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Canadian French Language Leaders Debate | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| The Blaz Senior Member Canada theblazblog.blogspotRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5600 days ago 120 posts - 176 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto | Message 1 of 22 10 April 2010 at 7:19am | IP Logged |
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I present to you what may be one of the most bizarre occurrences in the realm of intersection between
language and politics: the Canadian French Language Leaders Debate. For Canadians, this will seem quite routine, but it struck me how odd it really is, and I wonder if it has any paralells elsewhere in the world? Basically, during every federal election, the Canadian public broadcaster hosts two political debates for the leaders of the major political parties to make their case to the Canadian public. One is in French, and the other is in English. There are many insanities involved in this phenomenon, but I will focus on the language-related ones first. So in the video linked below, we see 3 people (Harper - the Prime Minister; Layton, and May) discussing their plans for the future of their country in a language that is not their own, and in general do not have a full grasp on. I of course sympathize with all language learners (even ones I don't like politically), so I'm not blaming them for having poor French, but rather the oddness of the situation. The level of their French varies. May is obviously fairly weak in her French, but she has only recently begun a political career (and ambitious politicians all know they have to learn French for events such as this). Layton speaks an OK French with a Quebec-influenced pronunciation - which makes sense as he was raised in Montreal (but in an Anglophone community). Harper also speaks an OK French. I saw a video of him speaking French 20 years ago and he's improved somewhat but not by leaps and bounds. But by 'OK French' I mean it sounds like they are in an intermediate level university course and the teacher has decided to pass the class by getting them to debate hot political topics. Except... this is actually for the future of our country (insofar as anything a politician says before an election is meaningful). Duceppe and Dion have an obvious advantage in this debate since it is in their mother tongue. On to some other insanities... Duceppe is the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, a federal party (holding a good chunk of seats in Parliament) who only runs candidates in Quebec, and is committed to the separation of Quebec from Canada. Canadians outside of Quebec couldn't vote for his party even if they wanted to, so for people watching the English debate the next day, they just get to see him come along for the ride. On the other hand, May is the leader of the federal Green Party, which has considerable popular support (fluctuates around 8-10%), however due to Canada's election system the Green Party is unable to win any seats in Parliament. Without any seats, the Green Party has always been excluded from the federal debates (even though they run candidates in every riding across the country). In this case, though, an existing member of parliament left his party and joined the Green Party just before the election, meaning that technically the Green Party had a seat in parliament. A media battle ensued and eventually May was invited to participate in a debate in a language she doesn't adequately grasp. But she got some good zingers in English the next day. And there's your dose of Canadiana for the day! Video: http://elections.radio-canada.ca/elections/federales2008/deb at/debat_plus.shtml Edited by The Blaz on 10 April 2010 at 7:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| The Blaz Senior Member Canada theblazblog.blogspotRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5600 days ago 120 posts - 176 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto | Message 2 of 22 10 April 2010 at 7:27am | IP Logged |
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If you're wondering why I posted this, I was just watching a video on Youtube of Kevin
Rudd's excellent Mandarin (not that I could tell), then found some videos of John Kerry and Mitt Romney speaking French, which were funny, then wanted to see some Canadian politicians using French. I found the leaders debate which I remember watching partially in 2008, but now it struck me how odd and awkward it is. I love French and I love Quebec, but I am not hopeful for the future of Canadian bilingualism. 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 3 of 22 10 April 2010 at 8:46am | IP Logged |
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It's also interesting how much more forgiving the French-Canadian media is to linguistic
misfires than the English-Canadian media. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 4 of 22 10 April 2010 at 12:27pm | IP Logged |
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Layton reportedly also speaks Chinese. I wonder if the day when Canadian politicians have to debate each other in a
third language is coming. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 22 10 April 2010 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
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As far as I can see the 'Canadian solution' is the only logical one, provided that the combattants are capable of speaking both English and French at a reasonable level - and that does not necessarily mean a top-notch near-native or native level. Would you cut away the debate in French, - in a country that actually is linguistically divided? Or should all candidates speak their native language, which either would have the same effect or lead to a bilingual debate? (in itself an interesting thought). The problem would occur if a candidate simply only could speak one of the two languages, but being able to understand both major languages in a country like Canada must in itself be a qualification. If I lived in one part of such a country I wouldn't trust a politician that came from the other part if (s)he hadn't bothered to learn MY language.
And that dilemma may not be limited to Canada. The United States could see itself in the same situation later this century, and there are already countries where lingustic AND cultural barriers make one wonder what keep the coutnry together. I hesitate to mention names, but how have the Belgian politicians solved their communication problem? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 6 of 22 10 April 2010 at 1:38pm | IP Logged |
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Belgium is a bloody nightmare Iversen, don't get me started!
The different language regions have their own parliaments, and in the federal parliament they have headphones for translation. Politicians from Flanders tend to speak Dutch and French (they learn French at school). Politicians from Wallonia on the other hand, tend to only speak French (they don't learn Dutch at school). Politicians from Brussels also tend to speak both, whether they are originally Dutch-speaking or French-speaking (it's a bilingual region). We have 6 parliaments and much too many politicians! We have about 10 major parties, half Dutch-speaking, half French-speaking, so every government is a coalition of several parties, which basically means they can never agree on anything. Everything is a compromise. Us Belgians often say that the country would have split long ago, were it not for the problem of what to do with the bilingual region that is Brussels. This is probably a true statement. Keep an eye out for Belgium in the news as there should be a major constitutional change at the end of the Easter holidays (the end of next week). There are 3 Flemish districts bordering Brussels (we call the region: BHV), in which inhabitants, by an old Napoleonic law, can vote for Brussels political parties. These 3 districts are largely inhabited by French-speakers, who will of course vote for French-speaking political parties. This leaves the Flemish not happy at all of course, because technically those 3 districts are in Flanders, and inhabitants should only be allowed to vote for Flemish parties. So, most Flemings want the 3 districts to become 100% a part of Flanders. The French-speakers are not happy about this at all of course and want the 3 districts to become a part of Brussels. Things are getting very heated between the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking Belgian communities and I've seen outcries of fascism and people demanding democracy, on both sides... This BHV problem has brought down Belgian governments and prime ministers for generations, and ex-Prime Minister Dehaene has been given a deadline until the end of next week to find a solution! No matter the outcome, someone will not be happy! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6330 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 7 of 22 10 April 2010 at 4:08pm | IP Logged |
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This debate is by far the worst I've seen. I could barely understand Harper and Layton, and not at all May. There is something incredibly pathetic when someone wanting to run a big and complex country like Canada cannot even master French grammar...
Edited by Wilco on 10 April 2010 at 4:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 8 of 22 10 April 2010 at 4:16pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry for hijacking the thread.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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