Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.
Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.
I’ve met a few people over the years who believe that all Canadians are bilingual and that you should know at least some French before visiting us, but neither of those things is true.
According to Stats Canada, French is the first language of about 20% of thepopulation, English is the first language of 57% of us, and the other 23% learned another language first. About 18% of Canadians speak both French and English.
If you’re visiting a rural village in Quebec and speaking to a group of elderly people who have lived there for their entire lives, you will probably either need to speak French with them or bring an interpreter with you. The same can be true if you’re going deep into Northern Canada to visit small indigenous or First Nations communities as sometimes the oldest living generations there don’t speak English well (or at all) either from what I have heard, although I know more about the French angle due to how much higher the percentage of French speakers is in southern Ontario as compared to indigenous languages.
The largest cities in all of our provinces and territories are filled with people who speak English fluently and the vast majority of the other rural areas in the rest of Canada can say the same.
It might be their second, third, fourth, etc. language due to how much immigration we’ve been lucky enough to have, but you should have no problem communicating with most people in big cities if you need directions or other types of assistance.
People who immigrate to Quebec are required to speak French on an A2 proficiency level in order to receive Permanent Residency.
(For anyone who doesn’t know, proficiency levels range from a low of A1 to a high of C2 from what I understand, so they are basically asking new residents to be able to have short, simple conversations in that language and know enough about it to be able to fill out a form that, say, asks for your name, phone number, and home address. Fluency takes much longer to acquire and is not required).
It is not at all necessary to know French (or Pikanii, Tlingit, or any other non-English language) in order to have a great vacation here or live in any of the other provinces or territories, though.
Once I become fluent in Spanish, French is next on my list to learn. After that, who knows? Maybe I’ll try one of the many amazing Indigenous languages next.
Linda Fetter was my best teacher. She’s almost certainly retired or maybe not even alive anymore based on her age when I first met her and how many years it has been since I graduated high school, therefore I think it’s okay to mention her by name here. I have never seen anything about her online, so I doubt she’ll ever know about this post even if she is still with us.
Learn to Solve an Integral (A Calculus Parody of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful”)
Since you can’t do that, I’m going to give two answers.
This is what a typical day in my life looks like not counting the usual stuff like making breakfast or checking the mail:
I’ve read that public figures of all sorts were traditionally taught how to speak to the media early on in their careers. As in, shortly before they were signed to a record label, decided to run for office, chosen as a new player for a sports team, had their book approved for publication, or experienced something similarly life changing, they were given lessons on how to talk to reporters and how to steer a conversation away from matters they’d rather not discuss.
I’ve talked about living with a food allergy previously on my blog, so the topic I’m picking for this week’s prompt is migraines.
The existence of media training makes this week’s theme a tricky one. Just because a celebrity has developed a particular public image doesn’t mean that they are at all like that persona behind closed doors.
Age 18. Exams were wrapping up, and winter break was just about to begin. I sat in my college library and thumbed through the magazines they had there, paying special attention to the ones about science, literature, or history. It was neither a big library nor a fancy one, but I loved how quiet and peaceful it always was. I spent a lot of time there between classes even if I didn’t have any papers to write or upcoming tests to study for.
I’ve been looking forward to this topic for months! Let’s see if our ideas of unusual hobbies and interests match up.