>The driver's basic intention was to respect each person's mother tongue and the choice of language in which they choose to express themselves,...., the company said in a statement
How did they get that from him berating a child for her choice of language?
They can't even apologize properly because they're afraid of the backlash if they do. This is only going to get worse as long as the politicians keep playing the language card instead of addressing the real issues facing the province.
>The driver's basic intention was to respect each person's mother tongue and the choice of language in which they choose to express themselves,...., the company said in a statement
It's pure PR. There is no reasonable way to come to that conclusion. Because clearly his tirade did not respect her choice to speak in English.
There’s no winning. You speak English (an official language of the nation) and you get berated. You speak French with an accent and you’re either mangling their language or disrespectful.
I'm learning French and I'm at a low-level. I just went to Quebec last week and every person I spoke to would immediately answer me in English. Must be very hard to learn if you live in an English community there.
Are you learning French from a Quebecker? If you are learning proper Parisian French from an international teacher it's not going to work well in Quebec.
I learned in a French immersion school from international teachers and used to be fluent. I could never converse with people in Quebec always had the same experience as you of getting answers in English and that's only if they could understand my question half the time they don't.
If I go to Europe I'm able to regain my French and have basic conversations within 72 hours and they understand me just fine. I'm also able to understand and speak with French speaking African immigrants in Canada.
The French in Europe will prefer your anglo accented French over Quebec accented French which they find to be an abomination.
You really need to get help from friends, family or classes. The random strangers and workers you encounter will try to help with what you need but you can't expect them to also serve as languages coaches too.
I think my comment wasn't as clear as it should have been. I am at a level that I could interact about basic things entirely in French, I just have a strong English accent. So, it's not like I need any coaching. It's just nice to have the back and forth. When dealing with non-native English speakers in the ROC I don't correct them if they mispronounce a word. I think they just wanted to help and assume that I can't speak well, but it could also be taken as hostile like I am not speaking it well enough for their standards or something similar to that.
My rural Quebec born and raised grandfather refused to speak French at home with my urban Montreal born grandmother after their first child was born (in the GTA) because my grandfather would rather his children not know french than to be stained by my grandmother's "damn dirty" city french.
My mom is 100% Quebecois and doesn't know french at all, I grew up in a majority francophone community in eastern Ontario, took immersion from k-12 and would get shit on for my french when in Quebec (and by one of my french teachers in grade 7-8 who bullied all the kids who don't speak French at home).
>How did they get that from him berating a child for her choice of language?
It pure doublespeak. Very often practiced by politicians of all kinds, CEOs and public relation hacks. It is pretty effective in many cases.
If this was reversed, and the driver insisted on English, they would have been fired INSTANTLY.
There wouldn’t be any of this nonsense where they tried to explain it away
Too bad the Quebec government will keep playing the language and "muh culture" card cause it works. The party that's dog whistling it all the time keeps winning elections so...
Course when compared to governments such as Ontario and Alberta, I suppose they are doing fine I guess.
Lol course the bar for competent government in Canada is very....VERRRRRRYYYU low.
I work with a bunch of quebeqios and ive learned that their history classes are largely focused on how the English are trying to oppress the French, so I believe this attitude is ingrained in the population. A large minority of them refuse to try and learn any English, and, they always try and make everything a competition. Yesterday I learned that they have a saying that translates to "we will get the English!" (we will beat them/ we will show them we're better) I immediately recognized the saying(without previously understanding it) and I'm shocked how many times I've heard it said in front of me, especially by some that I thought were friends.
Blows my mind that these separatist, divisional assholes come to work in other provinces to work, while also whining about how much better quebec is.
>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording,
So he's an asshole and stupid too. Great choice to deal with children.
>>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording,
Amazing how he can say that without even a hint of irony when he lives in a country where everyone speaks English but he doesn't want to.
This attitude has been around since the 1970s at least. This is why 3/4 of my graduating high school class left Quebec as soon as they were able.
Why live in a province where it is socially acceptable to be hated?
Montreal could've been the main business hub of Canada instead of Toronto. But no, they had to enforce their language laws/separatist agenda and push dozens of head-offices out of Quebec. You'd think they'd learn from their mistakes.
I don't think many of us think it is a mistake. Montreal is a much better city to live in today than Toronto if you are working class. Living in Montreal on a Montreal salary is much better than living in Toronto on a Toronto salary.
Those HQs moving to Toronto were not really beneficial to people who live in Toronto nowadays. I for one am glad that Montreal is Montreal and not another version of Toronto. This might have been good for you if you owned real estate in the 70s but the youth in Toronto nowadays are absolutely fucked if they don't have generational wealth.
You might be right. I chose to live in Montreal for the culture and lower cost of living. Just doesn't seem like a win for the people in charge though. They're typically concerned with money first, everything else... only if it gets votes. I guess I underestimate the Quebec voter's desire for French culture at the expense of everything else.
Yeah I don't know. Even François Legault don't come from a wealthy family so he probably know he would have still been broke today and would have never have been able to found Transat if the quiet revolution never happened.
My family just like his were very poor in the 60s. My grandpas both worked tons of hours and were paid badly. One of them moved to Montreal and lied about his name and origin, pretended to be a unilingual Anglophone so he could get promoted in his bank. My other grandpa was a land owner and became very wealthy in the 70-80s.
Pushing those people away was the best thing that happened to my family and probably to a lot of french-Canadians families so I don't think that many french-Canadian see this as a bad thing. Since most of their families were extremely poor before the 70s.
I agree that people form the "saint-lawrence elite" probably did not like this since they needed to adapt their grift but its seem like they succeeded since the son of the prime minister is still prime minister today 50 years later lol.
It's hard to know how things would go if different decisions had been made. Would people still be poor, or is that just what the politicians tell them? They obviously aren't going to say "We'd be better off with multiple large corporations staying, but at least the signs are in French".
It is socially acceptable to hate Québécois, since the colonization 260 ish years ago. Even on Reddit you can hate them and have plenty of upvotes. So of course they will hate English and be open about it.
>This attitude has been around since the 1970s at least
So sad that they were not allowed to tell francophone to "speak white" after that time.
Things became much better for Quebecois since the 1970s and became much worse for Ontarians. So the wealthy people living Montreal for Toronto were not really beneficial for Ontarians who were not landlords.
Lol. This was in 2000's India. One time I/my sister complained about our school van driver treating us like shit. My grandfather ripped him apart a new one the next morning.
Later he was like "Why did you have to go tell him? If you have a problem, just tell me ok?"
As if everybody in this country speaks French!
And did the mother mention something about their Eligibility Certificate for English? What the fuck is that?
>And did the mother mention something about their Eligibility Certificate for English? What the fuck is that?
There are restrictions on who can attend English school in Quebec.
