I know it was meant to be humour.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Try Swiss-Roman, it's French but spoken more slowly and clearly, very easy once you get used to the numbers.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Knowing your attitude to metric, it comes as no surprise to find you prefering quatre-vingts-dix to the prosaic Swiss nonante. ;)

Re: Bilingual?
 

I am the same. I took french from age 12 - 17 in school and it was Parisian french. Gatineauese french is pretty brutal, IMHO. I've been to Paris and the south of France and could understand rudimentary french. I can follow in basic terms what the french TV newscaster is saying (however, with that You Tube clip I may not be listening to her very much).

My children are fluently bi-lingual and they found it easier in Paris than Gatineau to converse with other children.

I believe that the french spoken in QC is grounded in french from the 1700/1800's and it was peasant french at the time. Sprinkle in some Americanisms and you have QC french.

Re: Bilingual?
 

I read somewhere that modern Quebec French has been shown from literature to be close to what was spoken in France centuries ago. Apparently, a French person transported from that time to now would understand Quebeckers better than he would modern-day Frenchmen.

That woman could keep me transfixed for hours just by reading a railway timetable in Swahili. She has got to be one of the most beautiful women ever.

Re: Bilingual?
 

It's the lyricism, innit, the romance of the lanquage is in its complicated hyphenation.

Re: Bilingual?
 

If you come to New Brunswick it will help in employment in whatever job you do. The Government sucks up most of the bilingual speakers in NB so business is always fretting about getting someone who can speak French and English. In reality speaking English only doesnt limit your career (in Fredericton, it may in Moncton) but it does close some doors.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Sheesh.

Re: Bilingual?
 

Canada is a land of many jurisdictions I am afraid.

Re: Bilingual?
 

What has always been a complete mystery to me is that those who were first taught Quebec french have no problem understanding Parisian french, but the converse is not true.