danescroft

I have three grandsons, aged 6, 13 and 17. They immigrated into BC with parents in August 2016 and go to The local Province school. The two older boys are not learning French and I suspect this may be a handicap if wanting to get certain jobs e.g working for Government or say Hospital. Could someone comment on that please or maybe have had children in similar circumstances.
Thanks

Partially discharged

If they stay in BC and are working for the provincial government I can't see a lack of french being an issue.

We're in Ottawa and our kids (now 17 and 21) started in 'french immersion' at about age 5 I think and they stuck with it throughout school and they can switch from one language to another without any effort. It makes me pretty jealous. I've been here since age 17 and I can understand more french than I can speak. I moved from the Toronto area (where french is barely on the radar) to Ottawa at age 30. Here in Ottawa french is relatively common..not so much in BC.

Souvy

French is close to non-existent in BC. Federal government offices will have someone who speaks French (the law and all that) but I rather doubt that it gets called into play very often.

dbd33

My understanding, from someone who has worked for the Feds in Vancouver for five years or so, is that French is hardly used at work but routinely outside work (they have a francophone nanny, for example). That said, getting the job depended entirely on being bilingual.

Souvy

Federal offices must be able to offer service in either official language.

Just how bilingual that might be is another matter. The language profile for a Fed position says it all. An AAA profile means being able to order a coffee in the second language but it's still called bilingual. BBB (which I reckon I'm at) means being able to communicate properly. CCC means being able to communicate very well. EEE is stupidly well (my missus is ECE).

When you get to P, you have to ask people if they are actually Franco or Anglo. We have a couple of friends like that. I could not tell which breed they were, so I had to ask. Both Franco, which I should probably have guessed just using simple logic.

dbd33

People can choose to be tried for federal crimes in French in BC. I suggest this means that people who speak French will have an advantage in competition to be hired by federal government departments dealing with crime. Most people in BC don't speak French and that confers a greater advantage on the bilingual than would be the case in, for example, Ontario.

Of course, most jobs aren't in the employ of the feds and not all federal positions require French, nonetheless speaking French is an advantage even in BC.

scrubbedexpat091

Being able to speak French may be an advantage in federal jobs in BC and with Air Canada but for the most part it's not an advantage in BC.

If in Vancouver area there are other languages more useful to learn that are an advantage in some jobs.

dbd33

Agreed.

I doubt this, which languages do you have in mind?

Almost Canadian

My local branch of TD is on the edge of Chinatown in Calgary.

All of their tellers speak Mandarin/Cantonese. I would imagine that similar situations must arise in Vancouver and other areas too.

dbd33

Oh sure, people do business around here in all manner of languages. I hear people working in "Chinese" and Hindi every day. They're all native speakers of those languages though.The only white cradle Canadian I've met who was reputed to speak Cantonese fluently grew up in China, parent attached to embassy or some such. (He eventually moved to Spain, despite not speaking Spanish very well).

What I'm questioning is the likelihood of someone learning a language in BC, outside the home, to a level of fluency such as to help with employment. I think the bank will always find it easier to hire someone from China who also speaks English than someone from Canada who speaks Mandarin. Furthermore, immigrant languages go in and out of fashion. French, being an official language, has value in the long term.

scrubbedexpat091

One of the Chinese languages. I often see ads where companies are seeking employees who speak English and one of the Chinese languages.

Obviously will depend on the type of job and industry.

I don't often see job listings seeking French speakers but there are more and more each year seeking people who speak a Chinese language and I imagine this will continue into the future.

But yes native born Canadians to English speaking parents are not likely to learn a Chinese language.

dbd33

Oh, I'm sure, also Tagalog and Arabic, but we know the facilities and abilities exist to learn French. How many people do you see working in a Chinese language who do not seem "Asian" in appearance?

scilly

Having lived here for so long, I would suggest that it is of more use for an English-speaking child living in Vancouver to learn an Asian language ........ Japanese, Chinese, Mandarin.

That would be of more use in employment and possibly be more attractive to employers than French ............. eg, jobs in tourism, banking, airline positions to name but a few.


Canada is a bilingual country, but only ONE province is designated bilingual, New Brunswick. The others are all basically uni-lingual, that is English in most and French in Quebec.

French is a help in widening opportunities, as is any other second language but far from a necessity in BC!

dbd33

I don't disagree with most of that but suggest that the gulf between the benefits offered by working for the Federal government and those offered by private industry are such as to make learning French a small price to pay.

Again though, how many Anglophones do you know of who are working in BC in an Asian language?

Novocastrian

My younger son works for the Feds in Regina SK. As it happens he can "manage" in French due to family connections. However that was never a condition of employment. He has been advised to brush up his French though, since it appears he's quite good at his job and is being considered for more senior roles where bilingualism might be needed.