4 ms·

Hopefully they don't attempt to mimic Quebec's Language Police...

manarth 10y ago
The Académie française predates the Office québécois de la langue française by over 300 years. That discussion has been going for a long time.
- miguelrochefort 10y ago
  As far as I know, France still allows McDonald's to sell "McNuggets" and people to register companies with English names.
  - mraison 10y ago
    True, however all ads in English or any other foreign language must be accompanied by a translation.
eniotna 10y ago
Why is the language policy in Quebec bad? From my understanding, it was created to protected their right to be served in their native language. Not everyone has the luxury to learn and speak English fluently.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  It's bad because people should be free to use whatever language they want to use. Dictating the size of signs in French and other such nonsense serves no good, and in fact is one of the reasons why Quebec is not exactly a hotbed of progress. (To put it very mildly.) Isolation because of language is something fairly unique to Francophone areas, you see the same in Belgium. Quebec is near the bottom of the pack when it comes to per capita GDP, close to the Maritime provinces and that's including all the government entities present there. If Quebec would let go of the 'French first' mentality it would likely recover at some point in the next two decades but creating this barrier to commerce has not served it well.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - eniotna 10y ago
    I have to disagree with you, not everything is about money or commerce. Laws are put in place to protect people, so that everyone feels like they are part of the society they build. Honestly, it's about respect for the local people. I don't see how having a sign in both French and English so that people can understand you better is a big deal.
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      It's easy to say 'not everything is about money or commerce' if the rest of the country is being heavily taxed to support that region. This is in the end not about having the sign in both French and English, the government can do with its signs whatever they want with their signs. They are telling people what to do with signs that are not theirs. There is no 'protection' to be had from signs, nor is it a sign of disrespect to have a sign in English only. There are plenty of 'English only' signs where I live and it's neither French speaking nor English speaking and nobody actually cares because they don't see it as a sign of disrespect or feel that they need to be protected. If the Quebec government would combat corruption and actual crime as zealously as they go overboard on how-high-the-lettering-on-your-English-sign-is then Quebec would be in better shape already. As for the last part of your comment: it isn't a big deal, that's the whole point, so don't make the language of a sign into a big deal. In fact, don't make language into a big deal. There is no need to protect it, it will change over time and fighting that will hurt you more than that it will help because of the inevitable isolation it will cause.
kps 10y ago
Similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergonha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergonha
- wott 10y ago
  This article, gee... :-) it was obviously written by Occitan activists. One hint: nobody spoke 'Occitan', that's a modern artificial construction, based on a unification spread after the languages were already dying (such artificial unifications can work, like in the case of Basque, but this one never took off). The languages were different from an area to another even though they shared a large common root, and even different from a valley from another at my place, where communication is difficult for geographical reasons. So just imagine the differences across the supposed 'Occitan' area that occupies half of France, on areas that were not under the same rule and had no peculiar communication! I remember the reaction of my old uncle from the center of France, the day some of those activists told him he was an Occitan speaker: "what the heck is that? We never spoke it. So now we are supposed we were speaking Occitan? Like the people from the South? First news!" What's funny is that most Occitan activists I met are not true speakers: they learned it as a foreign language, if I may say so, and it shows! they have a terrible French accent when they speak, and they use typical French turns of phrase (as when I speak and write English :-) ).

The Académie française predates the Office québécois de la langue française by over 300 years. That discussion has been going for a long time.

miguelrochefort 10y ago
As far as I know, France still allows McDonald's to sell "McNuggets" and people to register companies with English names.
- mraison 10y ago
  True, however all ads in English or any other foreign language must be accompanied by a translation.

eniotna 10y ago

Why is the language policy in Quebec bad? From my understanding, it was created to protected their right to be served in their native language. Not everyone has the luxury to learn and speak English fluently.

jacquesm 10y ago
It's bad because people should be free to use whatever language they want to use. Dictating the size of signs in French and other such nonsense serves no good, and in fact is one of the reasons why Quebec is not exactly a hotbed of progress. (To put it very mildly.) Isolation because of language is something fairly unique to Francophone areas, you see the same in Belgium. Quebec is near the bottom of the pack when it comes to per capita GDP, close to the Maritime provinces and that's including all the government entities present there. If Quebec would let go of the 'French first' mentality it would likely recover at some point in the next two decades but creating this barrier to commerce has not served it well.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- eniotna 10y ago
  I have to disagree with you, not everything is about money or commerce. Laws are put in place to protect people, so that everyone feels like they are part of the society they build. Honestly, it's about respect for the local people. I don't see how having a sign in both French and English so that people can understand you better is a big deal.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    It's easy to say 'not everything is about money or commerce' if the rest of the country is being heavily taxed to support that region. This is in the end not about having the sign in both French and English, the government can do with its signs whatever they want with their signs. They are telling people what to do with signs that are not theirs. There is no 'protection' to be had from signs, nor is it a sign of disrespect to have a sign in English only. There are plenty of 'English only' signs where I live and it's neither French speaking nor English speaking and nobody actually cares because they don't see it as a sign of disrespect or feel that they need to be protected. If the Quebec government would combat corruption and actual crime as zealously as they go overboard on how-high-the-lettering-on-your-English-sign-is then Quebec would be in better shape already. As for the last part of your comment: it isn't a big deal, that's the whole point, so don't make the language of a sign into a big deal. In fact, don't make language into a big deal. There is no need to protect it, it will change over time and fighting that will hurt you more than that it will help because of the inevitable isolation it will cause.

kps 10y ago

Similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergonha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergonha

wott 10y ago
This article, gee... :-) it was obviously written by Occitan activists. One hint: nobody spoke 'Occitan', that's a modern artificial construction, based on a unification spread after the languages were already dying (such artificial unifications can work, like in the case of Basque, but this one never took off). The languages were different from an area to another even though they shared a large common root, and even different from a valley from another at my place, where communication is difficult for geographical reasons. So just imagine the differences across the supposed 'Occitan' area that occupies half of France, on areas that were not under the same rule and had no peculiar communication! I remember the reaction of my old uncle from the center of France, the day some of those activists told him he was an Occitan speaker: "what the heck is that? We never spoke it. So now we are supposed we were speaking Occitan? Like the people from the South? First news!" What's funny is that most Occitan activists I met are not true speakers: they learned it as a foreign language, if I may say so, and it shows! they have a terrible French accent when they speak, and they use typical French turns of phrase (as when I speak and write English :-) ).