Studies about French
The OQLF has a new raison-d’être study out, saying that use of French is declining in retail but that young people don’t care. Jean‑François Roberge says we must demand to be served in French, and to complain to the OQLF when we’re not.
Another study, this one by the Conference Board of Canada, says that 35% of the francophone immigrants who come to Quebec and Ontario don’t stick around, and that language is not the reason they leave. Some immigrants, regardless of language, change their minds for all kinds of reasons. Maybe they were expecting a home hockey team that wins?
Yet another study, this one by language commissioner Benoît Dubreuil, says the presence of English at Quebec’s colleges and universities must be limited so that 85% of students here study only in French.
Blork 11:26 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
It should be noted that “don’t stick around” means they leave Canada, not just Quebec and Ontario.
Side note: Government policies based on making people care about something they don’t care about… how well does that usually work out?
DeWolf 12:03 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
I’d be curious to see how 35% compares to the historical average of immigrants leaving Canada, because from what I remember in my various history classes, a fairly large minority of immigrants have always left, either to go back home or move to another country.
rob 12:07 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
Canada isn’t the green pastures of yesterday. Rent, groceries & the job market are obviousl factors that are making people change their mind.
Joey 14:33 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
A not insignificant number of French-speaking immigrants to Quebec are women from North Africa who might choose to be, oh I don’t know, teachers, and whose choice of clothing might violate some new laws in this province.
Joey 14:46 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
I thought that Devoir op-ed would at least pretend to explain why 85% is the right figure, but it doesn’t – it only says that, in addition, the government must act urgently to… change the cultural consumption habits of kids. If that’s your best idea, maybe your ideas aren’t ready for debate in the public square…
Ephraim 15:58 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
Two words… Zipf’s law
Basically the fact that some English words are used in French simply isn’t a giant factor… it’s the Chicken Little nonsense! Basically the most often used words in French are… French. And that English words aren’t really that frequent. So basically we have to worry when people stop using Je, le, tu, de and … à.
English is about 30% French and yet, we don’t seem to worry about it.
Daisy 16:39 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
Why 85% is the right figure, according to the report (pp. 45-46), is because it is in between the current figure (22.4%) which is apparently too high, and the figure for elementary & secondary school (8.8 %). The report is available here: https://www.commissairelanguefrancaise.quebec/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/CLF_Rapport_langue_commune_2024-11-20.pdf
Robert H 16:59 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
We don’t worry about it, because we are not a puny linguistic, cultural minority vastly outnumbered on a continent that mostly speaks the world’s hegemonic tongue. Sneer as much as we like at the idea of an “existential threat” and the paranoid maneuvers of the OQLF, but that’s not the same as proving there’s nothing to the demographics behind their chronic anxiety.
Joey 17:17 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
My ‘from-France’ colleagues use way more English in everyday French speech than my Quebecois colleagues. Not even close.
Joey 17:19 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
Thanks Daisy, I didn’t have the stomach to go through the report. That’s an explanation, I suppose, but hardly a justification (the actual midpoint would be 15.6, but we’re obviously interested in cleaner targets). Why 15% and not 10%? Why not 0? Alas.
Tim S. 20:03 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
@Joey, doesn’t your (16:17) anecdote prove that Quebec’s approach is generally working?
(I will always remember talking to a Swiss francophone who openly laughed at me for fin-de-semaine. But man, I would love us to adopt septante and nonante)
Joey 20:55 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
@Tim S., only if the current thinking is that France is unlikely to stay French for much longer…
Ian 22:30 on 2024-11-20 Permalink
@Tim S Acadien uses septante & nonante.
Tim S. 12:39 on 2024-11-21 Permalink
I didn’t know that, very cool.
dhomas 14:14 on 2024-11-21 Permalink
I vote for using not only septante and nonante, but also “huitante” or “octante”, as they do in some places in Switzerland (or possibly even by Acadians?). No more of this “four twenties” nonsense!
@Tim S. I work for a French company. It took me a while to figure out that fin-de-semaine does actually mean something to them, which was causing some misunderstanding. I finally got it when I said something like “je vais à la montagne cette fin-de-semaine” and got a response like “ah, tu prends congé vendredi?”. “Fin de semaine” to my French colleagues is end-of-(work)-week, sort of like how we might use End of Day (EOD). As opposed to “weekend” (with a distinct French accent) which means, well, week-end.
CE 14:52 on 2024-11-21 Permalink
Only in one region of Nova Scotia (Pubnico) do Acadians use septante and nonante, everywhere else it’s soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix.