$603M to keep French vital
Jean-François Roberge has announced a $603M budget to slow the decline of French, including helping more francophones to immigrate. Maintaining the higher tuition fees for Canadians from other provinces is praised as “strong action.”
Not everyone is agreed that French is in decline here, but it will play well in the regions.
CTV mentions how Quebec hopes to make major streaming companies carry more French‑language content.
azrhey 15:33 on 2024-04-28 Permalink
…”helping more francophones [of the right skin complexion and/or religion] to immigrate”….
There fixed it for them….
Uatu 17:36 on 2024-04-28 Permalink
Yeah sure. Just distract everyone from the recent announcement about how much more the big owe upgrade will cost and from the recent “let them eat cake” announcement from Genevieve Guilbeaut regarding public transit.
jeather 19:11 on 2024-04-28 Permalink
Well half of that appears to go to French language courses which, whether or not there is a decline, is a good place to put money.
qatzelok 11:27 on 2024-04-29 Permalink
Here’s a really interesting documentary from 1969 which depicts the decline of French in Acadia. Listen to how limited the vocabulary and syntax are at that point among “francophone” New Brunswickers.
https://www.onf.ca/film/eloge_du_chiac/
jeather 12:36 on 2024-04-29 Permalink
And “Another $64.9 million will be dedicated to improving students’ mastery of French through programs including those that promote reading, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said” which, given the state of literacy in this province, is also a good place to put money. So we’re at almost 400 million on various kinds of language courses, and another 190 on cultural events which is fine. I’m not convinced that 13 million on “French-language scientific publications and communications campaigns” or 18 on a dashboard about language stats is necessary, but the vast majority of this money seems perfectly reasonably spent (in theory, obviously we don’t know how things will work out in practice), even if you don’t accept the argument that French is in decline.
Blork 14:32 on 2024-04-29 Permalink
I tend to agree with jeather. Spending money on language and literacy is good news. What remains to be seen is the tone of the programs that are developed and/or enhanced. Will it be French lessons with kindness, enthusiasm, and encouragement, or French lessons under the hell of a boot?
Possibly related true anecdote: when I first arrived here I took French lessons in night classes at the FACE school on University. The first round was lead by a Tunisian man with odd orange hair. He was kind, friendly, encouraging, and didn’t dwell on people’s mistakes. Everyone flourished. The next level was taught by a woman right out of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” She had her hair in a tight bun and was strict and dictatorial and sometimes downright mean. She treated us like children (we were all adults) and only stopped short of rapping our knuckles with a ruler. I quit half way through and never went back.
Now that was two separate teachers within the same program. So yes, it can be difficult to set an across-the-board tone from the higher bureaucratic levels. Or is it? Surely there can be some kind of mission statement or whatever that specifies the type of pedagogy to be used, and careful wording of the mission and goals as they roll out the program.
But I think that’s wishful thinking when it comes to this government, who will most likely just polish their boot heels and try to pound that French into us unwelcome immigrants and anglos.
Kate 14:38 on 2024-04-29 Permalink
The French teachers we had in high school were a mixed bag, but the overall tone was that our not knowing French was a moral failure on our part. We should already know it, how was it possible we didn’t?
Ian 14:53 on 2024-04-29 Permalink
In the Continuing Education programs at the CEGEP I work at we have been informed that any program funded by the government (like retraining programs through EI) now require a French proficiency component, too. So even a 60 hour course now also requires French lessons. That 603 million is going to go fast.
@Blork FACE regular school isn’t much better, then main primary school French teacher on the English side not only wasn’t a native French speaker, but used to confuse avoir and être. This is the same school where children were punished for not speaking French at recess.
Kate 17:51 on 2024-04-29 Permalink
One of my high school French teachers was a man from Hungary. He was one of the nicest teachers in the school but he knew French as he might know Latin – an academic subject, not a language being spoken all around us outside.
jeather 07:43 on 2024-04-30 Permalink
They’re giving a whole 7.8 million for help with housing, which does show a lot about priorities.
Ian 09:27 on 2024-04-30 Permalink
We need to start a whisper campaign that a lack of affordable housing is really what’s causing the decline of French in Quebec.