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November 10, 2006
Le plus extraordinary
Anglophone Canadians learn French as their default second language, as opposed to Spanish or Cantonese, because Canada is a bilingual country. That makes sense. What I've never understood is why Anglophone Canadians outside Quebec are taught Parisian French, which is infinitely more alienating a dialect in Montreal than English. I bring it up because I think this Halloween episode of Têtes à Claques might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen, but I can understand only about 15 percent of it, and I blame my education. "Le Willi Waller" is more accessible to this bloke, and also hilarious.
Posted by Chris Selley at November 10, 2006 09:16 PM
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Comments
Haha so true. I carry a bilingual certificate (french and english) from my french immersion high school education, yet I couldn't keep up with what was being said.
Posted by: lk at November 11, 2006 07:21 PM
I always thought we did learn Canadian French....? And I was always under the impression that the difference was sort of Massachussetts-Texas - you could still communicate effectively despite the differences??
Posted by: Jason B. Green at November 12, 2006 09:35 AM
Oh, you can communicate just fine. After your opening salvo with your impeccable Ontario high school French accent, you'll be communicating just fine thereafter in English.
Posted by: Chris Selley at November 12, 2006 12:08 PM
I think this requires a bit of clarification here. The language the characters are speaking in the clip isn't standard Canadian French, but a specific regional dialect that would almost be impossible to teach (since it's not formally codified)...you'd have to spend a lot of in the milieu itself to get a feel for it.
Definitely, Canadians should be taught standard Canadian French (used to be called Radio-Canada French, but the nationalists call it Québécois these days *sigh*) as opposed to Metropolitan French (which a lot of people in France itself don't speak) and be exposed to regional dialects, particulary that of Montreal, but there's only so much you can do in teaching a language formally.
Posted by: Canayen at November 14, 2006 11:49 AM
Well of course, Canayen, but I'm thinking if I had actually been taught "standard Canadian French," as opposed to French French with asterisked footnotes in deference to one of our two founding nations (déjeuner means breakfast! Isn't that nuts?!), then maybe living in Montreal for six frickin' years would have given me a chance. (Not that I tried that hard, but still...)
Posted by: Chris Selley at November 14, 2006 11:22 PM