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Step up your game, France (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 week ago* by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I think it has spilled into the rest of Canada too. I just spent a week in Alberta and every little thing that said "stop" also said "arrêt". But the only obvious French speakers I encountered were either tourists or government officials being intentionally accommodating.

On a more serious note I think Canadian bilingualism might exaggerate this effect. Every sign and product package is printed in both languages so in a way or makes sense to spell things out in full English and full French. i.e. It would be kinda weird to print English alongside some kind of nonstandard Franglish.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    In Eastern Ontario you'll see these signs along the highway that spell some safety message. They'll have sometimes 2 or 3 in a row to fully tell you the thing in english. Then you'll get the same signs again explaining it in french.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 days ago (1 child)

    I kind of liked how they handle it in Ottawa with the highway signs having the English and French above and below street names on highways, wherever it made sense. I didn’t remember seeing that in Toronto on that trip, but I was in Toronto at the start of this week and noticed a lot of signs like that, at least on the 400 highways. I found that a little surprising given Toronto’s distance from Quebec, but I guess with the sheer population size of Toronto and its role as a transportation hub it makes sense.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    Packaging having both languages on it is a federal level legal requirement, since we are bilingual. However, the stop signs are more a regional thing. If there is a francophone population in the area, and you're not in Quebec, you might see both on a sign. In my home province, we have the dual language signs wherever the French speaking population is large enough to warrant it, but everywhere else has English only.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Yes that was my understanding. That's precisely why I shared my experience in Alberta, where I did not expect any substantial francophone population. Maybe that assumption was just wrong?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 days ago

    In general, I'd say you're right that Alberta wouldn't have a large population of francophones. But, especially in anglophone provinces, French speakers tend to live in French communities.

    Like in my province, you could carve out ~80% of the land and have about 97% English speakers to 3% French speakers. But the remaining 20% is nearly 90% French speakers.

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