IISANDERII
Member
I agree. I knew a Chinese kid, 9yrs old, born in Canada and didn't speak a word of English!
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
CBC poll: Canadians want minorities to do more to 'fit in'
- Thread starter MMarston
- Start date
- Status
Gotdatmoney
Member
Where in this country is that even possible? That's insane to me.
privitsan02
Member
To be fair, I've met some Arabs and French Caucasians (teenagers and grown ass men), who also didn't speak a lick of English either. They knew French though.
I've seen many who don't speak either as a kid, but that seemed to have dissipated by grade 5 at least. They knew at least one of either languages by then. I feel like this being the case outside of Quebec would be very rare.
Why would you feel that?
privitsan02
Member
As people are rather forced to know two languages in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada. Most people either stick with one or the other.
Not saying its impossible, but it would definitely be more rare than in Quebec as there are loads of people who only speak French or stick with French/English and their mother tongue. Heck, in many parts of Quebec, English isn't even a necessary tool due to the communities, laws and overall environment.
Best wishes.
Gotdatmoney
Member
I wasn't really counting french. We have 2 official languages so you can live in Quebec and be fine speaking only french so that's not a big deal. I inferred from that post the child spoke neither English nor French. That was an assumption though so I could totally be wrong.
Ah. You're talking about being multi lingual? Yeah I can definitely see that being way more common in Quebec. In Ontario it's the most aspirational of immigrant families that send their kids to French immersion. I know a few.
IISANDERII
Member
Steeles and McCowan
And yet Calgary has a brown muslim mayor... I'd like to see that in the most 'liberal' city in America.. ever.
People need to fuck off with the Alberta shit. Most of the population is in the larger cities. People in rural areas and small towns are the same everywhere.
:rolleyes
Eh. Toronto is almost exactly double the size of Montreal by square footage. Toronto also has a richer history of immigrants from specific regions of the world. Our first Chinatown was created by the mass exodus from the (at the time) radical California in the 19th century. There's nothing wrong with enclaves in huge cities. The daily visitors spruce it up and stimulate the economy of these newcomers. There's nothing wrong with spillover too. If the Portuguese and Italians mix then that's beautiful.
This is the truth, brother. I feel like not a lot of Ontarians actually explore the province. I've met plenty of quasi-racist persons in small, quaint towns; and many others who consider anyone in an urban environment a "city-diot." You can't do much except buy their apple pies and nod and tell them a story from your POV in as much of a nice manner as possible.
Anecdotal: I love that our country has a young, Sikh as our Minister of Defense. He looks absolutely badass with the Canadian royal garb and turban, lol. I'd like to see America be that progressive in their military hierarchy!
Completely believable. Some neighbourhoods in the city are over saturated with one or two ethnic groups to the point where store signage is no longer in English.
Well said and agree 100%. But as per the "outrage" culture in full effect here. You want people to fit in to our society? RACIST!!!
Someone quoted this earlier. From the article..
Gotdatmoney
Member
America has a black president doe.
I don't disagree with you at but I just found that statement funny
MissDeviling
Member
This is the worst suggestion ever. I immigrated to Canada at an early age, and even with supplementary Chinese school, my Chinese is ass. I can't read or write well, and my speech is stuttery and limited in vocab. I can't communicate with my relatives as well as I want to, and I can never teach my kids how to, either. I speak perfect English, but my biggest regret is not learning Chinese properly. Kids at a young age will assimilate very naturally because of school.
MegaManTrigger
Banned
It's been like that for generations. You should see how atrocious our forefathers were in their generational genocide of the First Nations people.
I love this dude. He is epitome of what Canada stands for. Plus he looks like a bad ass lol.
America has a black president doe.
I don't disagree with you at but I just found that statement funny
I get what your saying. I just don't think peoples views are as extreme as they are made out to be. Alberta also voted in the most left leaning party in the country to the provincial government.
Nothing1016
Member
Nah. Its always been this way for a variety of countries. US is just more open about it.
You Are Viewtiful
Member
I'd prefer to see the urban rural divide tbh.
I'm Chinese myself, although I'm born in Canada. I still speak Chinese and follow Chinese customs and stuff.
