Andrew:
> -- I hope "Hongcouver, Japanada" was meant
> humorously and not critically.
I mentioned it in regards to how these municipal
nicknames often, I think, reflect the mentality of
the citizens in general. (I do stress *in general*.)
It was something repeated too often in my presence
and wasn't something that I found particularly funny,
perhaps because I'm looking at it in terms of
Vancouver's history and the way Winnipeg where I grew
up reacts to such things. In Winnipeg, the global
representation is perhaps quite unusual for a prairie
town so saying things like that gains you enemies
of all sorts of colours, religions and creeds. And
that's the way I like it.
After living in Van for four years, my experience
is that the racism is subtle but that the average
person is much more complacent about it than my
hometown. It's so bad that people in the West End
don't mix with people from Burnaby and people
from Surrey don't mix with people in Richmond, etc.
There's an unwritten municipal apartheid going on :(
The complacency probably stems from the fact that the
city is really nothing more than a tourist town in
the end. People come there for fun, not practical
reasons, and they bring a superficial, 'airhead'
attitude with them when they come. Case in point,
they will be housing the Olympics in 2010 to attract
even more yahoos.
By contrast, Winnipeg is too damn cold! If you move
here, there must be a very good, _practical_ reason
such as stable job, friends, family, good food, etc.
Those facts I think affect the mentality here and
make it in many ways opposite to Vancouver... which
is probably why I was losing my mind in those
mountains.
> I wonder whether the discomfort with the high
> number of Asian immigrants is due to the fact that
> Vancouver now has to cater to them in their own
> languages rather than in the official languages of
> Canada, [...]
Yes, Vancouver has English-Chinese ATMs and French
is forgotten altogether. The Chinese in Chinatown
is primarily Cantonese (Hong Kong influence) and
there are many Taiwanese as well. It was interesting
to see the difference in demographics. Again, it's
different in Winnipeg. The Chinese community is
often of Vietnamese origin or from mainland China.
> I know many people are uncomfortable with having
> two official languages (including myself, to a bit
> -- fluency in French has become absolutely
> mandatory in government and most office jobs and
> much retail here in Ottawa, [...]
Since I'm bilingual, I don't shed any tears :) On
that subject though, I always found it odd that Cree
isn't finally made into an official language. It's
only fair. And I don't see the Cree Nation making
their own Bill 101 even though their language faces
greater challenges ahead than la francophonie is
facing. Do you see a rise in Cree immersion programs?
I don't. So I can't respect the fear that many
francophones have that their language is somehow
'dying'. It just isn't.
> Now many young people in Quebec speak practically
> no English, unlike the situation up to the
> seventies or eighties (and they can't learn any
> English until nine or ten years old at the
> earliest).
La xenophobie est réelle. I witness it from time to
time even here. This summer I had visited the
"Bibliotheque Saint-Boniface" here in Winnipeg to use
their public computers. The keyboards were special
"French keyboards" which meant that not only
could anglophones like me not use them without
total aggravation, but that it prevented other
francophones inexperienced in these novelty keyboard
layouts to use them, as well as Chinese, Korean or
Japanese speakers who use the _standard_ keyboard. I
severely doubt that it's needed to type Cree either.
Since I know also that many francophones themselves
simply type online _without_ diacritics on _standard_
keyboards and get by just fine, I asked the help desk
why this was. They responded defiantly, "We serve the
French community."
Hmm, there seemed to be a cultural communication
barrier at that point. Personally, I didn't think
that was an appropriate attitude for a _public_
library that should theoretically serve the _entire_
community of Winnipeg regardless of language, not
just the francophone minority!
And I found it to be a slap in the face to the Cree
and Ojibway here who to this day have no library of
their own that houses native language books. This
despite the fact that Aboriginals are just as much a
part of Winnipeg history as the French! Totally
arrogant.
So as a french-speaking anglophone, I feel the french
xenophobia myself and I find it almost impossible
to practice my French with anyone tolerant enough
to speak to a silly anglo like me. I know I speak
well because my French was tested once for a position
in Air Canada and it was on a par with other
true-blue francophones (to their disgust, hehe).
So I've given up on French. Grr! I'm learning Mandarin
instead. The French community can learn a little from
the Chinese who don't obsess so much on 'perfect'
grammar >:P
> I worry whether learning science, mathematics,
> history, etc. all in French properly prepares you
> to be able to go to university or have a career in
> English.)
I've done it. I took French immersion right until
Grade 12. I don't think this really impairs people.
A lot of the terminology is the same but with a
different accent.
> And I know also the accuracy of the title
> "Winterpeg" - it's sometimes a bit of a wonder to
> me that people choose to live there.
We're snowed in, that's why :P
> I sincerely hope the other cybalist members don't
> resent too much how we share these personal
> anecdotes. They can easily be skipped over.
Erh, well we _are_ talking about English, and English
is an IE language, but that's why I renamed the
topic title in courtesy of others who might be bored.
= gLeN
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