Michel Boucher wrote:

> > Several, including my son, are fluent in French and English.
> > Several of my neighbours speak English and Italian. My son and
> > several of my nieces and nephews are fluently bilingual. One
> > nephew's wife speaks English, French, Spanish and German. The
> > wife of another nephew speaks English, French, Hungarian, German
> > and Russian.
>
> And these people were born and educated in Manitoba? Their first
> language was English? (I suspect not)

Toronto and Niagara.


> > The lady next door speaks French and English, but her husband, a
> > French Canadian speaks no French, nor do their son and daughter.
> > I have a friend who was born in Quebec and educated in French
> > schools who does not speak French.... go figger. He thought he
> > could, but when we had an exchange student her from Quebec they
> > could not communicate.
>
> It's called assimilation. We've been warned against that.

Yep.... years of French Catholic indoctrination about spiritual
and moral superiority that kept the people under their control.
Millions of people have immigrated to North America and learned
English to improve their lives but Quebcers (not all French
Canadians) are convinced that something bad will happen to them
if they learn to communicate with the rest of the continent and
the rest of the world. It would certainly mean a lack of jobs
for French Canadian writers and performers who have a captive
audience.


>The
> population of New Hampshire is 33% of Québécois origin, but after four
> or more generations of economic exile, less than 2% speak any French
> and very few speak it fluently. The odd thing is they remember their
> grandparents speaking French.

My neighbour is French but his family lived in Vermont, which is
why he doesn't speak French but his Quebec born wife does.


Speaking of fluent French... if you think French Canadians speak
fluent French you should ask the real French what they think of
it.





>
> --
>
> "There is a crack in everything,
> That's how the light gets in."
>
> Leonard Cohen, Anthem