Thought of the day - Bilingualism.



Often, living in Canada, you run into people who are bilingual. since canada has two official languages, French and English, it's not uncommon.
I live in Gatineau Quebec. Quebec is the only province in Canada that is french only. meaning their street signs, government corespondance, merchant names are all in french. You ofcourse can request your letters and insurance etc stuff in english. but if you don't specifically request it, it will come in french.
side note - interesting fact about Canada - there are only two officially bilingual provinces in Canada, BC and New Brunswick. all other provinces just add french to labels, signs, bla bla bla, as a courtesy, not because of law.
Now living in Gatineau gives me quite a few benefits. I am a mere 5 minute drive away from Ottawa, I have exceptionally cheap rent, health insurance, car insurance, food costs are low, cigarettes are dirt cheap and I can buy beer at any corner store. Quebec is pretty awesome all around, even when you aren't bilingual (such as myself. unless trash talk is now recognized as an official language.)
But sometimes it can definitely be a challenge. Typically any marketing things I get in the mail are all in french. All the notices I get through my property management company - in french. Any time I have to call the government or branches of, the option for English is usually hiding in the menu somewhere that I can't seem to reach. Which typically ends in my ramming 0000000 until I get someone and have to be all "desole parlent francais! option anglaise?" (that means I'm sorry I don't speak french, is there an english option?" ...I think. haha)
but most of the time it's never too much trouble finding someone who is sympathetic to my pathetic attempt at translating the language and is willing to deal with the barrier.
and despite constant rumors that the french are rude, I've never found that to be the case.
Except once when I was at an IGA (grocery store) and the girl checking me through spoke to me intially in french, I apologized and said I only spoke english (in english of course, because at that point I had been in Quebec all of a week and hadn't mastered desole parlent francais), and her responses was to scoff at me, lean over to her baggage friend and clearly make a rude comment about me in french. I mean, I may not be bilingual but "english speaking moron" translates pretty easily. She then turned back to me, and in french asked me if I wanted a bag. well..I think that's what she said anyways..because the word saq came up. which is french for bag. anyways. I, being of asshole mind frame on almost any and all occasions, simply looked at her and said "Ribbit"
which did not garner me any brownie points. let me tell you.
for those of you who may be wondering why that's so hilarious and offensive let me explain. the derogatory word associated with french people is Frog. I couldn't tell you WHY it's so bad. but it is. so when I said ribbit, it didn't go over so well.
That's the only negative encounter I've had with someone in Quebec. they're extremely english speaking here in Gatineau, which is understandable considering it's 2 feet from ottawa. though even in montreal and places like laval, I've never run into any issues asking them to speak to me in english. overall it's a fantastic province.

Another fun story I have regarding being bilingual happened while I was in training 2 years ago at my job and someone who was french first language made a goof up on the pronunciation of a word that caused some discomfort and hilarity to ensue.
Today in training it reminded me of the situation because we were talking about closing accounts for card holders who have passed away.
now most people when they look at the word "Executor" they think, executor of an estate. pronounce eg-zec-you-tore. This girl mistook it for Executor. pronounced Ex-ih-cute-er. as in executing someone. the woman she was speaking with had called us to tell us that her mother had passed away, and this girl said "oh, are you the ex-ih-cute-er?" and the poor woman was like I didn't kill my mum if that's what you're asking!
She was coined the executor for the rest of her days, and was even given a certificate of achievement with "The Executor" as her name. She took it in good fun, but you're damn sure she never made that mistake again.