Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

We had our ceremony last Monday. All went well until it came to the Oath. The judge had told us it was a legal requirement for the officers to actually see you saying the words. We dutifully did this, in English, repeating after him. He then said, for those who speak French, we will now say it in French. We started to just listen as we are not bilingual. An officer who was wondering around came up to us with her fingers to her mouth, so we then tried unsuccessfully to repeat the words.
Is this the norm, or did we just get a jobs worth. We didnt let it spoil our day, We are now officially Canadian.:)

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

Everyone had to say it in both official languages - the judge was joking about how we'd be surprised at how good we sounded in French :-)

They were definitely watching to make sure everyone was speaking.

Congrats!

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

As an Irishman myself, I suddenly have a vision of an Irishman swearing allegiance to the Queen in French! :)

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

Noone has ever mentioned having to speak French before.. that's decided, I will just stick with PR when it comes, no citizenship :p

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

We didn't have to do it in French, that was about a year ago. It is written out for you either way, just read it, it's there in French and English.

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

Did it back in summer 2008, was in English only. When filing my papers, I ticked English, possibly one reason, other was, that I was naturalized in Toronto.

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

I was required to recite the oath in both languages at my ceremony, held in Calgary in January this year. The judge told us that we would have to do so before we began.

I think it's the only realistic way to enforce the "you must be seen reciting the oath" requirement that was introduced recently. It's easier than having the officers memorise who wasn't saying it in English and then checking that they did so when the French version came around.

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

When my wife did it she was told she could do it in English or French or both Languages.

We are in Quebec, So there is no way that they could insist that you had to do it in both languages. Taking the oath is a big enough issue as it is here.

My wife did t in both langiages anyway just to be on the safe side. she did hers a couple of months ago.

Re: Taking the oath at Citizenship ceremony
 

:)

Not so much stranger than seeing the pictures of Martin McGuinness toasting the Queen at Windsor Castle state dinner the other night, eh?

SB