I spent the long Memorial weekend in Québec, half of the time in Montréal and the other half in Québec city. Many things reminded me of Catalonia. Graffiti with independentist
slogans painted on some walls, the notorious absence of the Canadian flag even in some public buildings, the seamless mixture of French and English in most public places (similar to the coexistence of Catalan and Spanish in Catalonia).
My perception is that in Montréal more English is spoken than French. When I arrived, I was so excited because I thought I was going to use my French and show off in front of my wife and kids, but the reality is that I mostly used English, since everyone spoke English better than me. The city is a bit disappointing, not much to see and with a waterfront that requires a serious face-lift. I also found prices extremely expensive, not only because we went there without any type of reservations, I always make last minute decisions that I pay dearly, but my impression is that they kind of rip off the tourists.
Québec city is different. I highly recommend to go and visit it. It is the only city in North America (US or Canada) where the colonizers build beautiful permanent structures. The old buildings and alleys are fantastic. You could be in any historical European city. In addition to the wonderful atmosphere, French is spoken throughout, or at least Québecois, the variety of French spoken there that requires quite some additional effort to understand. But I managed. And people were nice to me.
However I started to realize how Americanized my family and I are getting. We missed some of the conveniences that we have in the States, and we even became upset because we did not find any open pharmacy where to buy diapers at midnight. When we finally crossed the border to Vermont and the immigration office told us some nice and funny words, we felt back home.
slogans painted on some walls, the notorious absence of the Canadian flag even in some public buildings, the seamless mixture of French and English in most public places (similar to the coexistence of Catalan and Spanish in Catalonia).My perception is that in Montréal more English is spoken than French. When I arrived, I was so excited because I thought I was going to use my French and show off in front of my wife and kids, but the reality is that I mostly used English, since everyone spoke English better than me. The city is a bit disappointing, not much to see and with a waterfront that requires a serious face-lift. I also found prices extremely expensive, not only because we went there without any type of reservations, I always make last minute decisions that I pay dearly, but my impression is that they kind of rip off the tourists.
Québec city is different. I highly recommend to go and visit it. It is the only city in North America (US or Canada) where the colonizers build beautiful permanent structures. The old buildings and alleys are fantastic. You could be in any historical European city. In addition to the wonderful atmosphere, French is spoken throughout, or at least Québecois, the variety of French spoken there that requires quite some additional effort to understand. But I managed. And people were nice to me.However I started to realize how Americanized my family and I are getting. We missed some of the conveniences that we have in the States, and we even became upset because we did not find any open pharmacy where to buy diapers at midnight. When we finally crossed the border to Vermont and the immigration office told us some nice and funny words, we felt back home.
3 comments:
canada sucks!
well its like barcelona- pretty country but most people are not simpaticos!
I do not speak French (my knowledge of the language cannot be called speaking it). When I went to Ontario and Québec on March last year it felt horrible: people wasn't nice to me because I spoke in English –when I was trying to say things in French they were nicer, and when I was telling them that I was Spanish they would look at me with a "hmph" in their face and half-smile.
In the country it was even worse: no-one spoke English (or at least no-one we talked to). It felt horrible. I couln't understand why this happened: I don't want to imagine Catalonia like that: or all "moros" or all "cristianos" -"not half inks". But, anyway, what the heck: I can travel around Eastern/Central/(some parts of)Southern Europe and speak English (and be understood and replied correctly) and not in France or Québec? That, I don't like. Ok, English isn't the language of France, fine; but Québec isn't the same. English isn't the language of Poland, but everyone will speak it.
Nationalism is the cancer of plural countries.
Habibi,
I consider myself a nationalist who is, however, in favor of trilingual education in Catalonia, not just Catalan and a little bit of Spanish and English. Real trilingual.
The enemies of plural coutries are stupid politicians (gilipollas, to be clear).
Learning languages, understanding other cultures and traveling makes nationalists like me, become globalists.
However, I cannot take discrimination against the Catalan language just because we do not have statehood. This kills me.
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