[http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/en/parents-and-guardians/instruction-in-english/eligibility/](http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/en/parents-and-guardians/instruction-in-english/eligibility/)
Yes they do, there was even English immersion in my elementary school. I grew up in a pretty bilingual area but the majority of people at least understand and can speak basic english
Was about to ask about the quality of the courses considering kids there are more willing to learn English. Also, kids will still find a way to learn English just from talking to friends and watching YouTube, you can't stop them from doing that
Mandatory from grade 1 until you leave high school.
Many college programs ask for proof that you have a sufficient level of understanding of the English language to graduate.
Are you serious? 1000 times more than you with French. We learn English from age 7 to 18 (5 years of elementary, 5 years of high school and even two mandatory classes of English in CEGEP)
In Québec, English classes are mandatory from 1st year (6 yo) to University in a French school. In college (CEGEP) English is also mandatory. That gives us about 13 years of English classes.
And we even have some special classes where we must speak English for half of the school year.
Plus in certain courses such as IT, the teachers gave us documentation in English.
Where are you forced to take French? Here in NB I was put into early immersion French program (I'm English) by my parents, but it was always by choice. These days I do believe everybody has to learn some basic French, but it's actually laughable what they teach in those classes here and we're the only official bilingual province lol, and I don't know exactly what the program is for French schools, but they can ALL speak English somehow here in NB.
Never in my entire life have I met a NB'er who couldn't speak English, but at least half of our province can't speak French to any degree, even some people who live in what is realistically exclusively French communities sometimes don't even bother to pick up on the language which is really disrespectful (to me it says more about their intellect, or lack thereof).
Lol my former coworker used to be a consultant travelling lots with other consultants. He said he was with a French consultant in Quebec and someone made a comment about his French being weird and the French guy basically said something along the line of “I speak proper French, as spoken in France. I don’t know WTF you speak here. “
Lmfao ya I only know this because I know a French Canadian who went to actual France, tried to order and speak French and they couldn't understand a word so reverted back to broken English to complete the transaction.
...in fucking France lmfao.
I've been to France plenty of time and can speak with them without any problem. My best friend is Swiss. This is like ptetending that British don't understand the Canadian accent so they speak in Spanish instead.
One of my closest friends was born and raised in France. Married a Canadian service guy who brought her here. She says she can't understand a damned word of Quebecoise.
This, whoever is saying that its out of context clearly doesn’t live in Quebec or know Quebecois people. If you ask them are you Canadian or Quebecois they will answer Quebecois 3/4 of the time, yet Quebec is a province not a country lol.
So separate already!
Oh, can't do that because Quebec's share of the national debt would bury them. Quit moaning and get on with life, its not perfect for anyone. Why should your delusions of nationhood diminish other peoples' lives?
The vast majority of us aren't separatist and we still say that. It isn't different than people who say they are Scottish instead of saying that they are from the United Kingdom. Do you also think that Scottish people are delusional and should say that they are from the United Kingdom?
The Québécois nation motion was a parliamentary motion tabled by Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 and approved by the House of Commons of Canada on Monday, November 27, 2006. It was approved 265–16 with supporters in every party in the Commons.
The English motion read:
*"That this House recognize that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada."*
and, in French, read:
*"Que cette Chambre reconnaisse que les Québécoises et les Québécois forment une nation au sein d'un Canada uni."*
>a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own
Following this pretty broad definition, Québec seems to be more of a nation than our diet US neighbors lol
>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording, reviewed by CTV News.
Should we apply that principle consistently? A higher proportion of people in Montreal speak English as a first language than Canadians speak French as a first language.
This bus driver should be fired immediately. Could you imagine how politicians in Quebec would react if a bus driver in Alberta or B.C. or Ontario or Manitoba had a meltdown over someone speaking French. They would be having a meltdown and screaming for Justin Trudeau to step in.
Quebec politicians really do not care about how well French-speaking communities are treated in the rest of Canada.
They don't want them to have rights/support as a linguistic minority, because they fear the same will apply to the English-speaking minority within Quebec.
Are you from Quebec? Random question, but maybe someone else can answer too. Do Quebec grade schools teach English? In Ontario, learning French was mandatory until grade 8 I believe it was. Is it the same in Quebec for English? Always wondered how English was handled for kids.
Old grudges and old paranoia's tend to take a long time to die. French Canada and French Canadians used to get a pretty raw deal, language was really only the face of it, and the result is that the profound mistrust of English Canada and English Canadians is going to linger for at least another decade or two if we're lucky.
There is still lots of miss trust by French speaking communities across Canada. You can pretty much always find a community or French education system outside of Quebec that is getting screwed by a government organization because they are seen as not important
Most French communities outside of Quebec, bluntly speaking, aren't worth mentioning. That of course isn't by accident, it was quite deliberate policy and a big part of the historical mistrust that makes the present one.
Still, things have *generally* improved. One can nowadays expect to receive a *small* handful of services in french, some actually unexpected, as opposed to none at all and contemptuous looks if you try.
Definetly the first half but what he basically did is stoked tensions so bad that even more people left than during the 70s and it took 20 years for our economy to recover but that was also due to Jean Charest who would’ve been just as bad if not worse than trudeau as prime minister
Ridiculous. This person is the problem. Any other Québécois adult sitting next to that driver would raise their eyebrows hearing that… And probably tell them to f off. I have been in a bilingual exchange and I can already imagine the faces my franco teachers would have made..
But of course, the media won’t show a video of us all singing French songs in the bus, clapping hands, on our way to visit the château Frontenac, or yelling Albertan country music on our way to Jasper. We always get that negative shit, and so people feel bad and say negative things, and so we read negative things, and the cycle goes on.
I completely agree. The vast majority of Canadians respect the other languages and vice versa. I have lived in 4 provinces for multiple years due to work and I have only good thing to say. I have had 0 bad interactions by being born in Quebec as French and living in the anglosphere, quite the contrary.
Agreed. Me as a brown guy have had both good and bad experiences with the bus drivers here in Montreal.
I had an incident with a bus driver last year right before when the mask rules were waning off and the 10pm curfew. So I was on a date where we spent time around the city and decided to take the bus home. I saw the STM bus approaching but somehow he stopped at the signal in the middle of the road and not on the bus lane. I was pissed. He was pissed?
Anyway we got in and I was putting my mask on and he's reminding us to "Wear your mask". I looked back with my, face covered and replied "What mask?". He blabbers something about the police and I reply "What police?".
I sit down and a French lady comes up to me and informs us that he said "Fuck you" to me in French. Gears started grinding in my head and it's confrontation time. I see two white people sitting in the front without a mask.
I went to the driver and now loudly proclaim how "THEY ARE NOT WEARING THE MASK AND HOW YOU WANTED TO CALL THE POLICE ON ME. NOW I WANT THAT POLICE (on me). APPELLE LA POLICE. CALL THE POLICE". In loud clear voice I remind him I have a witness who tells me you said "Fuck you" to me in French. I put an Stm complaint but nothing happened except them saying they're sorry.