My past two years have been as a grad student in a lab (UofT) where most students are Chinese and it's like an enclave down there and it drives me nuts sometimes. Now that the last white labmate has graduated, I'm the only reason they have to speak English anymore. You walk in there and it's all Chinese.
Not that I have a problem with Chinese people. It's that some don't even seem to try. Although, there is one especially that is trying to soak in all our culture and stuff and he's cool.
My past two years have been as a grad student in a lab (UofT) where most students are Chinese and it's like an enclave down there and it drives me nuts sometimes. Now that the last white labmate has graduated, I'm the only reason they have to speak English anymore. You walk in there and it's all Chinese.
Not that I have a problem with Chinese people. It's that some don't even seem to try. Although, there is one especially that is trying to soak in all our culture and stuff and he's cool.
GuessMyUserName
Member
As great as it is that Harper got stomped on this election, it's still important to remember what part of his campaign he started seeing success from.
Cons were dying in the polls up until Harper found a soft spot with the niqab debate and completely tore NDP down from its lead with it. So successfully that their whole campaign went full on muslim fearmongering mode for the rest of the election with that "barbaric practices" shit.
Cons were dying in the polls up until Harper found a soft spot with the niqab debate and completely tore NDP down from its lead with it. So successfully that their whole campaign went full on muslim fearmongering mode for the rest of the election with that "barbaric practices" shit.
Exactly this.
I'm not saying I agree with the people who think immigrants should do more to integrate with society, but I definitely see where it's coming from - and it's not some racist idea that everybody should be the same. We live in a cultural mosiac, and there are downsides to that, the same way there are downsides to the melting pot.
Best quote from the article as pointed out
For real, and then it turns into the usual type of thread where American gaffers start running in and drawing conclusions from it.
I've seen retail clerks get yelled at for not having a Chinese speaking worker on hand because people go around thinking they don't need to learn English. As a fellow Chinese person I find this highly obnoxious.
For real, and then it turns into the usual type of thread where American gaffers start running in and drawing conclusions from it.
I've seen retail clerks get yelled at for not having a Chinese speaking worker on hand because people go around thinking they don't need to learn English. As a fellow Chinese person I find this highly obnoxious.
Theres some Canucks here doing the same thing to be fair.
Yeah, this is exactly it.
TemplaerDude
Member
Have not heard Ujjal Dosanjh's name in a long time, he made some good points there. Poor guy never got a fair shake at the stick after that Glen Clark deck bullshit.
Mr. Giggles
Member
I'm part of the problem.
Ok, confession time, when I first came to Canada and had poutine for the first time I put hot sauce on it, took me about 5 years to stop.
Ok, confession time, when I first came to Canada and had poutine for the first time I put hot sauce on it, took me about 5 years to stop.
I know a couple who is home schooling their 2 of their 3 kids one of whom is around 7 iirc. Kids can only speak russian, no english whatsoever. The other older child who is in high school has flawless English, though. Even my mother who has issues with English and who I even criticize for not trying to learn more English in her 18 years here even chastised them for the decision to not expose their children to English and English speaking interaction.
I wasn't born in Canada , but I've been here the vast majority of my life and I count my blessings that I learned fluent English young and (despite being bullied a ton) that I went to a public school.
Basically what I'm getting at is that I'm super for multiculturalism but we need to have mixing in of commonalities otherwise the cultural hotpot will resemble water and oil rather than the zesty delicious awesome soup it often times can and should be.
I wasn't born in Canada , but I've been here the vast majority of my life and I count my blessings that I learned fluent English young and (despite being bullied a ton) that I went to a public school.
Basically what I'm getting at is that I'm super for multiculturalism but we need to have mixing in of commonalities otherwise the cultural hotpot will resemble water and oil rather than the zesty delicious awesome soup it often times can and should be.
I'm part of the problem.
Ok, confession time, when I first came to Canada and had poutine for the first time I put hot sauce on it, took me about 5 years to stop.
Let's play a game of Canadian Immigrant Confessions!
I never had poutine or went to Tim Hortons until I started dating my current girlfriend who then demanded I had some out of Canadian pride. I'm now addicted to both.
