DandNHill

Majority speak Punjabi... which is why we moved. When we complained to the school that all the kids were speaking Punjabi around our son the answer we got was that they had learnt all the swear words so they could discipline the kids if they swore... No mention of encouraging / "forcing" the kids to speak English or French when at school... So son was one of 6 kids out of 600 that didn't speak Punjabi!

Lorno Malvo

Sorry to jump in but is speaking French mandatory in the service industry in Montreal?

Shard

That is amazing. As much as we all trumpet diversity, birds of a feather do flock together don't they.

Partially discharged

Wow...I lived in Brampton from 1989-1992 and then large parts of Bramalea were heavily south Asian. I was in 'old Brampton' which back then was not very south Asian. Parts of Springdale were very south Asian.

Despite all of the south Asian population there were very few restaurants that served Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi food. I do recall some suburban theme pubs on Hwy 7 that catered to the old guard of mainly scottish and northern english ex-pats. Bramalea had a lot of scottish people originally move there who were connected with the airport.

scilly

From my experience, yes the ability to speak French is necessary.

I've come across more poor English but fluent French than the reverse in service industry jobs in Montreal ......... that includes cab drivers!

I don't know about mandatory ................ but French is first in impottance ..... all public announcements on transit etc is said in French first then in English second,

scot47

isn't it strange how anglophones react to people using other languages ?

carcajou

Yes indeed. If I had started a thread titled "Will Vancouver force my kids to be schooled in English?" the fire and vitriol in the responses would be enormous.

French is the language of Montreal and Quebec. If that is too much of a problem - decline the role.

Shard

I think it was just a poor word choice from the OP. He probably meant "require" and I don't think anyone is questioning the primacy of French in Quebec.

BristolUK

Isn't it funny how someone stereotypes an entire group of people as being anti something based on a single comment by one person. That they don't even know.

Even more odd when this allegedly "against other languages" person (I'm paraphrasing) actually mentions their wife is one of these other languages and their kids have two other languages and were also schooled in one of the other languages while living in another non anglo country.

Quite bizarre.

scot47

I base my observations on 70 years of learning, using and teaching languages. Not on one posting here !

Shard

Any specifics? You are alluding to vague instances of which none of us here are aware. We're not mind readers!