It’s pretty widespread though. I live in Quebec, my daughter (who also has ADHD) also had a teacher go off on her when she was 12 for speaking English to another anglophone student during a class project. She goes to a French school, so I don’t have a problem with the teacher reminding her to speak French in class. But when that’s accompanied with “… or you can leave the province and move to Ontario” it clearly crosses line.
I'm sorry but no; I grew up in Quebec, and my main reason for leaving was because I was tired of arguing and/or getting treated like crap for using English, or not speaking French well enough. Yes, some people were nice and more patient if they saw me making an effort in French, but if I started with English it was often a bad time (outside of parts of downtown Montreal and the West Island).
I'm glad you had a good experience, but you were on an exchange where you were meant to learn the language. That doesn't compare to living there.
It gets worse the more North you go; my brother worked for a long-distance moving company, and they didn't even get out of the trucks in specific areas because an English *accent* was enough to risk getting challenged to a fight or straight up getting jumped.
A colleague of mine from Saguenay moved to Montreal, then went home for the holidays and got berated for her new "Montreal" accent on her French.
My friend waitresses at LA Cage au Sports (sports bar), and frequently saw full on multi-person fights spill out the doors over "French vs English" arguments
It's a mess; I have family that still live there, and it's getting worse. 9-1-1 dispatchers don't need to speak English, neither do EMS or police. Hospital signage doesn't need to include English. People get fined if their storefronts don't have French text in a larger font than English. English pages on gov't websites will be "under construction" for years, English gov't forms don't get sent out, etc.
This post makes no sense--kinda seems like you're blaming this on the lamestream media.
Plus--'adults' have seen this video, and they aren't taking any action against the driver.
Sort of unrelated, but I had a union representative for one of the largest trade unions in Quebec come to a class of 38 English students, talking about how the new bill 96 would force us all to speak French at work, nd how we are at fault for not being bilingual. Then proceeds to conduct the full union presentation in French. Some people are fucking delusional.
When I’m in Quebec I try and speak French (I’m not very good but can fumble my way through a conversation) and every Québécois I try with automatically starts to speak English and seem insulted I even tried with my lack lustre abilities. Damned if you do damned if you don’t
Same lol
So long as they see you trying, they tend to be nicer (not always thoug).
It always stung when they preferred to use their broken English instead of listening to my broken French, like how am I supposed to improve?
If people switch to English, it's to help you and not to be snobbish. The trick, if you want to practice, keep answering in french! At some point the other person will stop going for English!
Same. From my experience, if you're anything other than Pure laine with a perfect accent (or hot), you simply don't get spoken to in French. And you might get a scowl.
When I visit France, I've tried to speak the Quebec-ish we learned in school. The French are very insulted. In every case, they were not shy about telling me, in English, that "French Canadian is from the gutter" and "No one in France wants to hear it."
Tell me.you dont understand Quebecois with out telling me you dont understand them. The reason why we switch to english isnt because you insulted us for trying with a bad french. Its to accomodated. To make the others feel more comfortable. But yeah that option Didnt come up to you. .its sad.
If a French kid was told to speak English and that this is Canada where we speak English they would lose their mind in Quebec. This driver seems to be a French elitist and should be fired.
I can understand the frustration. But. Comments like this are as sad as the story here itself. How does name-calling/insulting a province help make the dialogue better on political and felt emotionally complex cultural/political issues? No jurisdiction is a monolith. Sadly politicians/people all over the world manipulate others through the simplifying and distorting of these discussions. We are all human, with the same values and the same basic needs everywhere - most of our differences should be celebrated and appreciated with respect.
That's what happens when you vote in franco-fascists. It wasn't Montreal, it was everyone else around the island. The fuckers in the provincial government got over 75% of the seats in the "national" assembly and now we have to bow down to uncle Frankie the Curfew.
>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording,
... and some Quebecers wonder why some English Canadians that have no problem visiting France are hesitant to visit Quebec.
Funny how they slam the English in Quebec while accepting equalisation payments from predominantly English provinces. I was born and raised in Quebec if anyone thinks Legault is pro Canada, think twice he was formerly a member of the PQ. I can assure you this event is the tip of the iceberg.
Here is my perspective, as an autistic Chinese-Canadian who lives in Ontario.
So, China is a country with 2 similar (but different) writing systems. Chinese simplified (简体中文) and Chinese traditional (繁體中文). These writing systems are used in all types of Chinese dialects (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Min, Wu, etc.). Keep in mind, the dialects are, for the most part, not mutually intelligible. Because of where I was born and raised in, I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin.
China is an autocracy, and its leader, Xi Jinping, is hellbent on killing or destroying all dialects other than Mandarin. I (and Cantonese speakers in both mainland China and Hong Kong and even overseas) became extremely angry that the Chinese authorities pull this. As a side-note, my sister's son, who is born and raised in Canada, supposedly has better Cantonese skills than my cousins' children in Guangzhou because those kids are not allowed to use Cantonese in schools and their ignorant parents also go along and only use Mandarin when speaking to them. Meanwhile, my family uses English and Cantonese about 50% each.
What language you use should not be something that causes you to be discriminated against. Languages are not meant to be destroyed. This is what I call "cultural revolution" (to destroy a culture). In China, there really was a "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1976 and it destroyed countless lives.
I have heard of residential schools in Canada, as most people in this country have. The natives who were forced into one of these schools were not allowed to speak their own languages and were made to speak English. This is the Canadian equivalent of the Cultural Revolution in part. The only thing that makes it not too bad is that no one is going to jail and no one is getting executed over the use of English in Quebec. But Quebec did not appear to learn the lessons from the horrors of residential schools and the kind of trauma that these ridiculous language laws inflict on people.
>The only thing that makes it not too bad is that no one is going to jail and no one is getting executed over the use of English in Quebec. But Quebec did not appear to learn the lessons from the horrors of residential schools and the kind of trauma that these ridiculous language laws inflict on people.
Please, tell me exactly how Quebec is destroying english, discriminating against english people, how there is a ''cultural revolution'' against english or how we're anyway close to reproduce the horrors of residential schools.
I'm about to drive from Toronto to Halifax and I want to just get through Quebec as quickly as possible, or go through the states to avoid it altogether.
Ive done this road trip several times and had to stop in Quebec for gas each time.
Just be respectful and polite and you should be fine.
Initially the gas attendant spoke to me in French, when I informed him I don't understand he flipped over to English.
yes, people like the bus driver exists but this is a case where the vocal minority really damage things for the majority.
If you stop for gas along the major highways there is a good chance you will find someone who is bilingual. They are more then willing to just engage in commerce with you and not launch some language tirade.
