Elizabeth M.
I am fortunate enough to have travelled in parts of the world. I have always stayed in hostels as this is the cheapest and most accommodating context to meet fellow travellers. Once you introduce yourself to someone, it is implied to first say your name, and possibly where you are from. This is sort of a conversation starter. I always found myself hesitating between these three options: I am from Canada; I am from Quebec; I am from Quebec, Canada. The social relationships I have held with people all of over the world made me conscious of my linguistic and cultural identities.
Between the solitudes (1992), a brilliant documentary by Josh Freed, outlines the complexity between English-speaking communities and French-speaking communities in Montreal. As the title of the documentary implies, the journalist seems to be stuck between the solitudes of both linguistic communities. I identify to both the Quebec culture and the Canadian culture. Do I have to pick a side? It somehow feels that way sometimes. What does it mean to be Québecois, and more importantly, why do so many people that have lived here for a majority of their lives, do not feel Québecois? In 1995, Quebec almost declared its independence with the following votes: the “no” option carried 50,58% of votes and the “yes” option carried 49,42% of votes (Gall, 2013). As some might say, the last referendum in 1995 and the strong nationalist ideologies that were promoted are less prevalent in today’s political narrative. Even though the separatist movement is not at its tipping point, the linguistic tensions continue to simmer under the guise of language restrictions.
A linguistic storm hit the National Assembly last week when Dominique Anglade vulgarized her speech using French and English (Papineau, 2020). A journalist interrupted the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party by saying: “ça ne se fait pas ça!” you can’t do that!, referring to her usage of the English language in the National Assembly. After political discussions amongst party leaders, it was agreed that only François Legault, current premier of Quebec, and his team, could reiterate political messages in French, and then in English during the Covid-19 outbreak (Mulclair, 2020). In the midst of a pandemic, linguistic choices by political leaders are still confronted and questioned.
Members of this speech community have created sociolinguistic norms about language use, more specifically, targeting the do’s and don’ts of the English language (Van Herk, 2018). These political tensions may affect people’s language attitudes and ideologies and how they perceive linguistic diversity in their everyday lives. These tensions can be transposed in the classroom. As an ESL teacher, I have witnessed lowered interest and motivation, and an overall reticence in learning English as a second language. Now, there are many factors that can impact one’s level of interest and motivation. Nonetheless, it would be important to consider the possible impacts of the history and the current debates in relation to the French and the English language in Quebec on second language English teaching and learning.
In a special time where each individual’s linguistic needs should be met with compassion and reassuring thoughts, language usage is still at the heart of the debate. The effects of these linguistic tensions continue to have significant impacts on my personal, social, and professional life, as I identify to both communities. Until my next travels, I will continue contemplating my linguistic identities to express with certainty: I am from___________.
References:
Gall, G. (2013). Québec Referendum (1995). The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-referendum-1995
Papineau, P. (2020, September 25). Une prise de parole en anglais soulève les passions à l’Assemblée nationale. Journal Le Devoir. https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/586644/une-prise-de-parole-en-anglais-souleve-les-passions-a-l-assemblee-nationale
Mulcair, T. (2020, September 29). Anglade shouldn’t have backed down on use of English. Montreal Gazette.https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/tom-mulcair-anglade-shouldnt-have-backed-down-on-use-of-english
Gall, G. (2013). Québec Referendum (1995). The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-referendum-1995
Neidik, Abbey Jack, director. Between the Solitudes. National Film Board of Canada, 1992, 49 min.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQIncACiMLE
Van Herk, Gerard. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hi Elizabeth, you give a very good example about how people’s identities are always influenced by their choose of languages, and how languages can transcend linguistic meaning and enter the realm of politic and social significance. I live in Shanghai, and there are a lot of regional variations of Shanghai dialects even though in this small vicinity. I live in suburban area of Shanghai and speak dialect which is slightly different from that of the city center, and I could imitate the tones and make some word choices to make myself sound more urban-like, but I always refuse to do so. Instead, whenever someone ask me where I am from, I would say I am from Qingpu, the suburban Shanghai, in order to avoid the “snobbish” and “ostentatious” stereotype that people might attach to Shanghainese.
Lun Cai
Hi Lun,
I like your insightful input about how languages can transcend linguistic meaning and enter areas of political and social significance. Thank you for sharing the regional varieties in Shanghai and the social, political, and cultural implications of these. Refusing to detach yourself from your linguistic identity to gain social status demonstrates how you view languages and society. I really enjoyed reading your response. Thank you for sharing your personal experience with the political and social implications of languages and dialects in Shanghai! Elizabeth M.
Hi Elizabeth, this is a really great post and speaks to the identiy struggles of many Quebecers. I was actually interested in the documentary you were referring to (Between the Solitudes), and took the time to watch some of it yesterday. Being from Montreal, I definitely understand the struggle of how some people might not be able to identify. I would probably identify more with the producer of the documentary, as I would never identify myself, when travelling in Canada or internationally, as Quebecois. I feel as though I’ve never been included in the government’s or pop culture’s definition of the “Quebecois,” and tend to associate that term as referring more to individuals whose families hailed from France all those years ago, “pure laine,” of sorts, and that is certainly not me, as an anglo, Italian-Montrealer. I identiy first as Canadian, second as Montrealer, third as Italian-Montrealer and then, if pressed, I’ll say I’m from Quebec. Of course, this is not intended as mean-spirited on my end, and I do love my city, rather it is just a reflection of how I’ve been made to feel with regards to my identity in this incredibly political province.
