Shard

I think that's a particular phrase. There's definitely a Canadian ring to it. In general though I find American vowels more drawn out.

Steve_

I don't think so, what exactly was found to be cheaper? I can get two for one deals at restaurants here. Everything else except bread turned out to be cheaper as I recall.

Steve_

Such as? What I found by doing a careful comparison is that there is an illusion of things being cheaper in supermarkets as the packet sizes are larger here.

magnumpi

Milk is in bags, everything else is the same

bats

Why are we in supermarkets ?

magnumpi

A Slight thread drift ?

Steve_

Because someone said that a Canadian was sore because they said some things in the UK are cheaper - I'm sure some things are, like back bacon and bread but it annoys me when people say this because generally speaking it is untrue.

Stuff is generally roughly the same price or substantially less, depending on what it is. Even before you take into account the tax difference.

So I suppose speaking as a Canadian it gets up my nose too.

magnumpi

Why isn't yogurt in bags?

Former Lancastrian

Im working on that and hope to propose it on Dragons Den.

Porthcawl

Canadians on the whole are very friendly people, the thing that perturbs me the most are those who have trouble admitting they are Canadian and insist on saying they are French!! probably brainwashed from birth! These people have most likely never even been to France and the bilingualism in this Country is a joke. Mr. Stephen Harper has done one decent thing and that was re-instating the "Royal: to the Canadian Forces I was hoping the next was to revert to being uni-lingual once again. I bet you if I pick up any piece of printed matter I have got French staring me in the face.

I understand there in no English in Quebec at all! they even have language police there. Talk about double standards. If anyone had the incentive to start a petition I would be the first to sign it.

Steve_

Clearly you've never been to Québec, two sevenths of the population speak English as their first language.

The main thing I notice is that the bilingual signs are in French first, then English, which is hardly surprising really.

MillieF

That is interesting to me....I moved here 'specifically' because it's 'bi-lingual New Brunswick' and whilst it's not as French ad I'd like, it is at least French in many respects. Our son, born and bred in France, who is now 13 is doing well, has learned to speak 'English other than with my mother' and is flourishing.

Where are you? I am assuming? That you have never been to Quebec?

I work in engineering and have to phone Montreal lots...if I start off in French (I lived there for a long Time so it's not bad) I get on well...if you can't speak it, it's easy to put them down...but if you can't speak it they will put you down faster....quite correctly

magnumpi

What's the issue, there's more than two languages in Canada, lots more. Who cares as long as you get what ya want.

As that rant was a first post I will wait and see what other interesting things the writer has to say about Francophones

Souvy

Clearly not (or a troll).

The sign bit is because of the law, by the way. French has to be the prominent language.

It's often ignored, though. The stop signs in west Montreal are a good example of that. You can tell what sort of neighbourhood you are in by whether they say Arret, Arret/Stop or simply Stop.

Souvy

Just how bilingual is NB really? I've never been there but I've got the impression that the bilingualism is "official" rather than everyone being fluent in both languages.

I'd slightly take issue with you on the work issue. I talk to companies in Montreal, and elsewhere in QC, all the time. English is generally their operating language, even if the people concerned are franco. That could just be a characteristic of the industry (mining).