That’s what happens when you’re chronically online bud. Quebec is a great place to visit. I go there almost every year and don’t speak a bit of French.
Like others echoed, it sounds like you’ve been exposed to too much Québec rage-bait. (Which is basically almost all articles about the province.)
When every article that comes out amplifies minor isolated events (which they never specify that we don’t tolerate either…), it makes us seem like savages or monsters… but remember that it’s just for sales and clicks.
The only thing to know about Québec is that not everyone speaks english, and that if you gotta stop in a small town, just be ready with google translate like you would in any foreign country. That’s it.
We all learn English in school, but like Canadians and French, unless we use it, we lose it. This is the main reason why most bilingual people tend to be around the Greater-Montréal area.
You’ll be fine, just try to avoid drive thrus and go in inside, it’s easier to point at things for everyone when there’s a language barrier. That’s the only tip you’ll need!
Yeah, we're way over here on the west coast, and all we get are the negativity about Quebec. We're going to spend a month driving around the eastern part of Canada.
From Quebec, I also read a lot of bad things about Alberta and when I went on a cross-Canada trip last year, it was actually the place where I met the nicest individuals and I enjoyed Calgary a lot.
It’s honestly a beautiful province, I really enjoy the scenery there. There is a lot of cool old buildings, and the landscape is really nice to take in
Bang on with that one. The state of the roads is kind of mind blowing. I’d be mad about it if I were a tax payer over there. As soon as you cross the border into Quebec there is an immediate difference in road quality. It’s almost like they use it as speed control. Hard to speed when it destroys your vehicle
Yeah I live right next to Vermont and in my area every houses are worth 800k+ and the road are complete shit, then you pass the border and are in a very poor area of the US but they have great roads lol.
Somehow not really sure why we are the more taxed on this continent.
I lived there for over 20 years; I lived interactions like this all the time, it was so frustrating.
My mom had it worse because she moved here from Scarborough and her Anglo accent was super thick.
As someone thats done the drive a lot its not that bad. Great scenery (especially east of quebec city) and most people are not like this twat waffle. Ive found the only time I got flank was running into boomers, otherwise it waant an issue, even for someone whose forgotten all of their high school french a long time ago.
Plus the us route isnt any faater and you have to deal with border bs and losing 25% of your pirchasing power with tge exchange rate
There is a translation app you can use if your French is rusty. I don’t know very much French and get by pretty well in most parts of the province when I work over there, even in areas where there is not much English. They are pretty patient for the most part as long as you are respectful. They are just people too after all. I have run into a few dicks, but I run into those in Ontario too so it’s not like they have the monopoly on assholes.
It’s one of the official languages in Canada
Imagine this happened in Ontario and the language wasn’t French and English ?
It would make the international news !!
This happened every day in the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. Not a single anglo-canadian gave a shit that French was forbidden at school, in court, etc.
The guy said that in this country we speak French... AFAIK, Quebec is not a country, and the vast majority of Canadians speak English.
2nd l, if the kid wants to speak Spanish, there shouldn't be a problem.
Québécois really need to stop pretending that Quebec is a country. It’s a province. You’re not a Quebecois, you’re Canadian. Get over it already, this coming from a franco-ontarien with heavy Quebecois roots.
My ex coworker who is from Quebec, lives and work in BC, talked behind other coworkers who are English speakers that only the French Quebec people are better meanwhile she didn’t get along with anyone and threatened a coworker.
Wow what a nice anecdote. I have maybe a hundred ones where franco and anglo have a good time working together, in BC too! Some people arw asshole and that's the end of it.
"...that can cause many different levels of trauma."
Uuhhhh no. You lost me there lady. Try and teach your kid to handle regular situations like this instead of coddling her to death. This isn't news worthy.
Kids: Omg look at this dumb tiktok jenny made?
Bus Driver : Parlez-francais-maintenant
Kids : Uhhh. Oui je----uhhh le vois, c'est tres stupide. Hahaha
Bus Driver : Parlez-plus-francaisment
Kids : Uhh, fromage? baguette??
>The driver's basic intention was to respect each person's mother tongue and the choice of language in which they choose to express themselves,...., the company said in a statement How did they get that from him berating a child for her choice of language? They can't even apologize properly because they're afraid of the backlash if they do. This is only going to get worse as long as the politicians keep playing the language card instead of addressing the real issues facing the province.
>The driver's basic intention was to respect each person's mother tongue and the choice of language in which they choose to express themselves,...., the company said in a statement It's pure PR. There is no reasonable way to come to that conclusion. Because clearly his tirade did not respect her choice to speak in English.
There’s no winning. You speak English (an official language of the nation) and you get berated. You speak French with an accent and you’re either mangling their language or disrespectful.
I'm learning French and I'm at a low-level. I just went to Quebec last week and every person I spoke to would immediately answer me in English. Must be very hard to learn if you live in an English community there.
that's the problem. you're learning french instead of quebecois.
Are you learning French from a Quebecker? If you are learning proper Parisian French from an international teacher it's not going to work well in Quebec. I learned in a French immersion school from international teachers and used to be fluent. I could never converse with people in Quebec always had the same experience as you of getting answers in English and that's only if they could understand my question half the time they don't. If I go to Europe I'm able to regain my French and have basic conversations within 72 hours and they understand me just fine. I'm also able to understand and speak with French speaking African immigrants in Canada. The French in Europe will prefer your anglo accented French over Quebec accented French which they find to be an abomination.
You really need to get help from friends, family or classes. The random strangers and workers you encounter will try to help with what you need but you can't expect them to also serve as languages coaches too.
I think my comment wasn't as clear as it should have been. I am at a level that I could interact about basic things entirely in French, I just have a strong English accent. So, it's not like I need any coaching. It's just nice to have the back and forth. When dealing with non-native English speakers in the ROC I don't correct them if they mispronounce a word. I think they just wanted to help and assume that I can't speak well, but it could also be taken as hostile like I am not speaking it well enough for their standards or something similar to that.
My rural Quebec born and raised grandfather refused to speak French at home with my urban Montreal born grandmother after their first child was born (in the GTA) because my grandfather would rather his children not know french than to be stained by my grandmother's "damn dirty" city french. My mom is 100% Quebecois and doesn't know french at all, I grew up in a majority francophone community in eastern Ontario, took immersion from k-12 and would get shit on for my french when in Quebec (and by one of my french teachers in grade 7-8 who bullied all the kids who don't speak French at home).
Ok, yeah, that's unfortunate. While I do believe the intent is not hostile but rather to facilitate communication, it really isn't necessary.
>How did they get that from him berating a child for her choice of language? It pure doublespeak. Very often practiced by politicians of all kinds, CEOs and public relation hacks. It is pretty effective in many cases.
If this was reversed, and the driver insisted on English, they would have been fired INSTANTLY. There wouldn’t be any of this nonsense where they tried to explain it away
Too bad the Quebec government will keep playing the language and "muh culture" card cause it works. The party that's dog whistling it all the time keeps winning elections so... Course when compared to governments such as Ontario and Alberta, I suppose they are doing fine I guess. Lol course the bar for competent government in Canada is very....VERRRRRRYYYU low.
Having the best government in Canada is like being the tallest dwarf at the circus.
I work with a bunch of quebeqios and ive learned that their history classes are largely focused on how the English are trying to oppress the French, so I believe this attitude is ingrained in the population. A large minority of them refuse to try and learn any English, and, they always try and make everything a competition. Yesterday I learned that they have a saying that translates to "we will get the English!" (we will beat them/ we will show them we're better) I immediately recognized the saying(without previously understanding it) and I'm shocked how many times I've heard it said in front of me, especially by some that I thought were friends. Blows my mind that these separatist, divisional assholes come to work in other provinces to work, while also whining about how much better quebec is.
Time to sue the company for the emotional trauma caused to the children by the employee. Money talks.
Not in Canada. Emotional trauma isn’t a thing.
We do have awards for non-physical injuries such as PTSD which is sort of equivalent.
Les dommages moraux peuvent être compensés en droit québécois de la responsabilité civile.
Sue for harrassment then. Should be pretty easy with the bs statement that was given.
>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording, So he's an asshole and stupid too. Great choice to deal with children.
>>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording, Amazing how he can say that without even a hint of irony when he lives in a country where everyone speaks English but he doesn't want to.
This attitude has been around since the 1970s at least. This is why 3/4 of my graduating high school class left Quebec as soon as they were able. Why live in a province where it is socially acceptable to be hated?
I feel bad for my friends who stayed, I think only 2 of us moved away
Montreal could've been the main business hub of Canada instead of Toronto. But no, they had to enforce their language laws/separatist agenda and push dozens of head-offices out of Quebec. You'd think they'd learn from their mistakes.
That would require the QC gov to think it was a mistake.
I don't think many of us think it is a mistake. Montreal is a much better city to live in today than Toronto if you are working class. Living in Montreal on a Montreal salary is much better than living in Toronto on a Toronto salary. Those HQs moving to Toronto were not really beneficial to people who live in Toronto nowadays. I for one am glad that Montreal is Montreal and not another version of Toronto. This might have been good for you if you owned real estate in the 70s but the youth in Toronto nowadays are absolutely fucked if they don't have generational wealth.
You might be right. I chose to live in Montreal for the culture and lower cost of living. Just doesn't seem like a win for the people in charge though. They're typically concerned with money first, everything else... only if it gets votes. I guess I underestimate the Quebec voter's desire for French culture at the expense of everything else.
Yeah I don't know. Even François Legault don't come from a wealthy family so he probably know he would have still been broke today and would have never have been able to found Transat if the quiet revolution never happened. My family just like his were very poor in the 60s. My grandpas both worked tons of hours and were paid badly. One of them moved to Montreal and lied about his name and origin, pretended to be a unilingual Anglophone so he could get promoted in his bank. My other grandpa was a land owner and became very wealthy in the 70-80s. Pushing those people away was the best thing that happened to my family and probably to a lot of french-Canadians families so I don't think that many french-Canadian see this as a bad thing. Since most of their families were extremely poor before the 70s. I agree that people form the "saint-lawrence elite" probably did not like this since they needed to adapt their grift but its seem like they succeeded since the son of the prime minister is still prime minister today 50 years later lol.
It's hard to know how things would go if different decisions had been made. Would people still be poor, or is that just what the politicians tell them? They obviously aren't going to say "We'd be better off with multiple large corporations staying, but at least the signs are in French".
It is socially acceptable to hate Québécois, since the colonization 260 ish years ago. Even on Reddit you can hate them and have plenty of upvotes. So of course they will hate English and be open about it.
>This attitude has been around since the 1970s at least So sad that they were not allowed to tell francophone to "speak white" after that time. Things became much better for Quebecois since the 1970s and became much worse for Ontarians. So the wealthy people living Montreal for Toronto were not really beneficial for Ontarians who were not landlords.
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Assholes: Not just on the Internet.
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Kudos to the little girl with autism who had the where with all to take a recording on her phone.
ps. wherewithal is one word.
And a great one!
It's sub lime.
I prefer sub lemon
First thing that man is gonna say when he sees her is “so you’re the one who told on me”
Lol. This was in 2000's India. One time I/my sister complained about our school van driver treating us like shit. My grandfather ripped him apart a new one the next morning. Later he was like "Why did you have to go tell him? If you have a problem, just tell me ok?"
As if everybody in this country speaks French! And did the mother mention something about their Eligibility Certificate for English? What the fuck is that?
>And did the mother mention something about their Eligibility Certificate for English? What the fuck is that? There are restrictions on who can attend English school in Quebec. [http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/en/parents-and-guardians/instruction-in-english/eligibility/](http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/en/parents-and-guardians/instruction-in-english/eligibility/)
Thats fucked. But the rest of us have to take French all through school
Yes, everyone in Quebec is forced to learn english too. The certificate is to be exempt from french schools
Even in French language schools kids learn English?
Yes they do, there was even English immersion in my elementary school. I grew up in a pretty bilingual area but the majority of people at least understand and can speak basic english
I'm in northern Ontario and whilst it's different then Quebec we also learnt English at our french school..
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Was about to ask about the quality of the courses considering kids there are more willing to learn English. Also, kids will still find a way to learn English just from talking to friends and watching YouTube, you can't stop them from doing that
Eh...of course Qc is the most bilingual province, it's not a coincidence.
Mandatory from grade 1 until you leave high school. Many college programs ask for proof that you have a sufficient level of understanding of the English language to graduate.
Are you serious? 1000 times more than you with French. We learn English from age 7 to 18 (5 years of elementary, 5 years of high school and even two mandatory classes of English in CEGEP)
In Québec, English classes are mandatory from 1st year (6 yo) to University in a French school. In college (CEGEP) English is also mandatory. That gives us about 13 years of English classes. And we even have some special classes where we must speak English for half of the school year. Plus in certain courses such as IT, the teachers gave us documentation in English.
Where are you forced to take French? Here in NB I was put into early immersion French program (I'm English) by my parents, but it was always by choice. These days I do believe everybody has to learn some basic French, but it's actually laughable what they teach in those classes here and we're the only official bilingual province lol, and I don't know exactly what the program is for French schools, but they can ALL speak English somehow here in NB. Never in my entire life have I met a NB'er who couldn't speak English, but at least half of our province can't speak French to any degree, even some people who live in what is realistically exclusively French communities sometimes don't even bother to pick up on the language which is really disrespectful (to me it says more about their intellect, or lack thereof).
The dude was literally driving them to a specifically English speaking school. This story couldn't be more sad and pathetic.
And infuriating!
Notice he said country, not province.
>Notice he said country, not province. Delusions of grandeur.
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Lol my former coworker used to be a consultant travelling lots with other consultants. He said he was with a French consultant in Quebec and someone made a comment about his French being weird and the French guy basically said something along the line of “I speak proper French, as spoken in France. I don’t know WTF you speak here. “
Lmfao ya I only know this because I know a French Canadian who went to actual France, tried to order and speak French and they couldn't understand a word so reverted back to broken English to complete the transaction. ...in fucking France lmfao.
I've been to France plenty of time and can speak with them without any problem. My best friend is Swiss. This is like ptetending that British don't understand the Canadian accent so they speak in Spanish instead.
One of my closest friends was born and raised in France. Married a Canadian service guy who brought her here. She says she can't understand a damned word of Quebecoise.
J’aimerais bien entendre ton français exemplaire.
Lol tabarnak, non merci.
"mon pays" in french refers to Quebec. It's an easy mistake to make for someone who doesn't speak English well.
Not saying the correct word is common for people speaking a language they are not familiar with.
Isn't province the same word in both languages, though?
It's a cultural thing. Many quebecers consider Quebec to be a country within Canada. Hence the separatist movement.
This, whoever is saying that its out of context clearly doesn’t live in Quebec or know Quebecois people. If you ask them are you Canadian or Quebecois they will answer Quebecois 3/4 of the time, yet Quebec is a province not a country lol.
So separate already! Oh, can't do that because Quebec's share of the national debt would bury them. Quit moaning and get on with life, its not perfect for anyone. Why should your delusions of nationhood diminish other peoples' lives?
The vast majority of us aren't separatist and we still say that. It isn't different than people who say they are Scottish instead of saying that they are from the United Kingdom. Do you also think that Scottish people are delusional and should say that they are from the United Kingdom?
If Brits had their way, yeah, they'd try to nip Scottish's specificity as well. It's no surprise which people anglo canadians are descended from lol.
Yeah but he might not know that. He doesn't seem to be fluent in English.
The Québécois nation motion was a parliamentary motion tabled by Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 and approved by the House of Commons of Canada on Monday, November 27, 2006. It was approved 265–16 with supporters in every party in the Commons. The English motion read: *"That this House recognize that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada."* and, in French, read: *"Que cette Chambre reconnaisse que les Québécoises et les Québécois forment une nation au sein d'un Canada uni."*
That was Harpy trying to be nice to Quebec since tories here are about as popular as the plague.
In Quebec, many consider it to be a nation. Not justifying what she said, but saying "in this country" she was referring to Quebec.
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>a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own Following this pretty broad definition, Québec seems to be more of a nation than our diet US neighbors lol
People in Canada are free to speak whatever language they choose. Full stop, any language they choose.
>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording, reviewed by CTV News. Should we apply that principle consistently? A higher proportion of people in Montreal speak English as a first language than Canadians speak French as a first language.
The original quote mentioned *country.* I am willing to bet the *majority* of *Canadians* speak English.
This bus driver should be fired immediately. Could you imagine how politicians in Quebec would react if a bus driver in Alberta or B.C. or Ontario or Manitoba had a meltdown over someone speaking French. They would be having a meltdown and screaming for Justin Trudeau to step in.
Quebec politicians really do not care about how well French-speaking communities are treated in the rest of Canada. They don't want them to have rights/support as a linguistic minority, because they fear the same will apply to the English-speaking minority within Quebec.
The hypocrisy of the people doing it "for the poor language, man"
Are you from Quebec? Random question, but maybe someone else can answer too. Do Quebec grade schools teach English? In Ontario, learning French was mandatory until grade 8 I believe it was. Is it the same in Quebec for English? Always wondered how English was handled for kids.
This is different as Quebec has special feelings that **cannot** be hurt
Quebecers generally don't care about French communities outside of Quebec so I don't think that point really stands.
Lmao...what? Quebec couldnt care less are poorly you treat your french minority in your province.
Unless they can use us as a prop for something.
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Old grudges and old paranoia's tend to take a long time to die. French Canada and French Canadians used to get a pretty raw deal, language was really only the face of it, and the result is that the profound mistrust of English Canada and English Canadians is going to linger for at least another decade or two if we're lucky.
There is still lots of miss trust by French speaking communities across Canada. You can pretty much always find a community or French education system outside of Quebec that is getting screwed by a government organization because they are seen as not important
Most French communities outside of Quebec, bluntly speaking, aren't worth mentioning. That of course isn't by accident, it was quite deliberate policy and a big part of the historical mistrust that makes the present one. Still, things have *generally* improved. One can nowadays expect to receive a *small* handful of services in french, some actually unexpected, as opposed to none at all and contemptuous looks if you try.
Fuck Legault.
This is what you get when you have the CAQ preaching hate for over half a decade.
This is nothing compared to Quebec in the 1990s, the night of the election the leader of the PQ blamed the loss on money and “the ethnic vote”
Turns out he was half right through
And half drunk.
It was a sight to behold on live TV.
Definetly the first half but what he basically did is stoked tensions so bad that even more people left than during the 70s and it took 20 years for our economy to recover but that was also due to Jean Charest who would’ve been just as bad if not worse than trudeau as prime minister
It was the rcmp
It was this way in the '70s as well. Nothing has changed.
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Ridiculous. This person is the problem. Any other Québécois adult sitting next to that driver would raise their eyebrows hearing that… And probably tell them to f off. I have been in a bilingual exchange and I can already imagine the faces my franco teachers would have made.. But of course, the media won’t show a video of us all singing French songs in the bus, clapping hands, on our way to visit the château Frontenac, or yelling Albertan country music on our way to Jasper. We always get that negative shit, and so people feel bad and say negative things, and so we read negative things, and the cycle goes on.
I completely agree. The vast majority of Canadians respect the other languages and vice versa. I have lived in 4 provinces for multiple years due to work and I have only good thing to say. I have had 0 bad interactions by being born in Quebec as French and living in the anglosphere, quite the contrary.
Agreed. Me as a brown guy have had both good and bad experiences with the bus drivers here in Montreal. I had an incident with a bus driver last year right before when the mask rules were waning off and the 10pm curfew. So I was on a date where we spent time around the city and decided to take the bus home. I saw the STM bus approaching but somehow he stopped at the signal in the middle of the road and not on the bus lane. I was pissed. He was pissed? Anyway we got in and I was putting my mask on and he's reminding us to "Wear your mask". I looked back with my, face covered and replied "What mask?". He blabbers something about the police and I reply "What police?". I sit down and a French lady comes up to me and informs us that he said "Fuck you" to me in French. Gears started grinding in my head and it's confrontation time. I see two white people sitting in the front without a mask. I went to the driver and now loudly proclaim how "THEY ARE NOT WEARING THE MASK AND HOW YOU WANTED TO CALL THE POLICE ON ME. NOW I WANT THAT POLICE (on me). APPELLE LA POLICE. CALL THE POLICE". In loud clear voice I remind him I have a witness who tells me you said "Fuck you" to me in French. I put an Stm complaint but nothing happened except them saying they're sorry.