Hi Daniele,
I completely understand how you may feel a disconnect or reluctance to identify as Québécois. The implications of this term is complex and can be seen as restrictive rather than inclusive. The political and linguistic tensions in Quebec have influenced how people feel about their identities and their relation to Quebec. The “pure laine”, “québécois de souche” narratives create a linguistic and cultural divide. This may have a direct impact on people’s identities. Thank you for sharing your personal experience with the linguistic and cultural issues in Montreal. I enjoyed reading your insightful response!
Elizabeth M.
This last comment (“Hi Elizabeth, this is a really great post and speaks to the identiy struggles of many Quebecers….”) was written by Daniele Iannarone (forgot to sign at the end of it).
I am impressed by your article, Elizabeth. The identity issue is also a dilemmatic question for me and I am sure many other people. I was born in the Hakka and Cantonese dialect area in Guangdong province, but my mother is from a pure Hakka dialect small town and my father is from another province, Hunan. And what’s more, I moved to a Cantonese dominant city, Zhongshan when I was three. I find it very hard to tell which culture I really belong to with the influence of my parents and from friends at school. You’re right. Sometimes, we have to make a choice: for you would be whether you are from Canada, Quebec or Quebec, Canada, for me would be Guangdong, perhaps Hunan and Zhongshan, Guangdong. Being an international student now, the answer it’s from China. I am shaped and identified when compared with and contrast to people who I am talking with. We tend to care much about the differences among us, and which language (dialect) we belong to. Actually, I want to be the members of both, because I really respect and value both cultures from my parents as well as mine, which I grew up with. Anyway, back to the issue in Quebec, and as an outside, I think people are more sensitive in such a dichotomy discussion and it seems there is no neutral stance. It’s hard to find a fine balance if you are really in a dual culture family.
Li Peng
Hi Li,
Thank you so much for responding to my blog post; I appreciate your examples and perspectives on identity issues. I enjoyed reading your personal experience with various cultural and linguistic identities. I like how you said: “I find it very hard to tell which culture I really belong to…”, referring to the various cultures and languages you have been exposed to in Hakka, Zhongshan, and Hunan. This illustrates the issues related to identifying to one culture, one linguistic identity, when in fact, we should be able to “belong to” to each cultural group. When social, political, and linguistic tensions are involved, it becomes more challenging to identify to many linguistic/cultural groups and we can feel as if we have to “pick a side”. Again, thank you for responding to my post! Great insight!
I am impressed by your article, Elizabeth. The identity issue is also a dilemmatic question for me and I am sure many other people. I was born in the Hakka and Cantonese dialect area in Guangdong province, but my mother is from a pure Hakka dialect small town and my father is from another province, Hunan. And what’s more, I moved to a Cantonese dominant city, Zhongshan when I was three. I find it very hard to tell which culture I really belong to with the influence of my parents and from friends at school. You’re right. Sometimes, we have to make a choice: for you would be whether you are from Canada, Quebec or Quebec, Canada, for me would be Guangdong, perhaps Hunan and Zhongshan, Guangdong. Being an international student now, the answer it’s from China. I am shaped and identified when compared with and contrast to people who I am talking with. We tend to care much about the differences among us, and which language (dialect) we belong to. Actually, I want to be the members of both, because I really respect and value both cultures from my parents as well as mine, which I grew up with. Anyway, back to the issue in Quebec, and as an outside, I think people are more sensitive in such a dichotomy discussion and it seems there is no neutral stance. It’s hard to find a fine balance if you are really in a dual culture family.
Li Peng
Ever since moving to Quebec 19 years ago, I have felt the tension of a province that stubbornly tries to suppress and choke English. I understand that they want to preserve their history and language (only the good parts though, they’d rather not speak about the atrocities). While countries around the world experience changes and movement in language, Quebec rigidly wants none of that. I would love to learn French, I have looked into it, but I would have to pay. If the government wants us all to speak French so badly they should facilitate a way to do this. I personally feel all people in Canada should be able to speak English and French. It is an asset to Canada to have a population speaking both, helping politically and economically. If the languages were embraced, while recognizing history (real history, not this “look at all we did right and forget the other stuff”) we could see some real growth and investment in this province too.
Very recently (October 1) Simon Jolin-Barrette, Minister of the French Language, put a motion forward reinforce French as the language of the National Assembly. The exceptions are the premier and select few people who have to give address in both French and English. They also want to spend 5 million dollars to hire more people and other resources, most of these new language police will be in Montreal. Maybe this is not the best time to be focusing on that during the pandemic. I think that money would be better spent going to struggling people and businesses. People always think I am joking when I say we have language police here. See below for two CTV News reports on the topic, they very much exist.
Interestingly, a recent survey taken of favour toward or against official bilingualism in Canada shows that people in Quebec were the most in favour. Would this ever happen in Quebec, HIGHLY doubtful.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/caq-passes-french-language-motion-after-liberal-leader-makes-remarks-in-english-1.5128420
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-language-police-conducted-over-5-000-visits-last-year-annual-report-1.5117163
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/survey-finds-most-quebecers-are-favourable-towards-official-bilingualism-in-canada-1.5131537
thehttps://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/amid-pandemic-quebec-hires-language-inspectors
Hi,
Thank you for responding to my blog post! I agree, The French and the English language are great assets to Canada’s linguistic and cultural mosaic. The linguistic tensions between the French and English communities generate heated discussions. I agree, back and forth accusations do not lead to real growth. Thank you for sharing survey results related to attaining bilingualism in Canada and the financial increase in language policies in Montreal. The Office québécois de la langue française has caused intense debates as it monitors the linguistic situation in Quebec. The effects of these policies are complex and affect people’s cultural and linguistic identities. Thank you for your detailed response, I enjoyed reading your experience with language issues in Quebec.