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Sorry, I Don't Speak French: Confronting the Canadian Crisis That Won't Go Away
As the threat of another Quebec referendum on independence looms, this book becomes important for every Canadian — especially as language remains both a barrier and a bridge in our divided country
Canada’s language policy is the only connection between two largely unilingual societies — English-speaking Canada and French-speaking Quebec. The country’s success in staying together depends on making it work.
How well is it working? Graham Fraser, an English-speaking Canadian who became bilingual, decided to take a clear-eyed look at the situation. The results are startling — a blend of good news and bad. The Official Languages Act was passed with the support of every party in the House way back in 1969 — yet Canada’s language policy is still a controversial, red-hot topic; jobs, ideals, and ultimately the country are at stake. And the myth that the whole thing was always a plot to get francophones top jobs continues to live.
Graham Fraser looks at the intentions, the hopes, the fears, the record, the myths, and the unexpected reality of a country that is still grappling with the language challenge that has shaped its history. He finds a after letting Quebec lawyers run the country for three decades, Canadians keep hoping the next generation will be bilingual — but forty years after learning that the country faced a language crisis, Canada’s universities still treat French as a foreign language. He describes the impact of language on politics and government (not to mention social life in Montreal and Ottawa) in a hard-hitting book that will be discussed everywhere, including the headlines in both languages.
Canada’s language policy is the only connection between two largely unilingual societies — English-speaking Canada and French-speaking Quebec. The country’s success in staying together depends on making it work.
How well is it working? Graham Fraser, an English-speaking Canadian who became bilingual, decided to take a clear-eyed look at the situation. The results are startling — a blend of good news and bad. The Official Languages Act was passed with the support of every party in the House way back in 1969 — yet Canada’s language policy is still a controversial, red-hot topic; jobs, ideals, and ultimately the country are at stake. And the myth that the whole thing was always a plot to get francophones top jobs continues to live.
Graham Fraser looks at the intentions, the hopes, the fears, the record, the myths, and the unexpected reality of a country that is still grappling with the language challenge that has shaped its history. He finds a after letting Quebec lawyers run the country for three decades, Canadians keep hoping the next generation will be bilingual — but forty years after learning that the country faced a language crisis, Canada’s universities still treat French as a foreign language. He describes the impact of language on politics and government (not to mention social life in Montreal and Ottawa) in a hard-hitting book that will be discussed everywhere, including the headlines in both languages.
340 pages, Paperback
First published March 14, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 2, 2011
Every Canadian should read this book. Graham walks you through the history of English and French in Canada. The language of Canada and how English & French speaking Canadians see our country. How language & culture has evolved, where we (as Canadians) currently stand with each other and what we need to do going forward if we want to continue to live and work together. This book opened my mind and showed me a different perspective of Canada (as an English speaking Canadian). I have lately been interested in learning French for years now but this book has tipped the scales in favour of learning French now.
October 31, 2010
A mix of contemporary analysis and historical review of the struggle between French and English in Canada.
A really engaging read full of new opinions on the issue that just wont go away.
A really engaging read full of new opinions on the issue that just wont go away.
August 31, 2014
1) ''For the experience is a humbling one. It recreates the immigrant experience without leaving home. One discovers the awkwardness, the limitation, the handicap of being less articulate, less intelligent, less witty, and, at the same time, one experiences the unfolding reality of a world in another language. And even those Canadians who did not attempt the effort of learning French found themselves with a greater awareness that there was another language, another culture, another society within their country; accepting on otherness made it easier to conceive of a country of many.''
2) ''One of the ironies of the application of federal-language policy has been that former Montrealers have been both the most supportive -- and the most resistant. It was a commonplace observation that the constituency that most strongly supported Pierre Trudeau's political ideas was English Montreal. As English Montrealers became more bilingual, many were drawn to the federal government in Ottawa. But, at the same time, as the language of work requirements of Quebec's Charter of the French Language began to take effect, many of those who felt uncomfortable, and left, moved to the Ottawa area. Thus, paradoxically, Quebec's success in transforming Montreal into a city that functions in French has made it difficult for Ottawa to be effectively bilingual -- because many of the anglophones who were unable or unwilling to learn French and adapt to a French-speaking working environment moved to Ottawa, and were horrified at the prospect of seeing Ottawa's institutions become bilingual.''
3) ''Some fear that Canada can no longer be bilingual if it is going to be multicultural. But respect for multicultural communities flows from an innate understanding that there is not a single Canadian culture or language. And there are many indications that Canada's multicultural communities have embraced bilingualism. Montreal has seen the emergence of the phenomenon of 'trilingual Montrealers,' and the Chinese communities in both Vancouver and Toronto have been strongly supportive of French-language education. In Vancouver, the Chinese community asked the French Embassy to have the Alliance Française located in a Chinese community centre, and in Toronto, the Chinese community has provided strong financial support for the expansion of the Toronto French School. Often it is recalcitrant Anglos who use concern for immigrants and visible minorities as grounds to oppose the federal government's language policy; the grounds are false. In fact, it is Canada's acceptance, however inarticulate, of the reality of another culture and language within its national fabric, and its attempt to accommodate that reality -- rather than the desire to undermine Quebec that Quebec nationalists feared -- that has made multiculturalism possible.''
4) ''In the past, the argument has been made that English Canadians should learn French for the sake of Quebec and national unity. No, dammit, we should do it for ourselves.''
2) ''One of the ironies of the application of federal-language policy has been that former Montrealers have been both the most supportive -- and the most resistant. It was a commonplace observation that the constituency that most strongly supported Pierre Trudeau's political ideas was English Montreal. As English Montrealers became more bilingual, many were drawn to the federal government in Ottawa. But, at the same time, as the language of work requirements of Quebec's Charter of the French Language began to take effect, many of those who felt uncomfortable, and left, moved to the Ottawa area. Thus, paradoxically, Quebec's success in transforming Montreal into a city that functions in French has made it difficult for Ottawa to be effectively bilingual -- because many of the anglophones who were unable or unwilling to learn French and adapt to a French-speaking working environment moved to Ottawa, and were horrified at the prospect of seeing Ottawa's institutions become bilingual.''
3) ''Some fear that Canada can no longer be bilingual if it is going to be multicultural. But respect for multicultural communities flows from an innate understanding that there is not a single Canadian culture or language. And there are many indications that Canada's multicultural communities have embraced bilingualism. Montreal has seen the emergence of the phenomenon of 'trilingual Montrealers,' and the Chinese communities in both Vancouver and Toronto have been strongly supportive of French-language education. In Vancouver, the Chinese community asked the French Embassy to have the Alliance Française located in a Chinese community centre, and in Toronto, the Chinese community has provided strong financial support for the expansion of the Toronto French School. Often it is recalcitrant Anglos who use concern for immigrants and visible minorities as grounds to oppose the federal government's language policy; the grounds are false. In fact, it is Canada's acceptance, however inarticulate, of the reality of another culture and language within its national fabric, and its attempt to accommodate that reality -- rather than the desire to undermine Quebec that Quebec nationalists feared -- that has made multiculturalism possible.''
4) ''In the past, the argument has been made that English Canadians should learn French for the sake of Quebec and national unity. No, dammit, we should do it for ourselves.''
December 25, 2008
I read this book a few years ago. It was an interesting statement of the failure of Canadian language policy, a failure that is now represented by Fraser himself.
Fraser is the self-important commissioner for official languages in Canada. He heads up a useless bureaucracy that wastes tax payers money ostensibly promoting Canada's official languages, which means, in fact, trying to enforce the use of French in English Canada while ignoring the official linguistic cleansing of English in Quebec. He pontificates about the obligation of English Canadians to speak French, suggesting that fluency in French should be a condition of getting a university degree for English Canadians. His approach is based on bureaucracy, enforcement, obligation, spending money on useless programs etc. I heard him speak once. He said amongst other inanities, that speaking French in Canada was "a value". A value for whom, him maybe. But not for Saskatchewan farmer or a BC logger. Just a lot of politically correct double speak.
On the other he is not interested in the subject of how we learn another language, how we make another language attractive, in other words how to achieve these language goals by thinking outside the box. Don't get me going on this guy and how we waste billions of dollars on official language education in Canada, French for anglophones, or immigrant language instruction.
Fraser is the self-important commissioner for official languages in Canada. He heads up a useless bureaucracy that wastes tax payers money ostensibly promoting Canada's official languages, which means, in fact, trying to enforce the use of French in English Canada while ignoring the official linguistic cleansing of English in Quebec. He pontificates about the obligation of English Canadians to speak French, suggesting that fluency in French should be a condition of getting a university degree for English Canadians. His approach is based on bureaucracy, enforcement, obligation, spending money on useless programs etc. I heard him speak once. He said amongst other inanities, that speaking French in Canada was "a value". A value for whom, him maybe. But not for Saskatchewan farmer or a BC logger. Just a lot of politically correct double speak.
On the other he is not interested in the subject of how we learn another language, how we make another language attractive, in other words how to achieve these language goals by thinking outside the box. Don't get me going on this guy and how we waste billions of dollars on official language education in Canada, French for anglophones, or immigrant language instruction.
May 15, 2011
This was a bit of a dry read, although the historical background was very interesting. I think it would have been more interesting if I weren't a former teacher of French as a second language, having taught in four schools where public servants prepared for their government exams. Interspersed between the more tedious parts were examples of how language training is being carried out and how it affects public servants' lives. Having witnessed such situations first-hand, and having heard of them from students and other teachers, these parts of the book were not the juicy morsels I am sure they were intended to be. They were old news.
