Pourquoi l'anglais

[sybaritic]

two English cents

Perhaps this comment has already been made in French, which I wasn't able to read; if so forgive me please.

My short answer is that I believe that the board is intended for an international audience rather than a local one, and that this is as the readers and (perhaps more to the point) the advertisers wish. English is simply the most universally used language around the world, and of visitors to the board. Communicate on the board in French, and fewer readers will understand what you are saying. That is a practical reality, not a value judgement.

Certainly Montreal would lose much of its charm for many of its visitors if it were not French in character! This is not an attempt to subvert the local culture.

 

[Techman]

For Backdoorman

First thing, French as a language is not in danger, not here or in the world in general. Second thing, Quebec was never a country. It was a colony of France which was taken by the British. In case you forgot Montcalm lost at the Plains of Abraham. France abandoned the colony of New France soon after. The French inhabitants remained here due to the good graces of the British and were allowed and encouraged to flourish. Third thing, The countries you mention are just that, countries not provinces.

Whenever I hear a seperatist get up on his soapbox and start crying about how things will never be right until they get their country it makes me think of the term they love to use to describe themselves...Pur Laine, and how appropriate it is for them. They are mostly just sheep following whoever the latest man who would be king happens to be. It's time for them to realize that if they ever get what they want that man will be just waiting to shear off their wool. If you are so sure of yourselves why do you not ask the real question during the next referendum instead of some convoluted trick question designed to get the answer you so dearly desire. I suggest a new motto for the seperatist movement: We are the Borg, resistance is futile, truth is irrelevant, you will be assimilated.

As far as language is concerned everyone should post in the language they feel like posting in. If you are more comfortable posting in French, there is no reason you should not do so. Those who do not understand can ask someone to translate and it will be a pleasure for one of us to do so. And before someone accuses me of being a racist anglo, I happen to be a Quebecer whose mother tongue is French and I am fluently bilingual. I prefer to post in English so that my posts can be read by the majority of the visitors to this forum especially our US friends. If anyone has a problem with that, well too bad

 

[mr.magoo]

quand c est question pour critiquer la baise d hier soir ca tombe pas mal un language international!! anglais ou francais.... omega c est pas un lettre grecque ca???

 

[orallover]

quand c est question pour critiquer la baise d hier soir ca tombe pas mal un language international!! anglais ou francais.... omega c est pas un lettre grecque ca???

lol. I cannot help laughing/smiling

 

[mrten]

anglais

And so it starts. So there was this fat women working at Eaton's in the 60's, turning tricks in the changing rooms, trying to make a couple of bucks on the side and................. Well you get the idea.

 

[orallover]

And so it starts. So there was this fat women working at Eaton's in the 60's, turning tricks in the changing rooms, trying to make a couple of bucks on the side and................. Well you get the idea.

This, I don't get it

 

[mrten]

for orallover

One of the popular myths from the "quiet revolution" was that there was a fat english woman working at Eaton's who couldn't speak a word of french. It was an insult to le "pure laine" who couldn't be served in their own language and a favorite topic around separatist dinner tables.

 

[mr.magoo]

anybody up for a language debate....??

 

[wakeman]

Pour JacknJill, si on le traduit littéralement, "Thread" est un "fil", mais je pense qu'on pourrait mieux le traduire par "filon".

W.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I don't understand most of this thread. Can someone translate the whole thing for me in one paragraph? Just the basic points............

 

[wakeman]

Curieux! La vision de l'anglais vue de Montréal versus hors Montréal.

La forte concentration d'anglophone et aussi de plus en plus d'allophones a créé un sentiment qu'ils sont menacés chez beaucoup de francophones. Un fait en passant, le nombre de Montréalais parlant français à la maison est même en légère hausse ces dernières années. L'anglais a la tendance inverse. Les langues qui seraient le plus en croissance actuellement à Montréal sont l'arabe et l'espagnol.

Je viens d'un petit village des Cantons de l'Est, pas très loin de celui de Maylee. Même si la majorité était francophone, il y avait beaucoup d'anglophones et le bilinguisme (même imparfait) était vu comme quelque chose de normal, autant des anglos que des francos. Lorsque votre interlocuteur s'adressait en anglais, la réplique se faisait dans la même langue. Idem pour le français. Parfois, il y avait des discussions bilingues et personne ne s'en formalisait. Lorsqu'on lisait dans les journaux les conflits linguistiques à Montréal, on avait presque l'impression qu'ils parlaient d'un autre pays et je crois qu'on était très bien comme çà.

En bref, que chacun parle la langue dans laquelle il est à l'aise. Quant à moi, ce site est une occasion en or de dérouiller mon anglais.

W.

 

[The_Gentleman]

Il serait prétencieux de croire qu'une majorité de francophones utilisent l'internet pour trouver l'escorte de leur choix. En fait, il est clair que les sites de ce type sont majoritairement anglophones et que les clients qui utilisent les services d'escortes sur internet sont majoritairement anglophones aussi. J'étais curieux à ce sujet, et j'ai demandé à mes dernières "conquêtes" de me dire si elles voyaient plus de francophones que d'anglophones. Leur réponse insinuait que la majorité des clients provenant d'internet étaient anglophones, et que les clients francophones avaient déniché l'information les concernant à travers d'autres sources. Jusqu'à quel point ont-elles raison? Je ne sais franchement pas. Je peux simplement dire que le merb "get together" dont j'ai eu l'honneur d'assister -le premier en fait- était majoritairement anglophone.

Est-ce si difficile de s'adapter et de rédiger nos "reviews" en anglais? Surtout lorsque nous nous retrouvons sur un site qui est parcouru par des hommes de provenances aussi diverses mondialement, et partageant l'anglais comme langue commune? Laissons de côté les sous-entendus historiques et les combats stériles reliés à la langue. L'anglais est -et restera- la langue des affaires, et de la transmission des idées sur internet. Ai-je une profonde attache à la langue de Molière? Bien sur... mais la réalité étant ce qu'elle est, ne supportons pas notre propre ignorance en faisant de l'anglais notre "langue antagoniste", sous le faux prétexte de protéger la culture francophone. C'est un vieil argument qui est vide de sens en 2005. Je parle 8 langues, et j'en suis fier.

Lest's keep merb in English!

p.s.: "thread" en francais s'écrit "fil de discussion".

 

[loves-women]

Une grande question existentielle
Sur MERB on retrouve +/- 98 % des commentaires en anglais. A toute les fois où j’expédie un PM a un quelqu’un, il me répond dans un excellent français !
Une fois, alors que je me forçais pour écrire en anglais, quelqu’un m’a dit d’écrire en français parce que tout le monde comprenait¸ou presque.
Alors pourquoi tout le monde écrit en anglais, parfois même un mauvais anglais. Y a-t-il quelqu’un qui est gêné de sa langue ?

The first question that comes to mind is "is your question a troll"?
Are you asking this to get anyone's ire up? Or, are you just bored?

Perhaps the reason that you are responded to in French is that the Anglos that have done so speak/write French reasonably well and that they are being polite. I do not believe that they are doing so out of respect for the oppressed majority, but, rather out of respect to someone who is perceived to be linguistically challenged

On another note: I find it interesting that most SPs are francophone and francophone hobbyists are at an English site looking for info.

Are there any French sites out there?

 

[ManAboutTown]

While I can express myself in both french and english, I choose to post here and answer this thread in english for some very practical reasons. First and foremost, there is a large percentage of members and more importantly lurkers coming to this board from outside Montreal. They intend a trip to Monteal area, and would like to take part in the pure pleasure that is the adult entertainment of the area. Second, and just as important, I see the trend of language on this board and I follow it. If I wanted a french version of merb, I would go to lahttps://merb.cc or merbif.ca or something similar.

There is a very common error made in the Quebec language debate, one that causes no end of grief for Quebecers: The rest of the world isn`t going to spend the time to learn to speak french just to deal with you. Very simply, quebec is but a little dot of population in the North American sea. It only takes 3 boroughs of New York to cover the entire french speaking population of Quebec. If you want to attract the tourist dollar, if you want to work in North America, and if you want to communicate with the majority of neighbors you need to understand english (or spanish... french is a distance third in NA now). Accept the fact that you are a minority, work with it. I repect your desires and do not complain if you want to exercise those desires by posting in French. Don`t stop because of me.

However, your posts won`t be understood by many, the information you provide will be lost to a majority of the visitors here, and as such, you have limited YOURSELF based on your choice of language to communicate to the world in. It isn`t to say no to French, but it is to see, understand, and accept the realities of living in the world rather than a closed room.

I am a big supporter of french culture, having worked on movies and videos destined for the french marketplace. I am a big supporter of people`s rights to do whatever they like. I also hope that each of these individual people will be sensitive to the world they find themselves in, and realize that there is a time and place for everything, even when dealing with language issues.

MATt

 

[EagerBeaver]

Let me add to MatT's post the following: where I live (Connecticut) there are no Francophones. The only language I hear being spoken here in CT apart from English is Spanish, as we have a large population of hispanics in the urban areas of my State. There is simply no opportunity for the typical American to learn French because we are not exposed to it at all. Basically, we are all Anglophones here. That is not going to change.

 

[BackDoorMan]

In Rome, Do As Romans

Many imperialistics people forget that Quebec was a french colony invaded by the british empire (the sent Admiral Nelson and navigator James Cook before ending the war with James Wolfe).

