{"id":6950,"date":"2012-10-17T10:48:24","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T14:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/?p=6950"},"modified":"2012-10-17T10:50:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T14:50:00","slug":"english-speakers-feel-socially-inferior-in-quebec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/english-speakers-feel-socially-inferior-in-quebec\/","title":{"rendered":"English Speakers Feel Socially Inferior in Quebec"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 style=\"text-align: right;\">By Julie Barlow<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.montrealgazette.com\/life\/Montreal+English+true+sais+quoi\/6941480\/story.html#ixzz29PCCR2Eo\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-6952\" title=\"Montreal Gazette Article: Montreal English has a true je ne sais quoi\" src=\"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-17-English-Speakers-Feel-Socially-Inferior-in-Quebec-263x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"213\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-17-English-Speakers-Feel-Socially-Inferior-in-Quebec-263x300.png 263w, https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-17-English-Speakers-Feel-Socially-Inferior-in-Quebec.png 329w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/a>I love this piece Peggy Curran wrote in the Montreal Gazette about the emerging \u00abFrenchified\u00bb English dialect of Montrealers: <a href=\" http:\/\/www.montrealgazette.com\/life\/Montreal+English+true+sais+quoi\/6941480\/story.html#ixzz29PCCR2Eo\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cMontreal English has a true je ne sais quoi\u201d.<\/a> It&#8217;s always fun when a journalist holds a mirror to your own linguistic peculiarities. For those of us who live and work in French, code-switching really is about as natural and unconscious as&#8230;breathing.<\/p>\n<p>But one point she made really struck me (and she&#8217;s citing an expert): the fact that English is now in the \u00absocially inferior position\u00bb in Montreal.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I agree &#8212; in a way. I think it&#8217;s fair to say that all Anglophones know that the pulse of Quebec society beats in French, and that mastering the French language is mandatory for anyone who hopes to make a difference here, or just live a fulfilling life. Why else do so many of us send our children to school in French? Which of course, is why the population of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/savenesbitt.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/09\/the-emsb-administration-releases-its-recommendations-for-school-closures\/\" target=\"_blank\">English schools boards is steadily\u00a0dwindling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is: French-speaking Quebeckers don\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n<p>Is it a sign that the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Two_Solitudes_(Canadian_society)\" target=\"_blank\">Two Solitudes<\/a> are still standing? Francophones for the most part have no idea English speakers feel socially inferior. Most still equate <a href=\"http:\/\/actualites.ca.msn.com\/chroniques\/veut-on-encore-d%E2%80%99un-d%C3%A9bat-identitaire\" target=\"_blank\">English speakers with the English language<\/a>, a conquering force if there ever was one. They miss the fact that, for the most part, today\u2019s English speaking Quebeckers are Quebeckers first, and then English speakers.<\/p>\n<p>Just listen to how we talk!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Julie Barlow I love this piece Peggy Curran wrote in the Montreal Gazette about the emerging \u00abFrenchified\u00bb English dialect of Montrealers: \u201cMontreal English has &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55,59,75,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6950"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6963,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950\/revisions\/6963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}