Plastic Surgery of the Soap Stars

[Sylph]

This should put things in perspective, and I knew it already, d'oh.

But again, the whole of Canada is blue, though the eastern part of a darker shade:

[remos]

It's a long, looooong discussion up here that incurs much resentment on both sides, especially since many jobs with the Federal Government are bilingual specified and that doesn't sit well with many who are unilingual. More French speaks English just simply because we are the larger culture, but we do have more effort to get English kids fluent in French. My parent's approach was "Hey, look how much more you could do if you have two languages". Unfortunately that's not been the case in a lot of places.

[Sylph]

Can an English-speaking person learn French in school, "for free"? Perhaps that's a dumb question, but I honestly see no reason for such resistance to learning French when half of your country (so to speak) is "built" upon it and is encouraging you to learn both.

And by the way, remos, I envy you immensely for being able to grasp the many differences in the concept of Trinity between Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox churches and so on. I will never ever be able to understand how three people are actually one.

[remos]

Oh yeah, that's standard across this country and in fact many jurisdictions have Emersion French programmes in many of their schools. The problem is that the wider culture doesn't support it ie, TV, books, play groups, etc.

And Trinitarian Theology..... Christianity's having their cake and eat it too, lol. We have one but three Gods. Actually the best way I've heard it described is like H2O that can come in the form of steam, liquid or ice but it's still the same substance.

[EricMontreal22]

You have a point. Because that's how I've grown up, I guess it doesn't seem odd to me (particularly cuz I grew up with the controversy around French immersion--I remember a newspaper sent a journalist to even quiz some of us as kids, as one of the beliefs by those against the program was that kids wouldn'tproperly learn how to read English, etc--of course what they came up with was that most kids in French immersion were actually more advanced English readers than those not...).

We do get used to having French text on nearly all of our products, etc--but most things like street signs are in English only, except in Quebec where they have to be French by law. I think one reason is Canada is just such a freaking large country--space wise--and not all that densely populated, which means growing up in Western Canada you wouldn't really have a huge crossover with the French speakers (we have a much much denser Asian community in BC of course).

[EricMontreal22]

HAHA That's too funny. I love in movies when they enter Canada and suddenly you see snow (nevermind that they shoot a bunch of movies in Canada pretending it's the US--I lived on a particularly old street in Montreal which was closed off three times while I was there, each time to be New York in a movie).

And right--the country is diverse--I mean Vancouver Island has some of the most important rain forest aread on the continent.

Ugh one thing I do not miss from my time on the prairires are the mosquitos--living on Vancouver Island you really don't get any...

[EricMontreal22]

It always amazes me how silly and stubborn people get about languages. Like with Immersion school--if the school by you offers the program, and at no cost, why wouldn't you want to give your kids that advantage (of course some kids don't thrive in that setting but if it doesn't work you can always move them into the English track). But a lot of parents found the very concept horrific.

[Sylph]

Dumb question: moving to Vancouver – is that a downgrade? Or upgrade compared to Montréal? Or it depends on your particular lifestyle and activities? It's what – three times smaller than Montréal?

[EricMontreal22]

Yes--that's what I did (even our preschool was free and in French, but that's not common). Of course even in regular school you have to learn some French up to a certain grade here--but the full French Immersion track is free. Of course with funding cut backs it's getting harder and harder to find (I'm not sure when it fully started actually--in the 70s maybe?). Now even in big cities like Vancouver students have to enter a lottery to get into French Emersion schools which is kinda sad (we didn't back in the 80s--but like I said there was a LOT of hate, mainly ti seemed from older people, about the program).

But as Remos says it's not easily supported--the public library here in Victoria has a tiny French language section, I have basic cable which gives me about 70 channels, *3* of which are French (one being news), etc.

[Sylph]

They should look at Angelina Jolie! Whose kids are attending an English-French school in Budapest these days, LOL!

[DaytimeFan]

Having lived in both cities, it's neither an upgrade or a downgrade, both cities are soooooo different.

Not to sound like an LA thug, but it's really East Coast v West Coast. Totally different lifestyles, totally different attitudes, totally different weather, totally different architecture, totally different culture.

Both are fabulous though, you can't go wrong living in either.

[EricMontreal22]

Well right now I'm in Victoria (it gets confusing, Victoria is the provincial capital, and is on Vancouver Island--Vancouver is ont he mainland lol), which is a definite downgrade LOL (I grew up in Edmonton and Victoria and moved back here to help with some family stuff). Victoria is a tourist town--it's GORGEOUS, and I can see why people come here to retire, and we do have a big university scene, but it's not a massive city (but is just a ferry trip away from Vancouver and Seattle). I loved Montreal, and plan on ending back up there when things sort themselves out, so for *me* it was a downgrade. But I love big cities with history, somewhere with a big arts scene, I loved the French aspect, it had amassive and diverse gay scene (which actually is more French than English interestingly), the weather didn't bug me (what surprised me was how damn hot and humid it gets in the Summer, that affected me more than the Winters).

Vancouver is a different situation all together. I think many people actually would consider it an upgrade from Montreal--much better weather, a lot more nature, a younger city with a huge amount of growth, the ocean, etc. It depends what you like--I'm more of an urban guy. My twin sister on the other hand lived in Montreal for a while, and she's WAY more of a West Coast person--more into that whole hippy lifestyle So it's all relevent. Vancouver, though, in terms of it's central metropolitan area and not all the suburbs (or banlieues in Mtrl) feels pretty much as big as Montreal.

So basically Montreal is more cosmopolitan IMHO, Van more laid back. But Mtrl is positevly laid back compared to Toronto (a city I spent a Summer in and don't think I'd move to, though it definitely ahs its advantages--of course there's much much more rivalry between Toronto and Mtrl)

(Sorry I'm sure that was way more of an answer than you wanted )

*Exactly* Well said. (Oddly though I find East Coast people more friendly--though I've heard peopel say the exact opposite...) Never knew you lived in Canada!

[DaytimeFan]

I think people from the Maritimes are absolutely the nicest people in the world. People from Toronto, either fabulous or hideously rude, Montreal it's all dependent on if you try with French (just like in Paris, even if you're terrible, the fact that you try makes people like you!) or just stick with the Anglophone crowd, the middle of the country (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) I'll take a pass on (LOL) and when it comes to Vancouver, it's just like Toronto: fabulous or hideously rude.

That said, wherever I go in England, I am *always* complimented on my manners, regardless of how polite I've been. Canadian breeding, what can I say?

I do love living in Malibu though! Just like Pamela Anderson!

[Sylph]

That is just awful And horrifying! Here you have an opportunity to have your kids learn two languages in quite a satisfactory fashion with no extra costs and that's a bad thing? So when you're in the Immersion programme, you also have another foreign language, besides French?

Too bad IP filtering is everywhere, but it would be lovely to watch French TV online. Like the populist TF1:

http://videos.tf1.fr/

Or their BBC clone LCI. For which you have to pay, I believe even when in France.

Or any of the France Télévisions channels.

Most of them, though, are populated with dubbed American dramas & films.

[Sylph]

I'd pick Vancouver, I think. I know some people who live in Shaughnessy.