![Amélie Veyrat, 24, is from France and has experienced life in Vancouver and its difficulties. [Photo by Amélie Veyrat]](https://i2.wp.com/kwantlenchronicle.ca/beyondnews/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/1369073_10201344359589316_568019052_n.jpg)
Amélie Veyrat, 24, is from France and has experienced life in Vancouver and its difficulties. [Photo by Amélie Veyrat]
“There are no francophone communities [in B.C.] anymore. There used to be,” said UBC professor John Redmond. He spent 42 years teaching English as a second language and “about seven or eight years” teaching francophone Canadians students.
Richmond said that it would be about impossible to live in B.C. speaking only French. “It’s easier to speak Chinese here,” he said.
Amélie Veyrat, 24, is from France and came to Vancouver to study. She had some knowledge in English when she first arrived, but she said it would be difficult if she did not have. “I think it’s possible to live here and speak only French, but maybe you need to understand a little bit of English, and it’s still really hard.”
She said that although French is one of the official languages here, Mandarin would be more important for the business world as a second language.
There is a reason why B.C. does not use the other official language as much as other Canadian provinces. According to the Hello BC website, “B.C.’s first people may have journeyed to the region from Asia via a land bridge across the Bering Sea.”
In 1778, British Captain James Cook reached the west coast. B.C. was dominated by the British, while Quebéc was “discovered” when Jacques Cartier, who was sent of an expedition by the French king in 1534. According to the official tourist site of the Quebec government, it was only in 1763 that Quebec was transferred to the British Empire.
“In 1791, the Constitutional Act established two provinces in British North America: Upper Canada (Ontario), with an English-speaking majority, and Lower Canada (Québec), which had a French-speaking majority.”
There is some rivalry between the English-speakers in B.C. and French speakers in Quebec. According to Veyrat, people would be less angry with her when they realized she was from France.
“It happened a few times that people were annoyed to hear me speaking French with my friends on the bus, but then they would ask me if I were from Quebec, and they would become way nicer when realizing that I was from France,” she said. “A man told me one day, when I answered that I was from France, ‘Oh, so you speak real French! Not like them!”
According to Redmond, there are also disagreements between French people and Quebecois.
“At UBC, the most famous example was two groups of teachers,” he said. “We had one group from Quebec and one group from France. And the France teachers looked at the Quebec teachers like they were from the countryside, that they spoke bad French, they had bad accent and they were not sophisticated. And the Quebec teachers looked at the French teachers like they were arrogant snobs, with their noses stuck in the air.”
Redmond said that he taught English to more French-speakers from Quebec than from France, but that “the French are more comfortable speaking English than some of the Quebecois.”
“They are from a very strong country,” he said. “French people are never going to become English speakers (native speakers). For Quebec people, there is a danger when they leave Quebec that their children will not speak French.”
Redmond said that in Vancouver, bilingual schools are encouraged but for political reasons it is not like that in Quebec.
“In Quebec, if you are somebody who doesn’t speak English or French as their native language, you would have to go to French-language school, and your children would have to go to French-language school. So, in order to learn English they would have to go to a private ‘after school’,” he said.
Veyrat, a sociolinguistics student, feels that in a city like Vancouver, composed of many different languages, schools should have multilingual and multicultural education, and teach children to be more open to new cultures.
“So not only French, but other major languages should be privileged, heard and maybe taught in schools, or at least we should educate our kids to be more open to languages (and cultures), and not being afraid of learning them,” she said.
Alexandra Hawley
As someone who went to a Francophone High school, I really enjoyed this article. It reminded me of our own distinction between France French and Québec French, thankfully teachers from both origins got along. I loved that you delved into history and would have liked more on the political side.
It really is shame that Canada doesn’t offer more language options, or at least promotes openness to other cultures, especially when the country claims to be a multicultural hub.
Cindy St-Laurent
This article was really interesting to me because I am from Quebec and speak French fluently. You pretty much nailed every single problem that french speakers have in this province. Honestly though I do not understand the rivalry between English people from British Columbia and the French people from Quebec. It is very interesting to me though because when people learn that I am from Quebec they say they do not like us because of the politics which wasn’t discussed in this, but I can understand why since Quebec separating from the country is something that would need its own article. I do understand that forcing people to learn french is not necessary but I do think that teaching children languages is important. I myself took five years of Spanish through school. I would also like to point out that I spent five weeks in France in the summer of 2012 and there language is different. If you were to get a good comparison it would be the different between English from England and Canadian English. English from England is considered “proper” and Canadian english is considered “slang”, but at the end of the day what we communicate is important not the language or where it is from.
Aasim Raza
People should consider themselves lucky growing up in a country where two International languages are their official languages. I have met a lot of people here who are so reluctant to learn French. People need to realise that knowing a second language is an advantage and gives them an edge over those who can only converse in one language. Many students in high school instead of taking advantage of “free” French classes are never serious about it.
As far as the language rivalry is concerned, its common in every region, but this should not be made an excuse to hate on a language
Joao Vitor Correa
As everyone I do know Canada has 2 official languages, but I also know that – as in Switzerland and any other “more-than-one-language-speaking country”, having all people to know all the official languages is pretty much “impossible”. People from Vancouver really don’t have the need to speak French, as well as people from Quebec, especially the countryside, don’t have the need to speak English. Learning language at school, though, is really important for a kid – as mentioned in a comment before.