English heats up as work issue
Needing to speak English to get a job in Montreal is becoming a more high-profile issue, and the parallel story about whether judges in Quebec should be fluent in English is also simmering away.
What to say? Quebec doesn’t exist in a bubble. Businesses will always need people who can communicate with suppliers and customers outside Quebec and even with other branches of the same business in places where people don’t speak French. This can’t be changed by edict.
Jack 13:51 on 2021-03-10 Permalink
Anyone want to help me out here, what does “espace publique” mean in this context?
“Des voix s’élèvent pour dénoncer la place grandissante qu’occupe l’anglais dans la métropole, dans les milieux de travail comme dans l’espace public.”
NP 16:10 on 2021-03-10 Permalink
In this context, I think “espace publique” has the sense of “public square” or “public sphere”–i.e., the shared space of civic discourse.
Jack 17:06 on 2021-03-10 Permalink
That is what I thought to, so by implication English speakers are not welcome in the shared space of civic discourse. Where do we hide?
Kevin 20:32 on 2021-03-10 Permalink
We can’t because we will soon be the only ones left in Montreal
thomas 21:51 on 2021-03-10 Permalink
I did not realize that anglophones are being acquitted due to a lack of English speaking judges. Best treated minority in the world!
dhomas 08:17 on 2021-03-11 Permalink
Well, sure some jobs have an English requirement, but it’s almost impossible to get an interview if you don’t speak French. I have a friend who moved away from Montreal (to Australia!) because he couldn’t find work in his field here due to the French requirement.
Also, we are competing for jobs on a global scale now. Montreal has many advantages over other locales. Cost and bilingualism are two of them. My previous company, a tech company, was acquired by another company that also had offices in Seattle. Montreal talent is just as qualified; it is cheaper due to the Canadian dollar and lower salaries; bilingual Montrealers can also handle customers in all of North America (including Quebec), plus overflow from France (HR costs in France are astronomical). So the Montreal office grew, in part because of its bilingualism, not in spite of it.
But French is also a global language. And if our workers aren’t bilingual, there are others elsewhere that will be. Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria could all be competing for our French jobs in the future, if they’re not already. We’ve seen quite clearly during this pandemic that location is not too important as every can work remotely.
Ephraim 09:10 on 2021-03-11 Permalink
I’m trying to remember the statistic from the Quebec government study from years ago. Something like two-thirds of unilingual women will remain at or close to poverty all their lives because they are unilingual. (Doesn’t matter if unilingual Anglo or Franco, being unilingual has financial repercussions.