Canada's heritage minister James Morre expressed disappointment that too much English and not enough French was used in the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Mr Moore felt the CAN$20 million event should have been 'a better representation of our bicultural past and the reality today'. Canada is bilingual in English and French; the latter is also the first language of the International Olympic Committee. (EL GAZETTE, Issue NR 363, April 2010)
What do you think about this?
That's a very interesting post, I must admit. Well, this is not something new. You know, French is no more what it used to be 50 years ago when there was a trend to know and use French. I can give an example about this: Romania is a francophone country. Years ago (50 or more) people used to go to Paris to do their shopping or studies. It was a trend. People used to learn French and instead of Romanian then spoke French - while having dinner, while visiting friends, while they were doing regular things. But this trend went by and Romanian became the general language. So, French lost part of its importance.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, there is a real "war" between French and English. For instance, there is almost no English word in French - they translated almost everything.
I think Mr. Moore is in love with French that's why he made this comment. Actually, I think he is right!
Nadina
Yes, Nadina you are right that language politics is everywhere in the world. This is an issue for debate epsecially in a multilingual context. I think that this is the issue of not only language identity but also national identity. Mr Moore is critical about the more use of English as he thinks that his national identity is masked. But I think that we can construct and negotiate multiple identities through the multiple languages we speak. For example, when I use English I reflect my 'English teacher' identity, when I speak Nepali I show my national identity and when I speak Limbu (my mother tongue) I show my ethnolinguistic identity. However, it due to power and politics one language get more priority than others. At the same time, there is a pragmatic reason too. As you've said if English is used everywhere (but other languages have limited use) of course we tend to use more English than our own languages (be it national or mother tongue). This clearly indicates that commodified notion of langauge in the period of globalisation determines the value and role of a language.
ReplyDeletePrem,
ReplyDeletewhen you gave the example about yourself and the languages you speak, you made me think about an old saying "you are as many languages you can speak". And you are right. We live the globalization, but I think we should not lose our national identity. I appreciate the French who really translate from English everything, common words such as "download", "internet", etc. As for Canada, the two languages make its identity and it may be lost if English becomes the universal language there too.