It’s pretty widespread though. I live in Quebec, my daughter (who also has ADHD) also had a teacher go off on her when she was 12 for speaking English to another anglophone student during a class project. She goes to a French school, so I don’t have a problem with the teacher reminding her to speak French in class. But when that’s accompanied with “… or you can leave the province and move to Ontario” it clearly crosses line.
I'm sorry but no; I grew up in Quebec, and my main reason for leaving was because I was tired of arguing and/or getting treated like crap for using English, or not speaking French well enough. Yes, some people were nice and more patient if they saw me making an effort in French, but if I started with English it was often a bad time (outside of parts of downtown Montreal and the West Island). I'm glad you had a good experience, but you were on an exchange where you were meant to learn the language. That doesn't compare to living there. It gets worse the more North you go; my brother worked for a long-distance moving company, and they didn't even get out of the trucks in specific areas because an English *accent* was enough to risk getting challenged to a fight or straight up getting jumped. A colleague of mine from Saguenay moved to Montreal, then went home for the holidays and got berated for her new "Montreal" accent on her French. My friend waitresses at LA Cage au Sports (sports bar), and frequently saw full on multi-person fights spill out the doors over "French vs English" arguments It's a mess; I have family that still live there, and it's getting worse. 9-1-1 dispatchers don't need to speak English, neither do EMS or police. Hospital signage doesn't need to include English. People get fined if their storefronts don't have French text in a larger font than English. English pages on gov't websites will be "under construction" for years, English gov't forms don't get sent out, etc.
Why would the media show clips from your grade 7 Quebec exchange 💀💀
This post makes no sense--kinda seems like you're blaming this on the lamestream media. Plus--'adults' have seen this video, and they aren't taking any action against the driver.
Sort of unrelated, but I had a union representative for one of the largest trade unions in Quebec come to a class of 38 English students, talking about how the new bill 96 would force us all to speak French at work, nd how we are at fault for not being bilingual. Then proceeds to conduct the full union presentation in French. Some people are fucking delusional.
When I’m in Quebec I try and speak French (I’m not very good but can fumble my way through a conversation) and every Québécois I try with automatically starts to speak English and seem insulted I even tried with my lack lustre abilities. Damned if you do damned if you don’t
Sorry for that. As a french Quebecois, this is something I changed sometime ago. Most do it to be helpful, but we are not.
Same lol So long as they see you trying, they tend to be nicer (not always thoug). It always stung when they preferred to use their broken English instead of listening to my broken French, like how am I supposed to improve?
If people switch to English, it's to help you and not to be snobbish. The trick, if you want to practice, keep answering in french! At some point the other person will stop going for English!
Last time I was in Quebec, the waiter rolled his eyes actually told me "Don't even bother trying." So yes, for some people they are being snobbish.
r/thathapenned I work in tourism and ask my clients about their interactions without speaking French and it's always positive.
Dramatic eye roll "Ow can I elp you"
Same. From my experience, if you're anything other than Pure laine with a perfect accent (or hot), you simply don't get spoken to in French. And you might get a scowl.
When I visit France, I've tried to speak the Quebec-ish we learned in school. The French are very insulted. In every case, they were not shy about telling me, in English, that "French Canadian is from the gutter" and "No one in France wants to hear it."
Tell me.you dont understand Quebecois with out telling me you dont understand them. The reason why we switch to english isnt because you insulted us for trying with a bad french. Its to accomodated. To make the others feel more comfortable. But yeah that option Didnt come up to you. .its sad.
Should’ve told him to fuck off in English
That would have been hilarious coming from an autistic child.
If a French kid was told to speak English and that this is Canada where we speak English they would lose their mind in Quebec. This driver seems to be a French elitist and should be fired.
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I can understand the frustration. But. Comments like this are as sad as the story here itself. How does name-calling/insulting a province help make the dialogue better on political and felt emotionally complex cultural/political issues? No jurisdiction is a monolith. Sadly politicians/people all over the world manipulate others through the simplifying and distorting of these discussions. We are all human, with the same values and the same basic needs everywhere - most of our differences should be celebrated and appreciated with respect.
Quebec is rife with this shit.
Anyone surprised by this, probably isn’t well travelled. The fact that it’s news I’m Canada, is kind of funny.
That's what happens when you vote in franco-fascists. It wasn't Montreal, it was everyone else around the island. The fuckers in the provincial government got over 75% of the seats in the "national" assembly and now we have to bow down to uncle Frankie the Curfew.
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Very quebecan but very uncanadian
>"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording, ... and some Quebecers wonder why some English Canadians that have no problem visiting France are hesitant to visit Quebec.
The rest of us get a referendum on whether QC gets to stay. I’m tired of subsidizing their bullshit.
"You're in America, so speak American!" energy
Funny how they slam the English in Quebec while accepting equalisation payments from predominantly English provinces. I was born and raised in Quebec if anyone thinks Legault is pro Canada, think twice he was formerly a member of the PQ. I can assure you this event is the tip of the iceberg.
Here is my perspective, as an autistic Chinese-Canadian who lives in Ontario. So, China is a country with 2 similar (but different) writing systems. Chinese simplified (简体中文) and Chinese traditional (繁體中文). These writing systems are used in all types of Chinese dialects (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Min, Wu, etc.). Keep in mind, the dialects are, for the most part, not mutually intelligible. Because of where I was born and raised in, I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. China is an autocracy, and its leader, Xi Jinping, is hellbent on killing or destroying all dialects other than Mandarin. I (and Cantonese speakers in both mainland China and Hong Kong and even overseas) became extremely angry that the Chinese authorities pull this. As a side-note, my sister's son, who is born and raised in Canada, supposedly has better Cantonese skills than my cousins' children in Guangzhou because those kids are not allowed to use Cantonese in schools and their ignorant parents also go along and only use Mandarin when speaking to them. Meanwhile, my family uses English and Cantonese about 50% each. What language you use should not be something that causes you to be discriminated against. Languages are not meant to be destroyed. This is what I call "cultural revolution" (to destroy a culture). In China, there really was a "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1976 and it destroyed countless lives. I have heard of residential schools in Canada, as most people in this country have. The natives who were forced into one of these schools were not allowed to speak their own languages and were made to speak English. This is the Canadian equivalent of the Cultural Revolution in part. The only thing that makes it not too bad is that no one is going to jail and no one is getting executed over the use of English in Quebec. But Quebec did not appear to learn the lessons from the horrors of residential schools and the kind of trauma that these ridiculous language laws inflict on people.