It was really scary at first, yeah. Gonna be honest I still remember going into school at grade...8, and being all like "I literally don't understand what anyone is saying." I'd have an ESL class instead of a normal English class, but that was it. And it was super awkward. Like normal school awkward plus the fact I didn't understand what anyone said. I had to work haaaaaaaard to be semi functional by grade 10. Won't lie, was stressful as hell...though by grade 11 I was fine.
Still really glad Dad did what he did. Mom wanted to live somewhere closer to our community because she was scared I'd be overwhelmed, but dad figured it was better for me to be overwhelmed now than later in life. He was totally right. It was super tough, but looking at the challenges other people who I grew up with and came to Canada around the time as me are facing...I think he made the right call. I feel like my life was legitimately improved by that decision.
Like yeah don't get me wrong, I'm a big believer in multiculturalism, but I do think that some effort to mix in with everyone else will improve the life of most immigrants, even if it feels SUPER uncomfortable in the beginning.
Also don't worry too much about being too addicted to internet and gaming. Being perfectly honest the internet is still one of the best ways to learn about cultures...but if you want to like, get out of the computer and meet up people of varied backgrounds in a nerdy-ish way...try fencing. It's a fun sport, mostly draws people from a more video gamey background as opposed to stereotypical jocks and for one reason or another, (speaking anecdotally here no idea if this is an actual trend) it draws people from very varying backgrounds and cultures. I mean, assuming you live in the US or Canada - in Europe fencing still tends to draw a more stereotypical crowd. In North America it's fairly culturally diverse though, and just a fun hobby.
Gotdatmoney
Member
Yeah, I've never been out there (I wanna though, seems nice) but I think the demographics are changing a bit. I think most people's views are colored because of how all the federal elections go. Most of my friends out there are conservative granted.
The conservative vote is more to do with oil and gas than any social issue. In the cities anyway.
TemplaerDude
Member
Tim Horton's is Canada's shame, there is nothing to be proud of in shitty donuts and garbage coffee, nor in being owned by an American company.
Steeped tea is the shit though.
killer rin
Member
Dude, haven't you heard. They are Canadian again. They even own Burger King too.
Of course 51% of the companies shares are owned by a Brazilian holding company, and they "own" burger king in the sense that they are both in the same Holding Company they created in their merger... but they are aren't owned by anyone
Yeah, I've come across Albertans who don't necessarily trust Trudeau but still thought Harper was one dumb motherfucker in terms of running the country, yet still opted to vote for conservatives for those specific reasons. I still find the reasoning behind that pretty iffy though, considering how much Harper looked like he was fucking that up too near the end of his reign, but it is what it is.
oh god don't bring NHLGAF's salt here zedge
So much this. I live in Edmonton, and have for about a decade now. I work in construction/manufacturing. I've met some very racist people. I've also met many liberal minded progressive people. The Wild Rose party doesn't represent Alberta "values", it represents rural values. I grew up in small town Manitoba... if you want to meet the most casual racists you can imagine take your pick of small towns in "friendly" Manitoba. At least the fishing there is fantastic. The bottom falling out of the oil industry has definitely brought out the crazies here though. Some crazy people like to call in to Alberta at noon, and the bumper stickers you see around are something else.
RaySpencer
Member
Skellig Gra
Member
Canada really is the 51st state
gutter_trash
Banned
oh it's true, it's damn true.
Tim Hortons is just name branding and marketing propaganda brainwashing Canadians into thinking that Tim Hortons is something to be celebrate about buying their crappy coffee
Gotdatmoney
Member
McDonald's coffee is better by a good degree now actually. But Timmies is more a function of convenience than quality at this point.
Close enough?
I said kick - not molest with dead-eyed Trumpfingered Uncle Badtouch.
gutter_trash
Banned
I am at UofT too and I feel you bro. The majority of international students from China especially seem only interested in hanging out and talking amongst themselves- like you said, they should be free to do so but its like they rather stay in their bubble than try to even understand our culture. The lack of attempt really creates this weird divide on campus, and my fear is that the student political groups will bend over backwards for them, as they almost did this past UTSU election.
Bruh, it been like this a while lol. Just getting way more exposure now, finally.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked