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Subject: english-french
southern cross    11/27/2004 10:45:02 PM
hello to all you canucks, i was just wondering, what is the percentage of people who primarily speak english and the % of those who primarily speak french in your country, and do most speak both, thanks.
 
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Ehran    RE:english-french   11/28/2004 6:28:32 PM
if you check an almanac or the cia world fact book they can give you the breakdown of population for linguistics. as a practical matter outside quebec french is essentially spoken at home if at all. there was a sizeable francophone pop'n in southern manitoba but they have been absorbed and are pretty much gone other than place names etc. there are some francophones hanging on in new brunswick but they are also being absorbed. pretty much the only place you will encounter french speakers is in quebec and there i would think 80% of the ones you encounter will speak english. if you go on a driving trip down some of the country roads there are still villages where english is rare. the federal government makes a big deal out of bi-lingualism but if you don't work for the feds in some capacity most canadians can go months or years without hearing french spoken. friend of a friend of mine was an english only speaker who joined the army. a few years after he got in they xferred him to be an armourer for the van doos in quebec. must have been a fun time for him as they are the pre-eminant francophone regiment in the canadian army. where i grew up in manitoba for instance being bilingual meant speaking english and unkrainian. Up by lake manitoba it meant english and swedish. sadly we are losing those little pockets of history to the tv generation.
 
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BFD15    RE:language   11/28/2004 10:27:15 PM
Southern Cross, I did a check on STats Canada's web site and this is what i come up with. According to the 2001 cencus: Canada Population total : 29,639,030 English speaking only : 20,014,645 French speaking only : 3,946,525 SPeak both languages : 5,231,575 Speak some other lingo : 446,290 So the numbers tell the tale,Canada speaks mostly American except Quebec.
 
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bunglefoot    RE:language   11/29/2004 10:28:15 PM
no one speaks american BFD15, not even the americans.
 
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BFD15    RE:language   11/29/2004 10:36:04 PM
It was tounge in cheek.
 
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bunglefoot    RE:language   11/30/2004 11:07:29 AM
;-)
 
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Ehran    RE:language   11/30/2004 12:07:55 PM
bfd i have to wonder about those numbers. there are 5 or 6 million people in quebec and that taking the high number would mean that 2/3 of them only speak french. i just cannot see it being that high. i think it more likely people are wanking the census taker about it. in my own travels in quebec for instance i have yet to find a soul who cannot speak some english.
 
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BFD15    RE:language   11/30/2004 3:26:10 PM
Don't kill the messenger. I just reported the numbers i didn't create them. I think you are correct though, probably a lot of people in Quebec told the cencus takers they only spoke french when they in fact speak English as well. I know personnaly, I would answer that I only speak English fluently but in fact I can get by on my limited french.
 
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bunglefoot    RE:language   11/30/2004 7:12:33 PM
It sounds to me as if that survey was conducted with regard to fluency. The numbers look much more accurate if you consider that people who speak some english but are not fluent are counted as speaking only french. I think they actually have some criteria to be met to be considered fluent.
 
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Ehran    RE:language   11/30/2004 10:11:17 PM
not bashing you bfd at all. it's funny how that bit of high school french comes back. a friend of mine was trying to place an order with a distributor in montreal and getting nowhere fast. seems her high school french had abandoned her hehe. a quick 30 second apology and request for an english speaker and the problem was fixed. the person at the other end suddenly remembered how to speak english.
 
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BFD15    RE:language   11/30/2004 11:28:48 PM
Ehran ,I knew you weren't bashing me, i just like that phrase. I always like trying to speak french to people who are just to see how I do, my only fear is that i will insult them if I butcher their language too badly.
 
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