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Title: Montreal schools to start scanning playgrounds for English chatter | News | National Post
Category: Provincial Politics
Posted By: stokes
Date: 2011-11-25 07:10:08
Canadian

I'm kind of in agreeent with the Francos that we must teach immigrants to speak either english OR french, but Quebec is taking this shit way to far. What's the next step, french must be spoken in public?

That's very draconian, sorta Muslim like tactic we would condemn elsewhere. I think a Canadian should be free to speak as they wish.

Right or wrong, when I was young and living in Nova Scotia, there were a few kids at school who spoke French, including my sister and me. We were told by the teachers during lunch and recess to speak English... no persuasion there.

I think this has gone far enough, time for the feds to intervene.

I am kind of at odds with myself on this issue...

Is it not the right of the province to mandate the official language as french or english or both?

Is the school not provincially funded? Would that not mean that the schools are within their rights to dictate the language spoken on their property? In this case french.

However, at what point do the rights of individuals supercede the rights of the property owners?

I could see this being a bigger issue if the Quebec government had stated that french must be the only spoken language in public, but this ruling does kind of have a point.

Many business' already use this in the work place, ie: english (or french) must be spoken while on shift, however, I do not know of any business' that enforce this during breaks (could be wrong).

I had 2 cousins who went to a French school in NB and it was the same there. This isn't a new concept and I don't really see the issue with it.

All the power to them, I hope they do have a community that only speaks french, then when it decays from the inside because it cant interact with the rest of the world we will know why.

English is everywhere, especially in the media these kids are exposed to. Repressing it will just make them seek it out more. There's a case for only speaking French in class, but taking it to the playground is ridiculous.

The best way to retain language skills is to use them. Not only in the classroom but in your regular interactions. English IS everywhere so they will easily be able to pick it up later.

One last thing, for me at least...

Stokes changed the title of the article to "Montreal schools to start scanning playgrounds for English", but the school board makes no mention that English is targeted by this.

The article says, "This has led to generations of allophone Quebecers – those whose mother tongue is neither French nor English". Most of the kids who will get shoulder taps don't speak English, but another language.

Just too much interference. On the playground, let the kids have some fun without interfering with them all the time. Give em their soccer balls and let them communicate however they want to.

In the classroom, it's down to business, so only French,

Is Canada bilingual, or one-or-the-other unilingual?

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