TECHMAN: being a colony before the invasion is not an arguments to block a nation to become a country. In 1783, 13 british colonies became, with help of George Washington and FRANCE, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. So what is good for american must be good for us, no??

In fact, anlgos just want to keep control of Quebec for income tax matters and economy advantage. THERE IS NO REASON for them to try to understand and mix-share their laws with us, because as a DIFFERENT CULTURE, english canadians are different either.

IN ROME, DO AS ROMAN. In Quebec, speak french. Period. I speak english in Connecticut and I speak spanish in Santiago (even in Miami by the way....very strange, no? )

But when I try to speak french in the rest of Canada (except Acadia)...I am rejected!! I spent A LOT of time in rest of Canada....and rarely I was welcomed to speak french (the other official language). I have been told that in BC, do as BC. Same in Newfoundland. I have been told that is disrespect to impose french when all people around are anglos.

SOOOO....Denying french in Quebec is a pure form of DISRESPECT either. People here are willing to speak english, but not to help newcomers to speak english and make the french community ignored for its difference.

In other part of the world, it is DISRESPECT to do not speak language (or at least try) of the native their.

I write here in english to be well understood for the few arrogants that I can reach that still deny to speak french in a place that should be a french country since a while........

 

[The Snark]

being a colony before the invasion is not an arguments to block a nation to become a country. In 1783, 13 british colonies became, with help of George Washington and FRANCE, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. So what is good for american must be good for us, no??

Absolutely. And, seeing that the Cree, the Huron, the Innu and the Mohawks were all colonized by the French, I assume that you also support the establishment of independent countries for them as well. To say otherwise would make you a hypocrite, no?

In fact, anlgos just want to keep control of Quebec for income tax matters and economy advantage. THERE IS NO REASON for them to try to understand and mix-share their laws with us, because as a DIFFERENT CULTURE, english canadians are different either.

Uh, any respectable accountant would tell you that Quebec receives far more in federal expenditures than it contributes in tax money. In other words, Quebec is an economic sinkhole for the rest of Canada. Therefore, one can only assume that English Canadians support the inclusion of Quebec in Canada for cultural reasons; they believe that the differences between the two cultures are a source of strength rather than weakness.

IN ROME, DO AS ROMAN. In Quebec, speak french. Period. I speak english in Connecticut and I speak spanish in Santiago (even in Miami by the way....very strange, no? )

This is cyberspace, where the lingua franca is English. So, by your logic, you should post here in English. And speak French to the fat lady at Eaton's.


A modest proposal: since the existence of anglophones and other undesirables are such an offence to your sense of national purity, why don't you send them all to concentration camps, where they won't be able to infect the body politic? This seems to have worked quite well in Germany and the former Yugoslavia.

 

[ck_nj]

To add a little to EagerBearver's good point, living in the US (New York City area), I was told by my parents to learn Spanish in school (I wanted to learn French) because they said more people speak it here than French. And they were right. I actually still use my Spanish to this day because of several jobs I have held over the years where I had to use it. I learned some basic French later on in adult school classes and found it easy to learn because of the similarities between both French and Spanish.

On a side note, I have noticed on my last few trips to Montreal that a lot of Spanish-speaking people are living in or visiting Montreal. I noticed this especially in the Latin section, when I used to stay at the Renaissance Montreal, on Avenue du Parc (the old Hotel du Parc, now converted to McGill student housing). It was funny when I spoke Spanish several times to the fellow visitors, because they were surprised that a non-Spanish person (me) could speak to them in a language other than French or English.

I also read a few years ago in the Gazette that Spanish is gaining prominience as the 3rd language of Montreal.

But I will tell you that I always love practicing my basic French whenever I visit Montreal (which actually will be this weekend ). One of the reasons why I love your city (besides the beautiful women) is hearing the language itself.

CK

 

[spiky]

Shark...

A modest proposal: since the existence of anglophones and other undesirables are such an offence to your sense of national purity, why don't you send them all to concentration camps, where they won't be able to infect the body politic? This seems to have worked quite well in Germany and the former Yugoslavia.[/QUOTE]


I think you are "out of range" Shark boy or simply not understanding BDM opinion...

Spiky

 

[B1G]

Can anyone here imagine the amount of time, money, and resources the world would save if we only had one language?

I'm french and both my parents are french. I was sent to an english school because my father did not want me to have the problems he had getting a job. You see, back then (before Rene Leveque and his separatiste movement) you had to know english to get a good job in Montreal.

Even having this background I still don't understand why people are so hung-up on wanting to 'defend' thier language or not lose thier ethenic roots. Evolution is all about making changes and I think simplifying communications around the world could only be a good thing. Ethenic roots, well it's history and I think it should be reserved for history books.

Let's learn about our roots but not let them get in the way of evolution.