Part 2 (Redone)

This is the continuation of a recent post, but its really a new beginning since I felt that the last post missed the point.


How does a bilingual Canadian, walking his dog in a park, say ‘Hello’ to a stranger? He has options, after all. He can say ‘Hi! Beautiful day, isn’t it!’ or he can say ‘Bonjour! Quelle belle journée!’ If he really can’t decide on a language, he can nod his head and smile.

My personal experience, as a bilingual Canadian who doesn’t own a dog but loves to go for a walk, is that one language takes precedence over the other. I live in Ottawa, so I naturally speak to strangers in English. On the rare instances that I cross the bridge to Québec, I immediately switch over to French.

If one defines the language of a society by the language in which strangers greet each other, the picture of Canada is very clear. Quebec society is French because everywhere in the province, with the possible exception of the West Island of Montreal, strangers say ‘bonjour’ rather than ‘hello’. The rest of Canada is English because even in the most multiethnic neighbourhoods, English is the common language that is spoken in the street.

There are currently one million French Canadians living outside Quebec. Most are scattered along the Quebec border in Ontario and New-Brunswick. A few more are in Winnipeg. The francophones of English Canada face a difficult situation by living in an English society. Since English is inevitably the language of their daily life, they are only be francophones at home. They cannot be true francophones; not as long as they greet strangers with ‘Hello’ rather than ‘Bonjour’.

(To be continued)