Speaking French in Canada

Let's talk about the confusion that I have about the francophone community in Canada.

First truth: when you think of Canada, you think of a bilingual country. Well, it is, there are people speaking French and there are people speaking English. And they all have learnt both in school. It just that there are historically anglophone cities and francophone cities, and practically, the ones living in an anglophone city, very rarely speak French or just don't speak at all (and vice-versa).

But there is the so called Official bilingualism in Canada that describes the policies, constitutional provisions, and laws that ensure the legal equality of English and French in political and juridic institutions of Canada, protect the linguistic rights of English and French-speaking minorities in different provinces, and ensure a level of government services in both languages across Canada.

I was terribly surprised to see that assuming that bilingualism, a lot of French-speaking people in an anglophone province would get mad if there is no waiter in a restaurant that can speak French. And they would speak French only or just leave for an other one.

I have to admit that before I came to Canada, I had in mind that a lot of people would be perfectly bilingual in every part of the country, but let's face it: how can you expect 34 million people to be fluent in both French and English, especially when a dozen million are immigrants and already speak a non-French, non-English language.

From the census in 2011, 98% of the population speak either English or French, 59.7% (57.8 speak English only) are native in English, and 23.2% are native in French (22.1 speak French only). 17.4% are considered bilingual English/French. Most of the canadian kids receive basic knowledge in French until high-school.

Just to make a point here, neither French nor English are actually native language in Canada, but the numerous aboriginal groups speak a lot of other dialects that are only considered with an official status in the Northern Territories. Most of these dialects have disappeared or will not survive in long term. English and French are spoken languages in Canada only since the 17th century. And I will just remind non-canadians that Canada is presently governed by the Queen of Great Britain, as part of the Commonwealth.

Most of the time Canada-wide firms have a name in English as well as in French, also for their advertisements. This means that I ear or read many French words everyday and most of the time I don't understand what they mean or I laugh so hard from the translation. There are also time when I get angry at the let's-translate-everything conspiracy.

Same on every edible product, everything needs yo be specified in both languages. And that's when it becomes strange and funny. Because there are different French languages spoken in Canada:

- French spoken by immigrants from France (they claim the right to frenchesize every word);
- Quebec French have their own dialect (old French);

- and Francophone outside Quebec (they are taught french French but speak something cruelly different from both French and Quebec French). 

There are pure French minorities in english-speaking regions as well as pure English-speaking communities in Quebec.

In France when you watch an american movie that has been translated in Quebecois French, you always get scared when they say names... they can't hide such a strong american accent that you couldn't hear until then. On the other hand, for the French-speaking community here it is unforgivable to see any English word that is not translated, may the translation be literal and mean something or not. Even better, French movie that made it over the Atlantic have for a title, the litteral French translation of their English title... one example: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain in France, Amélie in North America. And best example of all: The Hangover in North America became Very Bad Trip in France and Le Lendemain de veille (litterally, the day after the eve) in Quebec. Good struggle when you're looking for a movie at your nearest video store!

But you also have the people from France living in an english-speaking city. What scares me all the time is when they try to speak street names... every rule falls off. For example, a francophone company would write its address in French... I always wonder how the english-speaking mail-delivery man manages to accurately route the mail.

When I first came to Toronto, I had to make orders on the phone... every company as a service in French... but this is Quebecois French... and while the waiting time to get the customer service on the phone was usually shorter, I eventually ended up spending more time than if I had gotten the service in english... just because our French v.s. Quebecois communication was scrambled. And both the customer person and I ended up getting upset because none of us would make an effort to translate in the other language that we would never thought we didn't speak.

I guess it's hard for them to find French speaking people for customer service, so last time I naively asked for Service in French, they got me someone in English accompanied with on a third line, a English/French translator who translated literally every single word I'd say. I kindly declined the service of the translator and managed it myself in English.

There is one point I am confused about, is the claim francophones from Quebec make: they want to protect their culture and their language. And by doing so, they try to keep as much French as possible, and as I have previously stated they go as far as literally translating every single english expression. Just to cite a few: week-end (fin de semaine), snowboard (planche à neige), e-mail (courriel). These ones are ok (correct), but sometimes there is already a word in French to say it, but they had to put the literal translation from English into their vocabulary... and this is where I loose my mind. There IS already a French word to say melon d'eau (watermelon), this is PASTEQUE! There is already a word to say batterie (battery), this is PILE! What is the point? To me this is not protecting their culture, this is creating a new one.

While writing this post I discovered so many more examples listed here: this Wikipedia webpage is a gem! 

Don't take me wrong, this post is not meant to be an offense, neither for French nor English speaking people in Canada, I just try to understand or make a pattern. And I will certainly not feed any pro- or anti-Quebec debate, neither will I speak for or against its pride and independence.
I will say that I love Canada, the mix of cultures, of languages! I am trying so hard to stay here, multilingualism is so stimulating!

And to close that post, I will just notify that to apply for the permanent residency (in Quebec as well as for the the rest of Canada - the Quebec procedure is actually different) I need to pass a test in French that attests of my abilities to speak and write in my own mother tongue... just saying... and hope this will be french French... not some kind of quebeco-francophone dialect!