Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Olympics According to Languages

  Tags: Olympic Games
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
45 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>
lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5960 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 33 of 45
06 March 2010 at 8:41pm | IP Logged 
dagojr wrote:

I know it's only a minor point, but isn't the main language of Belarus Russian and not Belarusian? I know both languages are widely used in the country, but my understanding was that a slightly higher percentage of the population uses Russian. I have a wikipedia source to support this claim. If someone could find a better source, that would be great.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Belarus#Languag es

From the quick research I did I wasn't able to tell which language was more dominant in Belarus so I'll take your word for it.
1 person has voted this message useful



pitwo
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6159 days ago
103 posts - 121 votes 
Speaks: French*, English

 
 Message 34 of 45
06 March 2010 at 8:53pm | IP Logged 
I guess it only makes sense to think of medals in terms of nationality. What about India,
where more than 300 languages (?) are spoken ? Which one would be taken into account ?

Unless someone is willing to tally up per language.. sounds like a bad idea to equal
country and mother tongue.

As for language protectionism, I hate that stuff and won't delve further.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Vinlander
Groupie
Canada
Joined 5821 days ago
62 posts - 69 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 35 of 45
07 March 2010 at 5:37am | IP Logged 
Meh i don't wanna argue about why I don;t like Quebec. I don't wanna get in a debate here. But I've heard many people getting the vibe go back to anglo Canada. However my only point is somehow french canada has a half share in many issues in Canada, When there about a fifth of the population. BAsically if they don't get there way they threaten to leave. If quebec were to split I would be moving there. That being said I'm just keeping it real.
1 person has voted this message useful



Hello
Diglot
Groupie
Canada
Joined 5420 days ago
40 posts - 45 votes
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 36 of 45
07 March 2010 at 6:24am | IP Logged 
Why not counting the languages according to each medallist's native language?
1 person has voted this message useful



canada38
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5495 days ago
304 posts - 417 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: Portuguese, Japanese

 
 Message 37 of 45
07 March 2010 at 11:56pm | IP Logged 
Vinlander wrote:
Whatever outside of Quebec french is at the bottom of the list, I
work at a call center that serves all of ontario, and I get way more serbs, mandarin
cantoese, punjabia, and Italian, callers and i don't just mean people with accents
people with french last names are extremely rare outside of the gatineau region.Its
pure racism that the languages aren't official and french is. By the way Quebecois
are very much xenophobes, so please don't act like their for adding more languages.
Don't get me wrong I love Quebec more than much other provinces but don't kid yourself
Quebec is french and the rest is whatever.
The biggest lie is Canada is that were Half french. The truth is there about 1/5 of the
pop, Usa has more hispanics per capita.    


How is it racist to not make these immigrant languages each an official language of
Canada? In the colonial days, Canada was founded by predominately English and French
speakers. Our traditions, culture and heritage are based on this shared history. New
Canadians generally adopt our culture, and within a few generations, they are just like
any other. New immigrants add their own story to our multicultural society and make
life better for all, but it's not up to Canadians to conform to foreigners. By
Canadians I include new Canadians too, not just Anglo or French Canadians.

Yes, there are good grounds to argue in favour of Mandarin becoming an official
language. Although I would be strongly against such a change; the Chinese have had a
strong presence on Canada's West Coast for longer than just recent memory. If any
language other than English or French reaches a high level of use outside of immigrant
communities, ethnic business, and the like, then perhaps it should become an official
language if it serves the test of time.

By not making Serbo-Croatian, Italian, or Punjabi official languages of Canada no one
is being racist. Can you imagine the House of Commons? Sure, it would give linguistic
diversity a boost. On the other hand, no work would ever get accomplished because of
all the translation issues. Another point to consider, think about every single
government service where French and English are offered. It does make sense to offer
service in Punjabi in Toronto. It doesn't make sense to legally have to offer police
services or staff at a hospital speaking Punjabi in the NWT. We cannot accommodate
every single person's individual preference. It's impossible. I do believe there is an
English or French language requirement before one can move to Canada anyway. It
probably doesn't apply to dependents, (I don't know, just assuming) but in that case a
family member could help out.

And please read the forum rules before posting. No one cares about small spelling or
grammatical errors, after all this is the Internet, but please try to write correctly.
I copied this from the forum rules.

