posted
Good, then six years of French between high school and college would finally come in handy for something other than family reunions.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm with David on the French and Quebec thing...but then, I'm a sucker for languages
In regards to the whole concept of a united North America, NAFTA is abused enough, last thing we need is to create more opportunities for this sort of abuse (such as trying to use our powergrid and run powerlines that are illegally large in the States through my city, plus filling our valley with far more smog for the sake of another powerplant and money for just south of the line...)
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I do wish Quebecois was more wide-spread. I wish I could speak it, myself.
quote:At the very least, we should not have open borders with Mexico, until all the Mexicans learn to speak English.
That attitude is exactly why this will never go. We tried that, up here, and we got Quebec. And now we are paying for it. If we'd just been accepting right from the Plains of Abraham, we probably wouldn't be worried about sovereignty referendums, and Lucien Bouchard would have had to find work as, say, a circus clown.
These territories are diverse. The melting-pot approach just won't work. It's arrogant. And it's just such a matter-of-fact, unthinking arrogance, it's worse. Nobody deserves to be treated like that. Howsabout before the US can merge with mexico, all of her inhabitants learn to speak Spanish. And before they merge with Canada, everyone learn Quebecois French.
The assumption of Anglo superiority on the North American continent is just so wrong, and so offensive.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Teshi and Primal: I've never liked the sound of French long before I had a reason to dislike the country. I'm not toeing the party line as I don't think the libertarian party has an opinion on France.
French is uglier than German and has spelling that's even more broken than English. It works well in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" soundtrack but that's about it. It was fun learning how to make their strange R sound but it's not a pretty sound. And that's what's fun about languages to me. Making the sounds.
I don't eat "freedom fries" I call them "French fries" or just "fries" like anyone else. I don't take a political position with my artery clogging side dishes.
In short, loathing the sound of an irregular romance language does not imply a political agenda.
I DO dislike France, obviously, but I don't dislike their language because I don't like the country. If anything, my distaste for their language strengthens my distaste for France.
quote: These territories are diverse. The melting-pot approach just won't work.
However, the European Union brings together several countries that have different languages and cultures. So how would this be different than that scenario? (I'm not try to defend it - only discuss the feasibility and probability of it)
posted
Europe is full of countries that, although they vary in size and strength considerably have numerous balancing factors.
First, that there are many of them- many weak, many strong, many in the middle. There is no one, dominant group that is the most powerful in population, economy and culture.
Second, the European countries are tiny. They do not have the massive amounts of resources or economic strength that the three countries in this proposal have. If they band together, they can create a strong economic bond that the U.S. and Canada, for example, can maintain alone simply from sheer size.
Thirdly, these countries have been living (or not living) with each other for hundreds, thousands of years. Yes, the French and the Italians make snide remarks. Yes, Spain is more conservative than Scandinavia, but there's so many variables and so much history that, when it all comes down to it they're remarkably similar. They're all in it together and have been for eons.
Fourthly, the melting pot does not exist or work anywhere. The European Union is not melting anyone down to be the same, it is fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle. America has long been a subscriber to the melting pot theory, but in reality the cultures retained, or fighting to be retained are just as strong as in Canada, which hasn't done the melting-pot thing for years. You cannot squish people's cultures together however much you say its possible. They are distinct; as they live together, they share things, they become closer.
Um, I think that's all.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
