30 Jun
2004
30 Jun
'04
9:23 a.m.
At 12:10 PM 6/30/04 -0400, you wrote:
Downtown Montreal.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That's funny! EVERYTHING that we did was in both
languages and every offical, semi-offical or just government document that
I saw was in both langauges. Even brochures, labels in stores, etc etc were
in both languages, Even the traffic signs were! I still get products made
in Canada or ones that might go to the Canadian market and all of the
packaging and instructions are in both languages. I'm sure that everyone on
this list that's in the US can vouch for that.
But in any case, you've proved my point. Many people in the US doen't
want to deal with other countries because of the language (and other)
problems.
(The major circumstance is if you're a
It wasn't even as much bigotry as stubborness. Ever since the French
Canadians arm twisted Canada declared that it was a dual language country,
the French Canadians in Quebec have been trying to force the rest of Canada
to speak French!
You've
been watching too much television trash!
Actually, no, I haven't. I don't even own a working television,
haven't for decades.
But to get to cases, the big difference is that
for the most part we
have common customs, common practices and a common language which
makes it simple to do business between states.
[Canadians] even have customs duties and sales
taxes when selling
things from one province to another.
What are you smoking - and where can I get some?
As yet, we are still only one country, and as such, have no customs
issues attached to inter-provincial shipping. Sales taxes, yes - I
can't remember, do you have federal sales taxes?
Nope, but they keep trying.
The opposite is true in Canada and most other
countries. You also
have to do everything in two langauges (by law, no less!).
Only in rather special circumstances are you required by law to do
anything in both languages. government; I'm not aware of any others, though
they may well exist.)
Except for governments, in Qu?bec, using any language other than French
is not required by law; outside Qu?bec, I am not aware of any laws
requiring the use of any particular language.
I certainly did. I checked into a lot of Canadian laws before I took the
job up there. There was a strong possiblity that they were going to move me
and my familty there semi-permanently. One of the reasons that I didn't
move there and only took temporary assignments was that my two children
would have HAD to go to a French school. That's another one of the French
preference laws. If your children haven't started school before you move to
Quebec then they MUST go to a French speaking school regardless of where
you're from or what language is spoken at home.
French Canada (Montreal specificly) was
particularly interesting.
They REALLY push the French language there and they are required by
law to greet you in French and to try and initiate the conversation
in French.
By law? Did you check this?? If true, it's certainly widely ignored.
It might be now but it wasn't when I was there. In fact, one shop owner
in Montreal was arrested for having English signs up in his store window
while I was there. It made the news all over Canada. But since you don't
own a TV I guess you don't know what's going on, do you?
I found that they frequently refused to speak
English to other
Canadians from outside of Quebec since they expected them to be able
to speak in French.
Some of the more arrogant language bigots do. Everywhere has its
arrogant bigots - yes, including the US. Fortunately, language bigotry
is fading here.
In any case, fine, you go stay in your US and enjoy it. Trust me, the
rest of the world won't miss you.
Right! That's why I been called three times by the company that I
contracted to (Oerlikon), twice by the DND (Department of National Defense)
and once by Spar Aerospace and offered jobs! Can you say the same? Oops,
I left out a couple of offers from Ditmaco.
Joe