Re: Bilingualism has ruined Canada but there is still hope.

From: mb (azythos2_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 12/16/04 

Date: 16 Dec 2004 01:50:22 -0800

Neeraj Mathur wrote:

> The curriculum is set by the provincial governments - therefore, each
> province has a completely different school system. In Ontario (where
I
> live), the high school curriculum has been changed recently.

> It is not possible to consider oneself a Francophone having only
completed
> Grade Nine French. At this point, the student really only knows three
> tenses: the present, the compound past with etre/avoir, and the 'near
> future' with aller. The knowledge of pronouns is limited, as relative
> pronouns and emphatic personal pronouns are not introduced until the
next
> year or two. Essentially, the student is equipped only to deal with a
short
> tourist visit to a French speaking region with the expectation that
people
> there will be charmed at the attempts of the student to speak their
language
> and then switch to English.
...........
> Still, there are French-immersion schools in the public system where
> children are forced to function in a French environment from an early
age:
> these are decidedly more successful than the FSL programs through
> English-medium schools.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation (and congratulations for
reading 93 instead of crap). So it looks as if there were no uniform
will to provide a decent minimum in the other language. Looking at the
nationalism raging on the other side, it wouldn't surprise me if the
kids were learning decent English against some obstacles put by the
cocorico authorities, I heard some stories from there too.

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