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rfmcdonaldSarah Boesveld at the National Post points out something that I've heard from people new to Canada: why aren't more Canadian bilingual in English and in French? (French, mainly.)
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According to a new study, new immigrants are surprised to learn that while our cereal boxes may speak both official languages, Canada's citizens often don't
[. . .]
Recent immigrants expect Canadians to speak both English and French mostly because our nation boasts internationally about its two official languages, finds the study from the University of Calgary, to be presented this week at the 2011 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Many of the immigrants interviewed by Albert Galiev believed all Canadians should be able to converse in either French or English in a matter of course and many admit to having been confused when told by Calgarians that they only speak English, said the doctoral student at the University of Calgary studying second-language teaching.
Their understanding of Canada’s language landscape boils down to personal bilingualism — that not only are public services and resources delivered in both languages, but that the languages are regularly used by individuals.
“They don’t see bilingualism as something the federal government is supposed to do,” Mr. Galiev said in a news release. The way Canada promotes itself abroad leaves these immigrants with the impression that everyone can speak both official languages, when in reality, only 17.4% of Canadians are bilingual, according to figures from the 2006 Census.
The survey included short interviews with recent immigrants. One such interviewee said “in Mexico, when somebody talks about Canada, we know everybody speaks French and English.”
He said immigrants who arrive in Calgary are flummoxed by the lack of French-speaking there (the same Census data found only 0.7% of Albertans speak French fluently). Why, then, does Canada market itself as bilingual? they wonder.
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