Randomness

[Transwarp]

SB,
You are right, of course, and I could have saved NATO a lot of trouble by telling them up front that their multi-national ship was doomed to failure. Except that was before my time.

This scenario is a little different, since they're *all* Canadian citizens serving in the Canadian Army. I would think proficiency in english would be required, but if it was, then that NCO's question (do you speak english?) would make no sense.

That's why I'm appealing to THE authority for all things Canadian: EK

[enterprikayak]

This ones for you, EK.

There's a lot of construction going on here at Kandahar Air Field, and some of it brought down the electrical power to a fiber termination point that was providing internet service to the Canadian billeting tents across from the main PX. (Of course, no one bothered to inform us in advance, they just did it.) Since we have a bunch of subscribers living in those tents, we decided to restore service by moving the termination point into the tent area from across the street, and powering it from one of the tents. First, we had to get permission from the Canadian authorities, so I went to the compound where the Canadian HQ is located and explained what I needed to the Sergeant at the front desk. She heard 'fiber optic' and immediately sent me to Signals, even though I tried to explain I was more interested in talking to whoever was in charge of billeting. Alas, it was too late for that. I had used the word 'fiber.' That's Signals.

So she dispatched a runner to escort me to the Signal section and I was handed off to a very nice NCO who was quite perplexed when I told him I needed permission to move an equipment enclosure next to one of their tents and connect it to an AC outlet. He took me to see a Captain, who stopped a Major in the hall, and between the three of them determined that I needed to speak with the Garrison Sergeant Major, who was in a different part of the compound. The nice NCO took me there. He knew where the building was, but didn't know the location of the SGM's office. We stopped at a reception area just inside the door, and a Canadian officer with a *very* French sounding name on his name-tape walked up to us.

The very first thing my escort asked him was, "Do you speak english?"

He did, and I was able to find the Sergeant Major, (who was also French-Canadian but spoke english), and I got the permissions I needed.

But I cannot forget the surprise I felt at one Canadian soldier asking another if he spoke english. Because the implication is that *sometimes* they don't.

There are three things an effective army must be able to do: move, shoot, and communicate. How do you manage the 'communicate' part without a common language?

Scratching my head here.

Well, for the most part it goes like this. Everyone in Canada speaks at least some English... with the exception of a very few people in the province (state) of Quebec, who are like, living in remote areas, who can only speak French (very rare). Almost no one west of the province of Ontario speaks any French at all. Practically everyone in Quebec speaks both. I'm not sure how much French is spoken on the east coast....a bit more than the west, but not like Quebec. I think it would be quite regional. There are definitely pockets of Frenchies in the East coast provinces.

I have never ever met anyone in my travels in the Western part of Canada who has tried to speak French to me. But in the city of Montreal, QC (in the east) there are lots of "French-speaking" areas where you would go into a store and be greeted in French. But MAINLY?.... unless you were in Quebec, you would think Canada was just as English as the USA.

HOWEVER, in the military you get a lot of Quebecois people suddenly "out-of-place" (ie: not in Quebec anymore) and then there are questions like "Hey! Do you speak English?" (I'm sure most Quebecois just *love* dat. )

Canada is really mostly english. But all of our packaging has both languages and many government jobs require bilingualism. You have to take both in highschool, but my 4 yrs of highschool French taught me nearly nothing.

To answer Transwarp's question: in most cases, everyone speaks english, so you wouldn't really have too too many worries re commanding officers and such being able to give orders. But it would come up sometimes in the rare case if you had someone who only spoke french, and then they'd have to be very careful, you're right. I'm sure you wouldn't get promoted very high until you'd learned some english. it would be really limiting otherwise.

I don't speak french...neither does Priso. So we stuck our kids in french immersion. Aureilia's only in kindergarten and she's already chattering away like mad. Got her all set up for one of those slack-ass government phone-answering jobs. "Hello, bonjour?"

----

Transwarp, I just read your post to my husband Priso (who works at the military base as a civilian machinist). So these Canadian guys are literally his co-workers who are currently deployed in Afghanistan. And we were just laughing so hard as we read it, ("Alas, it was too late for that. I had used the word 'fiber.' That's Signals.") cause it just sounds like every single day at his work, and he's been there since he was 17 in 1997. The base is its own little world and the red tape has red tape. The managers' managers' managers have managers upon managers (like a teetering, wobbling, obese, sticky layer cake iced in Dilbert comics) and it is literally redonkulously impossible to get ANYthing done EVER. I sure hope the US military is *slightly* less bureaucratic than ours. But, probably not.

[WarpGirl]

Well Sis says in PEI the Island is divided in a "French" and "English" type of thing but the French people are bilingual. The "English" must take some school French but by and large it's 'leave me alone' on both sides. We took a marvelous vacation to Quebec (if I ignore the teen soap opera) when I was 16 and it was fantastic for me. I've always wanted to learn French and it was total immersion. It's funny but our "Island" friends who did speak French, all warned us that people would be very rude because we didn't speak any French. THEY LIED! All I had to do was say "I'm from the US" and they switched to English, complimented me on trying to say hello, goodbye, and thank you, in French and were just lovely. One lady I met in a store didn't understand my English accent. (Hey I was raised in NY) so that was a challenge.

But frankly in my very limited experience the French Canadians get an extremely bad rap.

[Silverbullet]

EK, the younger you are the easier to learn a language.

When we were stationed in Tunisia my daughter who was a llittle over a yer old could speak German fluently (mother spoke German to her and I spoke English) she was starting to speak French and Arabic too. We were transferred before she learned al that much. Daughter took French in School but all she was taught was how to conjugate Verbs.

I toook High School French and Spanish (Actually it should have been labeled French and Spanish Grammer) I learned how to conjugate Verbs and that was about it. Got in to a Batle with the Spanish teacher one day by saying I took the class to learn how to speak Spanish. This guy comes up with "You have to learn the grammer first. I challented him to show me one person in the world who had learned to speak any language as a baby who studied the grammer first. Paid a visit to the Principle's Office. Bad attitude I was told.

Sb

[Cogito]

I challented him to show me one person in the world who had learned to speak any language as a baby who studied the grammer first.

Yuss!

[WarpGirl]

GO SB!

[enterprikayak]

I agree 100%. Learning a language via the grammar is just a way to make you hate the language.

I still remember lots of french/spanish conjugations. Yee-hah. Sooooo pointless.

I say: just get the kids talking to each other in french and teach them grammar in gr12/university if they take the language that far.

[Silverbullet]

Only Language I ever heard of that it was bettter to study the Grammer was Latin. Dead Language that no one spoke. True Doctors and Lawers use it to cofuse the laymen.Those who have taken Latin claim it helped them in the Romance Languages and English.

SB

[enterprikayak]

I have all the rosetta stone languages ("rosetta stone" is language learning software, for those who don't know) and doing the Latin one is fun. The accent is all Italian-y...which makes sense.

[WarpGirl]

How did you get them all, that's insanely expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[enterprikayak]

Yes. Expensive. That's right.

[WarpGirl]

Something tells me you did something naughty.

[enterprikayak]

but i would never ever do anything naughty. so i guess it's just one of those unsolveable life mysteries, like, "who makes the crop circles?" and "what's in hot dogs?"

[WarpGirl]

Not buying it! Seriously, ALL the Rosetta Stone Software!!!! I can't even save up for Russian...

[Kotik]

Just found the ultra smiley

It's really cutesy, sez my friend John-Mary