SPELLING
Please spell correctly. If English is not your mother tongue, you may not be able to
write every word correctly, but at least try to. If you are a native English speaker,
watch your spelling. It is a lack of respect for other users of the forum not to write
correctly, even so more in the face of people who had to study your language for years
and write it better than you do. If you can't spell it, don't write it.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Vinlander
Groupie
Canada
Joined 5821 days ago
62 posts - 69 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 38 of 45
08 March 2010 at 12:05am | IP Logged 
canada38 wrote:
Vinlander wrote:
Whatever outside of Quebec french is at the bottom of the list, I
work at a call center that serves all of ontario, and I get way more serbs, mandarin
cantoese, punjabia, and Italian, callers and i don't just mean people with accents
people with french last names are extremely rare outside of the gatineau region.Its
pure racism that the languages aren't official and french is. By the way Quebecois
are very much xenophobes, so please don't act like their for adding more languages.
Don't get me wrong I love Quebec more than much other provinces but don't kid yourself
Quebec is french and the rest is whatever.
The biggest lie is Canada is that were Half french. The truth is there about 1/5 of the
pop, Usa has more hispanics per capita.    


How is it racist to not make these immigrant languages each an official language of
Canada? In the colonial days, Canada was founded by predominately English and French
speakers. Our traditions, culture and heritage are based on this shared history. New
Canadians generally adopt our culture, and within a few generations, they are just like
any other. New immigrants add their own story to our multicultural society and make
life better for all, but it's not up to Canadians to conform to foreigners. By
Canadians I include new Canadians too, not just Anglo or French Canadians.

Yes, there are good grounds to argue in favour of Mandarin becoming an official
language. Although I would be strongly against such a change; the Chinese have had a
strong presence on Canada's West Coast for longer than just recent memory. If any
language other than English or French reaches a high level of use outside of immigrant
communities, ethnic business, and the like, then perhaps it should become an official
language if it serves the test of time.

By not making Serbo-Croatian, Italian, or Punjabi official languages of Canada no one
is being racist. Can you imagine the House of Commons? Sure, it would give linguistic
diversity a boost. On the other hand, no work would ever get accomplished because of
all the translation issues. Another point to consider, think about every single
government service where French and English are offered. It does make sense to offer
service in Punjabi in Toronto. It doesn't make sense to legally have to offer police
services or staff at a hospital speaking Punjabi in the NWT. We cannot accommodate
every single person's individual preference. It's impossible. I do believe there is an
English or French language requirement before one can move to Canada anyway. It
probably doesn't apply to dependents, (I don't know, just assuming) but in that case a
family member could help out.

And please read the forum rules before posting. No one cares about small spelling or
grammatical errors, after all this is the Internet, but please try to write correctly.
I copied this from the forum rules.

SPELLING
Please spell correctly. If English is not your mother tongue, you may not be able to
write every word correctly, but at least try to. If you are a native English speaker,
watch your spelling. It is a lack of respect for other users of the forum not to write
correctly, even so more in the face of people who had to study your language for years
and write it better than you do. If you can't spell it, don't write it.



Your kinda proving my point, In much of Canada French is simply another language, it`s not a shared history, most of canada has had little impact by french, No more than other languages listed.Unless your talk pre 100 years ago, when the pop of the country was under a million. You point to the insanity of having other languages in parliment but i can promise you in many parts of the country it`s easier to find mandarin speakers than French. I`m more than happy with Quebec being French only. But the fact that the rest of the country should be forced to speak both french and English is a bit much.
1 person has voted this message useful



Paskwc
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5677 days ago
450 posts - 624 votes 
Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English
Studies: Persian, Spanish

 
 Message 39 of 45
08 March 2010 at 12:09am | IP Logged 
Vinlander wrote:
However my only point is somehow french canada has a half share in
many issues in Canada, When there about a fifth of the population. BAsically if they
don't get there way they threaten to leave.


There are substantive and reasonable historical/political reasons for this that are
better suited for discussions on other forums.

Edited by Paskwc on 08 March 2010 at 12:14am
2 persons have voted this message useful



Paskwc
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5677 days ago
450 posts - 624 votes 
Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English
Studies: Persian, Spanish

 
 Message 40 of 45
08 March 2010 at 12:13am | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:
Paskwc wrote:
Some Quebecois regard
foreign customs and values as being undesirable and aren't afraid of saying so.


You can replace "Quebecois" with any other nationality and that statement would still
be true.

As a Québécois myself, I've been told many a time by English-Canadians to just "go back
to France". That still doesn't allow me to claim that English-Canadians are
xenophobic.


I hope my original post did not offend you. If read in its entirety, it is a highly
qualified statement that does not make normative judgements. I did not mean to suggest,
or write anything that could be construed as suggesting, that the Quebecois are
xenophobic.

Edited by Paskwc on 08 March 2010 at 12:22am


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 45 messages over 6 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.4844 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.