4 ms·

I'm from Québec. It's all about bilingualism. As someone who learned french from birth, I could not work in tech if I couldn't also communicate in english. Tha

I'm from Québec. It's all about bilingualism. As someone who learned french from birth, I could not work in tech if I couldn't also communicate in english. That's a requirement for most jobs and I had to work really hard to get a good level of spoken english. We have people that speak french and spanish, french and english, french and german, etc. Bilingualism is strong here, pick it up if you want to work in the area. It's no different for people born in Québec. We learn french at home and then work really hard to learn english for work.

btilly 11y ago
Consider this. I am a Canadian anglophone from British Columbia with highschool French. My children have been raised in the USA with no French. It would be easier for me to take a job and move my family to The Netherlands than to Montreal. (Not a hypothetical example. I turned down an offer a few years ago at a company that wanted to hire me there. My children would have had to learn Dutch, but would have gone to school in English.) If you are founding a company and want access to anglophone talent, would you prefer to start it in Montreal or Amsterdam? What are the economic implications of this fact for Quebec? Quebec has made a decision to value remaining French above economic growth. That's somewhat reasonable. But if you've chosen that, you should be honest with yourselves about the choice you made. And shouldn't be puzzled that your economy has not done so well.
- Raphmedia 11y ago
  For a lot of people, it is more important to be strong in our values than to ignore them for the sake of the economy even if it means losing economical growth. For Québec to be strong it needs to be true to itself. Selling out our heritage for profit would be unthinkable. You could argue that some laws make no sense and I would agree on some points but people are very afraid to lose what makes Québec what it is and some harsh measures are put in place.
  - btilly 11y ago
    As I said, the decision is somewhat justifiable. But there are plenty of comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10888145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10888145 which show no awareness of how policy actually translated into economic effects. I believe that you should either make the decision with full awareness of consequences, or else make the opposite decision. But don't make the decision and then be dishonest about what the consequences were.
serge2k 11y ago
> Bilingualism is strong here, pick it up if you want to work in the area or I could work anywhere else in Canada or the US and not have to.
- Raphmedia 11y ago
  It's a complicated issue. There is a strong wish to stay true to our cultural heritage and stay true to our endangered roots as French Canadians. Québec has been fighting pressure to abandon the french language for ages. This is why we have things such as the "Loi 101" and the "Charte de la langue française". It makes sure that people can go in a coffee and order in french without any problems. You would think this is a non-issue, why force people to speak and write french? It's easy to think that because most of the province is french business and strangers are is going to standardize to french but it's not true. Even with the laws that we have in place, there are a lot of shops or restaurants where they can only offer service in english. It's a constant uphill battle and while some laws make no sense, it's better than having no laws or regulations. Yes, it is very hard to come and live in Québec if you are not willing to put time and effort to learn french. That's exactly the way we want it. Sometimes the province is seen as racist and backward from the outside. The truth is that we are a very welcoming people but only to those who acknowledge and try to understand our cultural heritage and the fight that is being fought to stay true to our values despite all the pressure to change.
  - drzaiusapelord 11y ago
    >Sometimes the province is seen as racist and backward from the outside. The truth is that we are a very welcoming people but only to those who acknowledge and try to understand our cultural heritage and the fight that is being fought to stay true to our values despite all the pressure to change. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric someone from the American south would say about fighting gay marriage or keeping blacks out of their neighborhoods. Yet when it comes to the terrible policies of francophiles, we're supposed to pretend this rhetoric is valid?

btilly 11y ago

Consider this. I am a Canadian anglophone from British Columbia with highschool French. My children have been raised in the USA with no French. It would be easier for me to take a job and move my family to The Netherlands than to Montreal. (Not a hypothetical example. I turned down an offer a few years ago at a company that wanted to hire me there. My children would have had to learn Dutch, but would have gone to school in English.) If you are founding a company and want access to anglophone talent, would you prefer to start it in Montreal or Amsterdam? What are the economic implications of this fact for Quebec? Quebec has made a decision to value remaining French above economic growth. That's somewhat reasonable. But if you've chosen that, you should be honest with yourselves about the choice you made. And shouldn't be puzzled that your economy has not done so well.

Raphmedia 11y ago
For a lot of people, it is more important to be strong in our values than to ignore them for the sake of the economy even if it means losing economical growth. For Québec to be strong it needs to be true to itself. Selling out our heritage for profit would be unthinkable. You could argue that some laws make no sense and I would agree on some points but people are very afraid to lose what makes Québec what it is and some harsh measures are put in place.
- btilly 11y ago
  As I said, the decision is somewhat justifiable. But there are plenty of comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10888145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10888145 which show no awareness of how policy actually translated into economic effects. I believe that you should either make the decision with full awareness of consequences, or else make the opposite decision. But don't make the decision and then be dishonest about what the consequences were.

serge2k 11y ago

> Bilingualism is strong here, pick it up if you want to work in the area or I could work anywhere else in Canada or the US and not have to.

Raphmedia 11y ago
It's a complicated issue. There is a strong wish to stay true to our cultural heritage and stay true to our endangered roots as French Canadians. Québec has been fighting pressure to abandon the french language for ages. This is why we have things such as the "Loi 101" and the "Charte de la langue française". It makes sure that people can go in a coffee and order in french without any problems. You would think this is a non-issue, why force people to speak and write french? It's easy to think that because most of the province is french business and strangers are is going to standardize to french but it's not true. Even with the laws that we have in place, there are a lot of shops or restaurants where they can only offer service in english. It's a constant uphill battle and while some laws make no sense, it's better than having no laws or regulations. Yes, it is very hard to come and live in Québec if you are not willing to put time and effort to learn french. That's exactly the way we want it. Sometimes the province is seen as racist and backward from the outside. The truth is that we are a very welcoming people but only to those who acknowledge and try to understand our cultural heritage and the fight that is being fought to stay true to our values despite all the pressure to change.
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  >Sometimes the province is seen as racist and backward from the outside. The truth is that we are a very welcoming people but only to those who acknowledge and try to understand our cultural heritage and the fight that is being fought to stay true to our values despite all the pressure to change. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric someone from the American south would say about fighting gay marriage or keeping blacks out of their neighborhoods. Yet when it comes to the terrible policies of francophiles, we're supposed to pretend this rhetoric is valid?