Governments pass laws all the time that protect one thing or another, it's not an indication of public opinion. We have gone into 3 wars in the last two decades that public opinion would not have voted for. In fact in my life time the only war the uk has been in that had public support was the Falklands, the first gulf war would have probably been 50/50 in support.

My point is that if there wasn't a fear that English would take over then there would be no need for the laws. The rest of Canada doesn't have laws saying that all signage must be in English, reason being that they have no fear that French will dominate.


And on my aside, the German team actually got a British guy to write their song!

[quote="Maidel"]

Yes, but if what you said was true then they wouldn't need to pass the laws to enforce it. :)

They only passed those laws because they were afraid they would become English speaking.


As a side we have a competition called the Eurovision song contest, (for anyone who knows what it is, I'm not a fan but I have a young daughter who loves that sort of thing.)

Basically it's a Europe wide song contest, one entry from each nation. Over time the rules have changed, but the rule used to be ' you must sing in a language that is native to your country.'

A few years ago they dropped that rule and certain countries were outraged and said they would never sing in anything but their native language (France and Germany were among them.)

So come this year - France, Germany and Italy all performed in English. In fact out of 26 countries, over half performed in English, only 3 countries historically were allowed to (England, Ireland and Malta).[/quote]

if passing a law isn't proof that people are committed to their language I don't know what is. yes they were afraid of becoming English and the law works very well against that, you're lucky to find a English speaking person in Quebec and I think that law prohibits English signs. as for eurosong I would be pretty pissed of if I only spoke french and my favorite singer went and performed in a language I couldn't understand.

[quote="Tstarnes"]it gets heavily taught so that kids don't end up with a disadvantage. But I dont think it will outplace the native language.[/quote] French gets taught in Canada for since grade five I think - to grade ten no one I know learned any french from it unless they were in french immersion.

I admire the French's insistence on Frenchiness.

I just noticed that autocorrect capitalized English but left french as is.

[quote="rocketraccoon"]Chinese English (chinglish?) may well become an international language for those that need to communicate internationally but I don't think it will be spoken in the home or in places that have their own national language anytime soon. People are very committed to their own languages and feel that changing their language compromises their cultural identity. Quebec has passed laws to keep themselves french speaking and to prevent themselves from becoming English speaking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language[/quote]

I agree that this is just for "international" language, although in countries where the international language is not native, it gets heavily taught so that kids don't end up with a disadvantage. But I dont think it will outplace the native language.

[quote="rocketraccoon"]Chinese English (chinglish?) may well become an international language for those that need to communicate internationally but I don't think it will be spoken in the home or in places that have their own national language anytime soon. People are very committed to their own languages and feel that changing their language compromises their cultural identity. Quebec has passed laws to keep themselves french speaking and to prevent themselves from becoming English speaking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language[/quote]

Yes, but if what you said was true then they wouldn't need to pass the laws to enforce it. :)

They only passed those laws because they were afraid they would become English speaking.


As a side we have a competition called the Eurovision song contest, (for anyone who knows what it is, I'm not a fan but I have a young daughter who loves that sort of thing.)

Basically it's a Europe wide song contest, one entry from each nation. Over time the rules have changed, but the rule used to be ' you must sing in a language that is native to your country.'

A few years ago they dropped that rule and certain countries were outraged and said they would never sing in anything but their native language (France and Germany were among them.)

So come this year - France, Germany and Italy all performed in English. In fact out of 26 countries, over half performed in English, only 3 countries historically were allowed to (England, Ireland and Malta).

Chinese English (chinglish?) may well become an international language for those that need to communicate internationally but I don't think it will be spoken in the home or in places that have their own national language anytime soon. People are very committed to their own languages and feel that changing their language compromises their cultural identity. Quebec has passed laws to keep themselves french speaking and to prevent themselves from becoming English speaking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language

I mentioned firefly in referencing a combined chinese/english language.

I was never talking about Firefly. Is that what youse guys are on about?

I wasn't meaning that it would take that style, just referencing. Your riht about the show, but then it was written by present day English speakers, so they had little choice. Had they gone more to where the language would more readily evolve in that possibility, it would be unintelligible to viewers.