French versus English Volume 20

Montreal Mosque project shot down

Perhaps New York City should take a page out of the Quebec government's playbook in relation to the bothersome mosque scheduled be built close to the 9/11 site in New York City.
Montreal area Muslims have been fund-raising in order to amass the $2.1 million purchase price of the last building of the historic Grey Nuns complex in downtown Montreal. The Muslims had been hoping to turn the building into a mosque and study centre, much to the chagrin of purists.  LINK fr

A panicked Quebec Ministry of Culture has stepped in to snap up the property before any such abomination could be permitted to happen and thus save the hallowed ground from certain desecration. The Ministry denies being anti-Muslim, but admits it has no plans for the building nor any ideas. In a stinging letter, renowned architect Phyllis Lambert(nee Bronfman) and Senator Serge Joyal rebuked the government for the blatant anti-Muslim gesture.

Electrolux fires 1200 in English

It's pretty shitty losing a well-paying manufacturing job and it's even shittier having it announced by way of a video. It's even worse when the announcement, made to the French speaking factory workers, is offered in heavily accented English.

Quebec's first baby of 2011

"Talasan Abdi Omar, came into the world at midnight and zero seconds on Jan. 1, 2011, weighing 3.6 kilograms, or nearly eight pounds and was thrust into the spotlight almost immediately.

Lying on her back in her bassinet, sleeping next to her resting mother in St. Mary’s maternity ward, Talasan appeared unaware of all the fuss her arrival made. She is the third daughter born to Pierrefonds residents Fatouma Ali Mogueh, 26, and Mohamed Abdi Omar, 35. LINK

I'm sure that Quebecois cultural supremacists like Raymond Labrie are shitting themselves over the fact that the first Quebec baby of 2011 is not French, not Catholic and not white.!!!
A triple-header!! Ha!ha!

What is the "Clique du Plateau"

Here's a semi-humorous take on what the "Clique du Plateau" is for those who'd like a guided tour. It's in French only. LINK 

Office québécois de la langue française

For those who think that the language police do nothing but harass Anglos over French signage, websites etc., they actually do much more.
The 'oh-feece,' as it is affectionately known, is also charged with policing the French language by making sure its lexicon remains as pure as possible by keeping Anglicisms out of daily use.
The latest offerings provided by them are these;

"Unfriend" = "Amiradier"  

definition; to remove someone from one Friend's list on Facebook

The Office has let it be known that the literal translation " conditionne physiquement"  from the English "physical training" is no longer kosher and is replaced with the more proper  "entraînement physique"

Apparently the good works of the OQLF has already made a reputation in France.
In a tongue in cheek reference to the term 'feel-good movie'  a French film critic suggests a comparable term in French;

"Si l'Office québécois de la langue française propose le terme « film pur bonheur », la traduction littérale de ce jargon hollywoodien serait : « un film qui fait se sentir bien ». " LINK

The OQLF is also frowning upon the word "PINTE" to describe a glass of beer in a pub. Although the word actually originates from the French, the English connotation of a 'pint of beer' is not French enough. Hence the word 'CHOPE' is now declared politically correct Link

Other popular English words that have found their way into common French usage are "COTTAGE" for which the OQLF recommends "CHALET" and "MAISON à DEMI-NIVEAUX" for a "SPLIT-LEVEL"
Another organization has been sanctioned by the OQLF to invent  equivalent French words for English technological terms and so, "EMPOWERMENT" is now "AUTOSOMISATION" in French.


"Allaite-In" not French enough

Perhaps the OQLF should get involved in this story, because according to Quebec's most tiresome and moronic language blowhard,  Louis Prefontaine, the name of yesterday's protest wasn't French enough.
For those not up to speed, a group of women organized a protest in front of a Montreal children's clothing store that kicked a woman out for breastfeeding her infant, two week earlier. LINK
The protesters created a Facebook page called ALLAITE-IN (nurse-in,) to which our resident language ayatollah took exception, because according to him, it was too English. He wrote over a dozen messages on the page haranguing the group for its bilingual nature and for using the clever protest name instead of the more French  (grève sur le tas)
His annoying comments did not go unnoticed with a couple of woman calling him out as a 'troll' and 'connard'  Of course, as is the case with all trolls, this only encouraged him to continue ranting.  See his rants here.
And so we'd ask the OQLF to offer a French alternative of a 'nurse-in'  and perhaps to francicize the word 'troll" as well.
Thanks to Hugo Shebbeare for highlighting the story.

PS- I think I'll start referring to Louis by that nickname-- "LE CONNARD," Click to check out the meaning of the word, it fits perfectly!!!

Senator proposes Bill to bilingualize the RCMP

If Liberal Senator Maria Chaput has her way, RCMP officers who patrol the Trans-Canada highway will have to be able to speak French, all the way from St. John's Newfoundland to Vancouver, B.C.

"...Practically speaking, Bill s-220 would require the federal government to provide services in both official languages in areas around the country where there are virtually no speakers of one of those official languages..."

"....Under the bill's specifications, Mounties patrolling the Trans-Canada Highway would be required to be fluent in both official languages, even those patrolling the parts of the highway on which there are likely to be almost no French speakers..." 

And now for the cherry on top;  drum roll, pleeease.....

"Interestingly enough, the only place where this foolish attempt at mandating bilingualism would not be instituted would be in the province of Quebec. The parts of the Trans-Canada Highway that go through Quebec are patrolled by the Surete du Quebec, which are under provincial jurisdiction, and would thus not be affected by Bill s-220" Alex Woznica-theconcordian

Bilingual toddlers have cognitive edge

"Concordia's Diane Poulin-Dubois says that toddlers exposed to two languages from infancy outperformed unilingual kids on attention-related tasks."

The study also shows that the cognitive advantages of bilingualism come earlier than what had been shown in previous studies, she added  LINK

Study fears allure of English over Quebec postsecondary students

"In their quest for better jobs, a growing number of Montreal’s francophone and ethnic-community youths are attending English-language colleges, posing a threat to French as the “common language of Quebec society.”That’s the conclusion of a study commissioned by the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), the union that represents the vast majority of the province’s teachers. The study’s researchers expressed concern over the attraction that English is having on Quebec’s francophone and ethnic-community post secondary students." LINK

FOR FURTHER READING:

French versus English Volume 19