I read this book as part of a process to try to decide if it was worth staying in this field. I must admit, I did not read anything that would give me hope. This IS a crisis, and I DON'T think it will go away. But I think this would be an interesting read for anyone who can get through it.
I read this book as part of a process to try to decide if it was worth staying in this field. I must admit, I did not read anything that would give me hope. This IS a crisis, and I DON'T think it will go away. But I think this would be an interesting read for anyone who can get through it.
July 22, 2016
The book is interesting, smart, and well-written. As an allophone immigrant who happened to learn both French and English, then worked in Quebec City for a while before moving to Ottawa, I should say that it really matches my experience and feelings. But I wouldn't know how to express it better than Mr. Fraser.
January 7, 2014
I highly recommend this book. It was a very enjoyable ready, full of insight and very thought provoking. The book truly spoke to me and I wish it were required reading in high school.
January 25, 2020
Truthfully, this book took me quite a while to get through — at least three attempts back from the beginning. When I first picked it up, I had the impression it would cover mostly the societal aspects of living in a bilingual Canada. Perhaps some insight on every day life living in Quebec as English unilingual minority or vice versa. Instead, there was a lot of political history. Being bombarded with political figures and important dates straight from chapter 2 led me to put the book down so many times. But getting through it, and doing more research on the author, I see why politics were so focused on.
So overall I enjoyed it even though it wasn't what I expected. It certainly has got me interested in the language issue in Canada as a whole (rather than just in Quebec) and see Canadian politics from a new perspective. I will be looking more into Graham Fraser's other works as I believe his research is worth a read.
So overall I enjoyed it even though it wasn't what I expected. It certainly has got me interested in the language issue in Canada as a whole (rather than just in Quebec) and see Canadian politics from a new perspective. I will be looking more into Graham Fraser's other works as I believe his research is worth a read.
March 6, 2020
Interesting topic, dryly written. As an Anglophone public servant with hard-won imperfect French I am genuinely interested in Canada's journey to bilingualism but I found the endless pages recounting conversations between politicians boring.
January 28, 2009
This book gives a very comprehensive history of the language struggle in Canada. The author obvious knows his stuff. Some accounts he quoted were even first-hand.
The author pointed out that the contemporary Canada language policy has bee a failure, and I agree with him very much. However, other than this, I pretty much disagree with his other opinions. In fact, I find that I am more inline with Mr. Harper, whom the author seemed to very much disagree with. Mr. Harper studied the international language policies and concluded that governments can only have little influence on how people use their languages.
This is also an excellent book to read to learn about contemporary Canadian politics. A lot of politicians' names were mentioned. It even described how the recent top politicians such as Harper, Martin, and Layton, learned their French.
The author was a bilingual, but he was certainly not a linguist. No, Japanese is not a tonal language.
The author pointed out that the contemporary Canada language policy has bee a failure, and I agree with him very much. However, other than this, I pretty much disagree with his other opinions. In fact, I find that I am more inline with Mr. Harper, whom the author seemed to very much disagree with. Mr. Harper studied the international language policies and concluded that governments can only have little influence on how people use their languages.
This is also an excellent book to read to learn about contemporary Canadian politics. A lot of politicians' names were mentioned. It even described how the recent top politicians such as Harper, Martin, and Layton, learned their French.
The author was a bilingual, but he was certainly not a linguist. No, Japanese is not a tonal language.
November 5, 2018
I would suggest this book to anybody interested in the cultural and/or political dynamic of Canada. Fraser demonstrates that the idea of a bilingual nation is more contemporary than most believe. While French and English peoples co-existed for a number of centuries in a British dominion called Canada, linguistic representation in government and bilingual fluency among its population is a new, and often divisive idea. Fraser provides a narrative of the pioneers of bilingualism, how it was implemented, its merits and limitations and its future. The book is well organized, and only bogs down during some instances during the era of the 1960's. While the book is lightly dated at the writing of this review, the issue of bilingualism throughout Canada appears as a timeless issue within the Canadian experience.
March 27, 2010
A very interesting book about the language controversy in Canada and official bilingualism. I am only giving it four stars because I gave too many other books five stars. But they're all great, since I don't buy a book unless I do in-depth research about it first.
January 16, 2014
Book is interesting, but not diligently read by reviewer. Will step up game for next book, or rewrite review next time book is read.
An overview of Canadian Official Language's Policy with Canadian ontext, up to 2005.
An overview of Canadian Official Language's Policy with Canadian ontext, up to 2005.
June 2, 2013
Fantastic look back at the history of bilingualism in Canada
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews