English Canadian going to French Canada: Quebec

Yeah I've noticed the same thing about the language - But from the official stats on the Quebec Immigration page it says that like 70% or so speak english and french.

It also says 80% of quebecers speak french as a first language. That seems kind of low to me! At least to then only have one official language for the province. Finland has a 5% population that speaks swedish, and it's considered an official language. Having 20% of your population speaking another language as their first is a pretty significant number.

But anyways - It's just like the rest of Canada in that most of us learn french in school, but that's obviously not enough to consider all of us being fluent in both languages.

exactly. they say 70%. but I'm sure you take those 70% and ask them to speak english. it would be more like 50. if not less.

First of all, to be honest, I have not read each reply fully, so if I offend anyone because of what I type here, please pardon me.
I just can't help sharing the following tid-bits of my opinion:
Canada is great indeed BECAUSE of its cultural diversity and indeed it is a mosaic unlike the US melting pot. And of course Chinese-Canadians are no less native than any other Canadians. We live today, guys. not yesterday. And anyone living in Canada and feeling Canadian and having or being in the process of obtaining the Canadian nationality should be able to consider themselves just as Canadian as anyone else if they wish to do so.
Having said all of that, it is also true that the french culture in Canada has a lot of history, and it is too bad that in "melting-pot USA" most of that french culture and language has gotten totally lost! So why not help to protect it a little bit more? It is unique, so let's celebrate it.
And if anyone wants to do the same with the Chinese-Canadian heritage? Well hey I'm all for it! Or why not with the Dutch? They've been around for a long time as well. or the Polish? the Romanians? the Italians?. But as much as we can go on debating about it, nobody can deny that a long long time ago, the British and French cultures made up the majority of the pioneer Canadians. So why not protect that heritage a little more? And especially why not protect Quebec culture a little more than English culture? I mean, there is so much English-Canadian culture, it will hold its own, but there are less French-canadians.
So there ya go.
About the British empire. they're really cute and all, but I, like most of you, would rather say bye-bye to the British rule in Canada.
Thanks for reading.
p.s.- all this coming from someone who 1. is Dutch and not Canadian (by any legal means at least) 2. used to carry a real dislike to french-Canadians (something I've completely changed my mind on, even though every culture has a few idiots in it) 3. has lots of lovely British friends!

Yeah I've noticed the same thing about the language - But from the official stats on the Quebec Immigration page it says that like 70% or so speak english and french.

It also says 80% of quebecers speak french as a first language. That seems kind of low to me! At least to then only have one official language for the province. Finland has a 5% population that speaks swedish, and it's considered an official language. Having 20% of your population speaking another language as their first is a pretty significant number.

But anyways - It's just like the rest of Canada in that most of us learn french in school, but that's obviously not enough to consider all of us being fluent in both languages.

i'm from BC and i red statistics on language in quebec and their is 81,2 % of french people in quebec, 6.7% of english people and 13% of allophone people! And for me 80% of french people is not low in a sea of english americans and canadians!

I do think that every language should be protected in their own way but i'm totaly ok with quebecers trying to protect their language! We would probably do the same if we were french.I'm Living in an english province and i often hear people complaning and whining about french people trying to separete, this means we are not better then them!

Ps i totaly agree with dutchgirl!

@fafeli1: thanks for agreeing.
And yea, wouldn't we try to separate if the English-speakers were a minority? I wonder. But as I grow older, I go back and forth between the opinion of "Fine, let 'em all just leave Canada and call Quebec a separate country and get it over with!" and thinking: "No, we're supposed to be one country, and EACH nation has its minority groups. We all just need to work harder at getting along better."
At the moment, I am more into the 'work harder at it' mind-frame as I see people in my home-country (The Netherlands) trying to kick all immigrants out, and it upsets me a lot! Not everyone behaves like an angel, but that, my dear friends, is NOT culture-related! It's people-specific. So I do feel that you just can't kick one group of people out of the country. (Yea maybe all the jerks, but I don't think they'll see themselves as that, nor leave willingly...).
And meanwhile, the world population is rising, and The Netherlands (as many other nations) are dealing with an aging population, so why the heck would we want to kick out perfectly nice and healthy youngsters, just cause their parents weren't born in the same country?!
The world is a crazy place sometimes....

To those who are trashing Quebec and its culture.

Have you been there before? Visited at all for a few days?
Most likely not...I moved to Montreal from Vancouver in 2002 and I must say that as far as the two cultures go - they both have pros & cons you can't deny that. However, speaking from my own experience, studying at English university in Montreal, working, meeting people in the streets, attending cultural evens, etc. and simply living there I must say that Montreal is by far the most tolerant city in the country and by far the most fun. My French is very limited so I don't even try and after 8 years of living in Montreal, I must say that no body did ever discriminate against me nor my weak French language skills. The city is bilingual and in some parts tri-lingual depending on where you are and people always make effort to be polite and switch to English when they hear your bad French or one at all. My landlords they cant speak any English (they are elderly couple) but we have a wonderful respectul relationship. This applies to everyone else I've met. I've never had a bad experience with any people from Quebec.