Comments on: In Montreal People Who Don’t Speak English Are Uneducated Bigots

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:47:15 +0000

So what?
You spend half of your text defending yourself as not being an “uneducated bigot”. While by doing so all you really proof is your own insecurity. And your anger towards people – who in return you yourself seem to claim to be “uneducated bigots”.
And why do you – as someone who demands not to be insulted – insult an English-speaker by calling him a “Tommy”, which is (as you obviously know) a rude racist name that uneducated folks use for other people they consider to be “way too much English”.

This text thus ends as a kindergarten sand-box fight against virtual opponents while totally missing to hit any of the goals it may or may not have been aiming for. Or in other words: it ends up being nothing more than a simple rant with no value added at all.

Let me put this straight: on the things you said I agree in no point at all. Also while I – just as you – will usually talk in my native language I will make ONE EXCEPTION.

When I go to see an Italian opera I will take Italian as given. If I go to spend a French evening I will expect French. I go to an Irish pub and will speak English and of course: I will pay beforehand – just as it is done in Ireland (at least according to popular myths) and drink my Guinness the way I’m supposed to. Because I went there to be part of that.

I consider it a faux pas to go to an English-only cinema, where guests wish to spend an English evening, just to find people are talking in other languages all the time. I as a guest went there BECAUSE I actively sought a break from that and specifically wanted to be part of an English-style environment for the sake of the event. I came and I paid to hear and be served in that language.

I don’t even wish to share an English evening with people that dare to demand being served in anything else, because in that case: what would be the sense of going to an English-only cinema in the first place? It will spoil my experience for me and my friends.

It’s like going to a French-only restaurant and demand an English menu. Even if they happen to have one: you simply don’t!

By: William

William — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:24:54 +0000

We live in CANADA.

By: Tasha

Tasha — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:07:56 +0000

Although I found some of your points interesting and even agreed with them, there were others that I consider completely wrong. You criticize English people who refuse to cater to the demands of the French, but what about the French who do the exact same to the English? How many times has a person gone to a restaurant, store, whatever and spoken English? Whether because they do not know French or because they would like to use their primary language. And how many times has the person serving them blatantly refused to speak to them in any other language but French?
My mother told me about something that she once witnessed at a montreal hospital. A man was in need of directions to somewhere in the hospital. He attempted to ask the nurse in emergency if she could help him out. He asked in English. She obviously understood him because she answered his question, in French of course. He explained to her that he didn’t understand French. She kept speaking in French. In the end my mother decided to help the man out by translating for him.
I’m not in any way trying to insult the french language. I myself speak French and have absolutely nothing against it. But what I do disagree with are all of the french people who act like French is the only language. What happened to being bilingual? Why is it that the English are forced to learn French but the French are not forced to learn English? How exactly is that fair?
Have you heard how they are trying to make it so that people working in non specialized fields will not be obliged to speak english AND French but only to speak French? Now that is super fair.
Why can’t Quebec be a place where many different languages can coexist? Why is it that everyone feels the need to shove any language but there own out of the way?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:19:35 +0000

Stupids peppers!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:25:54 +0000

People who do not speak English are uneducated idiots ?
Of course they are. English is compulsory second language even in French school so someone who does not speak English is a high school dropout !!
Since we have free education and if that person does not even have high school English,
calling him uneducated idiot is being kind.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:11:15 +0000

You’re not French – you’re Canadian.

By: Ruby

Ruby — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:54:23 +0000

Although I am perfectly bilingual in French and English, French assholes in Quebec still treat me as a second-class citizen because I did not have the divine privilege of having French as a first language. I even went to unilingual French school for all of elementary and high school in order to have perfect French and I now speak with no English accent at all. However, I was ostracized all throughout school because people knew I was English and was bullied for speaking English in the hallways or on lunch hour with some friends who were also English. If you’re English in Quebec, they will never treat you as just another person, even with perfect French, you will always be an ANGLAIS to them. If you can speak French without an accent, just don’t let them find out your name and they might not realize they have to hate you cause you’re English.

By: Cristobal

Cristobal — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:57:55 +0000

Wait a second Maya, are you learning Spanish back in the states out of respect for the brutalization of Hispanics? How about the dialect of the local Native Americans? As a fellow estadounidense, I suggest we both stay out of any issues of Quebec, OK?

By: Maya from the States

Maya from the States — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:09:53 +0000

I’m an African-American and an Anglophone. I visited Quebec (more specifically, Montreal) and liked it. My French is atrocious, but I tried to converse in French first. Why? Out of respect for the culture/country I was visiting. Unlike a lot of my fellow countrymen, I know a little about Quebec’s history. The Québécois were brutalized by (English-Speaking)Canadians for many years. That type of behavior might translate into resentment–and a fierce need to protect one’s culture. Trust me, no one know’s better than I…

By: hello

hello — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:29:31 +0000

I find it very shameful and appalling to see montreal,not to mention the entire province of quebec as well, losing out its own fair share of its english-speaking population. those seperatist fascists don’t seem to realize that they have brought up nothing but harm rather than good all by enforcing the 101 bill law in order to make it a unilingual province while we’re actually supposed to be living in a bilingual country where discrimination should be frowned up and non-existant, so to speak. On top of that, since the seperatist plague have been spreading all across the province, it is no suprise to my awareness that Quebec is on its way to become a third-world country due to it’s relentless uprising escalation of buisness relocating in toronto and elsewhere around the globe…Toronto is what Montreal should have been by now and it gives you an idea of how badly it affected the city on a long-term basis.