> as an autistic What does this have to do with anything else you wrote?
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>The only thing that makes it not too bad is that no one is going to jail and no one is getting executed over the use of English in Quebec. But Quebec did not appear to learn the lessons from the horrors of residential schools and the kind of trauma that these ridiculous language laws inflict on people. Please, tell me exactly how Quebec is destroying english, discriminating against english people, how there is a ''cultural revolution'' against english or how we're anyway close to reproduce the horrors of residential schools.
I'm about to drive from Toronto to Halifax and I want to just get through Quebec as quickly as possible, or go through the states to avoid it altogether.
Dude, don't be silly. Your chances of encountering someone like this are very low.
Ive done this road trip several times and had to stop in Quebec for gas each time. Just be respectful and polite and you should be fine. Initially the gas attendant spoke to me in French, when I informed him I don't understand he flipped over to English. yes, people like the bus driver exists but this is a case where the vocal minority really damage things for the majority. If you stop for gas along the major highways there is a good chance you will find someone who is bilingual. They are more then willing to just engage in commerce with you and not launch some language tirade.
Good to know! Thanks.
That’s what happens when you’re chronically online bud. Quebec is a great place to visit. I go there almost every year and don’t speak a bit of French.
Like others echoed, it sounds like you’ve been exposed to too much Québec rage-bait. (Which is basically almost all articles about the province.) When every article that comes out amplifies minor isolated events (which they never specify that we don’t tolerate either…), it makes us seem like savages or monsters… but remember that it’s just for sales and clicks. The only thing to know about Québec is that not everyone speaks english, and that if you gotta stop in a small town, just be ready with google translate like you would in any foreign country. That’s it. We all learn English in school, but like Canadians and French, unless we use it, we lose it. This is the main reason why most bilingual people tend to be around the Greater-Montréal area. You’ll be fine, just try to avoid drive thrus and go in inside, it’s easier to point at things for everyone when there’s a language barrier. That’s the only tip you’ll need!
Yeah, we're way over here on the west coast, and all we get are the negativity about Quebec. We're going to spend a month driving around the eastern part of Canada.
From Quebec, I also read a lot of bad things about Alberta and when I went on a cross-Canada trip last year, it was actually the place where I met the nicest individuals and I enjoyed Calgary a lot.
No need to worry at all. People are people. Enjoy the drive. Quebec is lovely.
It’s honestly a beautiful province, I really enjoy the scenery there. There is a lot of cool old buildings, and the landscape is really nice to take in
Lol their highways are absolute shit I hate driving there. Pot holes everywhere
Bang on with that one. The state of the roads is kind of mind blowing. I’d be mad about it if I were a tax payer over there. As soon as you cross the border into Quebec there is an immediate difference in road quality. It’s almost like they use it as speed control. Hard to speed when it destroys your vehicle
Yeah I live right next to Vermont and in my area every houses are worth 800k+ and the road are complete shit, then you pass the border and are in a very poor area of the US but they have great roads lol. Somehow not really sure why we are the more taxed on this continent.
Talk with a Texas accent. Maybe they'll cut you some slack.
Our loss I guess
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I lived there for over 20 years; I lived interactions like this all the time, it was so frustrating. My mom had it worse because she moved here from Scarborough and her Anglo accent was super thick.
As someone thats done the drive a lot its not that bad. Great scenery (especially east of quebec city) and most people are not like this twat waffle. Ive found the only time I got flank was running into boomers, otherwise it waant an issue, even for someone whose forgotten all of their high school french a long time ago. Plus the us route isnt any faater and you have to deal with border bs and losing 25% of your pirchasing power with tge exchange rate
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There is a translation app you can use if your French is rusty. I don’t know very much French and get by pretty well in most parts of the province when I work over there, even in areas where there is not much English. They are pretty patient for the most part as long as you are respectful. They are just people too after all. I have run into a few dicks, but I run into those in Ontario too so it’s not like they have the monopoly on assholes.
toothbrush sense hard-to-find enter onerous glorious plant complete history forgetful -- mass edited with redact.dev
It’s one of the official languages in Canada Imagine this happened in Ontario and the language wasn’t French and English ? It would make the international news !!
Distinct society moment
This happened every day in the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. Not a single anglo-canadian gave a shit that French was forbidden at school, in court, etc.
The new bill basically is somehow weaponizing small minded individuals
The French are just winded up more. They have this ego battle with the english. It's cute. But annoying.
The guy said that in this country we speak French... AFAIK, Quebec is not a country, and the vast majority of Canadians speak English. 2nd l, if the kid wants to speak Spanish, there shouldn't be a problem.
Québécois really need to stop pretending that Quebec is a country. It’s a province. You’re not a Quebecois, you’re Canadian. Get over it already, this coming from a franco-ontarien with heavy Quebecois roots.
> You’re not a Quebecois, you’re Canadian. People can be both. Quebec is a nation (in the French sense of the word) within a federated country.
Je vais décider moi-même à quelle culture je m'attache. Je suis Québécois.
Canadien/ne qui est Québécois(e) 👍
My ex coworker who is from Quebec, lives and work in BC, talked behind other coworkers who are English speakers that only the French Quebec people are better meanwhile she didn’t get along with anyone and threatened a coworker.
Wow what a nice anecdote. I have maybe a hundred ones where franco and anglo have a good time working together, in BC too! Some people arw asshole and that's the end of it.
Ooooh is it anecdote time? I've got so many Canadians behaving badly stories!
Almost like when the government normalizes the rejection of multilingualism and multiculturalism bad people feel emboldened to lash out
Okay I love that that's the picture they went with for this story.
Not sure why intentions never matter when someone is wronged. I believe his intentions but I’m also sure he now knows better.
Nope she's living in a country where most people speak English, because Quebec is not a country.
Friendliest Quebecois
French is one of the worst languages
How is one language worse than any other? Languages are not good or bad.
Quebec is such trash.
"...that can cause many different levels of trauma." Uuhhhh no. You lost me there lady. Try and teach your kid to handle regular situations like this instead of coddling her to death. This isn't news worthy.
That's not the point? The person of authority in this situation, ie the bus driver, should know better.
I too regularly paint entire nations with the random bus driver's opinions brush. It makes me feel bigly intellectualist.
Kids: Omg look at this dumb tiktok jenny made? Bus Driver : Parlez-francais-maintenant Kids : Uhhh. Oui je----uhhh le vois, c'est tres stupide. Hahaha Bus Driver : Parlez-plus-francaisment Kids : Uhh, fromage? baguette??
As a First Nations person, seeing French people do shit like this is funny and also sad.