leonardcohenforum.com

Canada has two sections for its state tv : one in English (CBC) and one in French (Radio-Canada). Usually what is on the air for the English section is only in English with subtitles in other languages including French if needed, and it is the same for Radio-Canada. For example David Suzuki was interviewed lately and as he only speaks English there were sub-titles in French (and a translater (in his ear) for him, as the interviewer was speaking French).

It is the same thing for state's radio - there is English and French sections which are independents (lucky-lucky).

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Leonard Cohen on a Canadien Errant sounds a lot like Zachary Richard (for more details about him : http://zacharyrichard.com/richardfrench/home.html), it is the accent of somebody whos muscles are used to speak English most of the time. It is not the International French. Now is this is "bad"? For me : no - but for some people, it is. Yes. When we speak this and that language we use diffirent muscles, that explains - partly (substances that alters the functionning of the pituitary gland and/or reflexes, etc. can explain also some "accents") - the accents. I heard some opera singers - and other non-French singers of other kind of styles (jazz, blues, etc.) - that were singing in French and, well, that was not better than what he did, frankly, but because it is opera, many would say nothing. Snobism? I don't know. Probably (I don't care)
Usually it seems to me that females are better than males with languages. I don't want to generalize and/or to be sexist (joke). So. This to said that when one practices, one is better, and when one does not, well... this is true for anybody Leonard Cohen included and his fluency is not the same at different times in his life. He gave a show at Place-des-Arts in a "perfect" (International) French. I repeat myself, I already wrote all this, but it seems necessary as it seems it could be perceived as being rude to ask people to use the search engine. I just did not want ot be redundant, not rude. But Ey!

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West of Québec? Could you be more precise please? West of Québec... (inside or outside Québec?)

Well Tom I like your image : daughter of bilingual Canada. Cute.

The fact is that when one is not exposed to a language - in a way or another - it is likely that one won't understand and speak/write/read it. It is not just a matter of having an open mind and being democratic. Canada is so huge.

It is not like being racist which is reliated to hatred (fear?) (ancient mentality?) this happens, unfortunately, sometimes, and yes this has to be with narrow mind and anti-democratic mind. Sigh. This is a sad reality everybody has to cope with at certain moments in life - I think - but. It is not always the case.

And I repeat, Canada is so huge that a lot (probably the majority) of Canadians will live an entire life without being exposed to the "other culture" in real life, so, it is a non-sense to me not to be a politically independent part of it, as we are already - in facts - two different entities, Québec and the rest of Canada - in day-to-day reality.

I think that everybody would benefit to live as good neighbors as all other civilized countries of the Western World do. Instead of being the eternal two solitudes.

We had discussions about the problematic of bilingualism already, somewhere on this forum. Will I dare to suggest the search engine again in case of big interest about that? I'm afraid I will.

End of the procrastination.

I repeat myself, I already wrote all this, but it seems necessary as it seems it could be perceived as being rude to ask people to use the search engine. I just did not want ot be redundant, not rude. But Ey!

Well, for that matter, we could all sit in front of search engines, and not connect to one another at all. I fear that eventually it will come to this. Your statement won't be redundant, it will simply cease to exist. It and the statements of others, will one day, be 'unnecessary'. But, I doubt that it will happen in this lifetime, but it will be close.

Regards,
Linda.

I meant to take the time to listen what the other person had said, to take the time to have a reflection about it, and to come back with a feed-back after.

When one does this, it is useless to repeat the same things again and again, and most of the time it is only annoying - and people can turn in circle indefinitely.

This is what I meant.

Anne, for some reason your comment is warming up some other comments - even though you say it depressed you, well, I guess it is not at this point. It is kind.

I think bilingualism is a great thing too, but not a realistic one, considering that it is a utmost idealistic idea that flies too high for the majority, unfortunatelty, particularly for those who only read cereal boxes and beer bottles and are lead by politic (vs human values). So. Better have hockey games for people who like to fight for nothing. Life is too short.

I was not exactly... exact. I meant CBC and Radio Canada they are ruled by the CRTC. But they have to be bilingual. A little percentage should be devoted to the other official language.

This is why I listened to Dance me to the end of Love on Radio-Canad while rosting red sweet pepper in olive oil (miam-miam). Great! It was a special about Montréal, I think, I don't know, I always listen to the radio while cooking but I am not - you know - very attentive.

Then I have this DVD I have to look, L'Audition, whith the song... oh I guess I'm better not to say it. This other song of Leonard Cohen in it. He is everywhere, around here.

As for bilingual Canadians as per a study from Bell Canada I read some years ago, only 40% of Canadians, be it FC or EC think it is great and important to be a bilingual country. Mostly they were from higher social classes and more educated. I guess that people are becoming more and more educated, no matter from which social class they are, and some day the dream of Pierre Elliot Trudeau would have been come true, following this logic, but, the problem is time I guess. It is a hurry to do it while we are not completely assimilated.

But the real problem of Qc is that the French issue is not enough to provide a society in which people would want to live. They are not ready to put control freaks in power just to escape other control freaks.

Nothing is simple!