2016-09-29

Quebec Bilingualism Needs More

I keep hearing the argument that Quebecers - particularly French-Canadians are more bilingual. Quebec tends to inflate its successes in areas we know it to not be up to par with the rest of the continent.

This is not supported by the facts.

"In Quebec, the English mother tongue minority is the one that shows the highest bilingualism rate, with 66.1% of anglophones reporting they were bilingual in 2001, compared to 50.4% of allophones and 36.6% of francophones. However, all three groups were gaining ground. In New Brunswick, the bilingualism rate is 71.5% for francophones, 15% for anglophones, and 17.5% for allophones. In Ontario, it is 89.4% for francophones, 8.2% for anglophones, and 6.8% for allophones. In all other provinces, francophones show the highest bilingualism rates: 91.6% in Manitoba, 90.1% in Prince Edward Island, 89.6% in Alberta, 89.3% in Yukon, 89.0% in British Columbia, 87.8% in Saskatchewan, 86.3% in Nunavut, 86.2% in the Northwest Territories, and 85.8% in Newfoundland."

These figures mirror my experience. It's extremely rare to meet a non-French-Canadian who can't communicate in French. It's more common to meet a Francophone who can't speak English but I suspect this will change moving forward. It would have changed and progressed by now if not for the political nationalists who are needlessly slowing things down through various counter-productive and sometimes punitive language laws.

As a whole, Quebec is the most bilingual province followed by New Brunswick - two provinces with the largest French-speaking populations - thanks to the English-speaking community.

I refuse to use the terms 'phone' as they further perpetuate 'difference' through ethnicity and language.

It's nonsensical labeling.

This, however, is not because we're more open or progressive. If the figures were higher among French-Canadians, then perhaps there would be some justification for this assertion but even then I submit it wouldn't be the case.

The bottom line is English is a far more important language than French. It's a simple fact. So the incentive for someone in Alberta to learn French is limited outside of for romantic reasons. Conversely, a Quebecer needs to learn English lest they be isolated more than they already are.

It's a question of practicality. 

If anything, the bilingual rates are low for Quebec given this scenario.



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