Brickbat: French Twist

Emilie Dubois was born and raised in France. She has lived in Quebec for the past seven years and received a doctorate there from a Francophone university. But the Quebec government denied her an immigration certificate, saying her French wasn't strong enough. Dubois says she was told it was because one chapter of her doctoral dissertation was in English. After her member of parliament got involved and national and international media picked up the story, the government decided that her French is, in fact, good enough and has promised to issue Dubois a certificate.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Even the French are taken aback by the level to which French Canadians take their frogness.

[BigT]

Québécois are the Nazis of French language.

Rufus will certainly weigh in on this one.

[Rufus The Monocled]

The level of French language instruction is abysmal here.

Which makes their obsession with protecting it ironic.

[Jerryskids]

I'm sure Quebecois think the French don't know how to speak French just the same as Americans think the British don't speak proper English. Boot? Lift? Crisps? Of course the British think the same of Americans. Biscuits? Pounds? Dentistry?

[Still Curmudgeoned (Nunya)]

Pants versus trousers. The Brits will give you quite the funny look when you say you need to change your pants.

[darkflame]

And never ask where you can buy a fannypack in the UK

[D-Pizzle]

The British say "it's the dog's bollocks (balls)" when talking about a good thing. Need I say more.

[Inigo Montoya]

No surprise. The province has an overbearing government that would make a nanny-stater like Bloomberg turn green with envy.

For example, they passed a law forbidding anyone who works for the province (which would include all healthcare workers, not just people like DMV employees) from wearing anything that might suggest their religion. So, for example, wear a hijab, or crucifix necklace, or a yarmulke during Jewish holidays, and you’re fired. When asked to justify this unpopular move, the party’s leader actually said nearly all his followers on Facebook like it, so he knows it’s got wide support. Meanwhile the roads are equivalent to ones in the third world. The man certainly knows how to prioritize.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Quebec's social and business models are in dire need of serious upgrade and innovation.

But it won't happen. Montreal has been on a slow descent while Toronto has blown out straight out of the water.

And that absolutely, in part, has to do with our language laws.

Quebecers don't realize we're the only jurisdiction on the continent that has language laws that are PUNITIVE.

[Longtobefree]

Where is the most significant fact?
Was the English a quote to illustrate a point? WHY was that paragraph there?
(Demander un ami)

[Quo Usque Tandem]

"...it was because one chapter of her doctoral dissertation was in English."

C'est une blague, oui?

[Jerry B.]

You mean there are places where you have to speak the official language to live there? Why aren't the "woke" up in arms about this?

[Longtobefree]

Because they are also socialists

[Zeb]

I wonder what Canadian pro-immigration activists think of it.

[Rufus The Monocled]

They're angry.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Quebec is not a big fan of the multicultural policy thing.

They have a point but both extremes aren't good.

[Halykan]

They hate pretty much everything Quebec stands for, and Quebec returns the favor. Political business as usual.

[Necron 99]

Throw out your hands!!
Stick out your tush!!
Hands on your hips
Give them a push!!
You'll be surprised
You're doing the French Mistake!!
VOILA!!

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Can you imagine that movie being made today?

"The sheriff is a n-BONG"

[Unicorn Abattoir]

It would be a very short and boring movie. "Except the Irish" would be the only joke left.

[RoyMo]

It is known that Quebec French, especially joual is asymmetrically unintelligible to French. Quebeckers can understand proper French but the reverse is not necessarily the case. It is kind of like talking to certain Scottish people, which is why that Glaswegian understands you but you can’t understand them. However Québécois dialect is hysterical funny so it is well worth learning.

[mattcid]

I heard some real Quebec folks talking in a business setting right after watching Super Troopers 2. I almost died - the crazy accents from the Mounties in the movie are completely accurate.

[cgr2727]

I confess ignorance of Canadian immigration laws, but what's a province doing issuing an immigration certificate? Do they let each province handle things that in the U.S. and most other federal states be handled at the national level? Or is this an artifact of Les Quebecois wanting to be snowflakes and have their own de facto separate country, but still suck on Ottawa's teat?

[Halykan]

It's the latter, mostly. The Canadian system does devolve some functions to the provincial level (relatively few) but that's mostly because they couldn't legally justify the carveouts for Quebec otherwise.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Dubois, a Quebec City-based scientific graphic designer who completed her doctorate at Universite Laval in January 2018, said she wrote one of five chapters of her thesis on cellular and molecular biology in English because it was based on an English article in a scientific journal.

[Rufus The Monocled]

You have to pass a French-language test to get a mortgage and real estate license here.

How Quebec intends to attract REAL talent here with all these laws that discourage liberty I don't know.

It does happen where Immigrants do leave once they find out Bill 101 tells them where to send their kids for school.

[IceTrey]

There's only two things I hate, intolerance of other people's culture and the French!

[loki]

Now goo away or vwee shall taunt yoo a zecond time!