17 November 2003: Le Français et les pantalons
Dear Dalton,
Today, I have two concerns. The first is serious, the other might help me win a conversation with friend Mike.
I go to a bilingual university in Ontario, York University's Glendon College. This is quite rare, in fact, I think they might have said that we're the only one in Ontario. One of the main goals of my campus is to enable us to take courses in our discipline in both French and English, and you need to do this in order to graduate. Since it's my first year there, I'm taking accelerated courses that teach me to speak French.
Now, I took French from grade 1 to grade 11 and I had to start over when I got to Glendon. I might as well know nothing about the language. From grades 1 to 8, we did not actually hear the French language unless we were taking a test and there was a listening comprehension section to the test. You can imagine how well prepared we were for them. The first thing our teacher in grade 9 French told us was, "Vous ne pouvez pas parler anglais dans cette classe!" and we were terrified. We couldn't speak English?! How were we to survive? (We were 15, everything was that melodramatic.) So, the first thing he taught us to say was "Comment dit-on (English word) en fran¨ais?" After eight solid years of supposedly French education, we still had never heard that phrase. However, we started to learn, and my teacher for grade 10 taught in a similar manner. They had classes that were just conversational and they were friendly. However, they were adjunct teachers, and usually got transferred after a semester. Then, I reached grade 11 and had our full-time French teacher. I strongly suspect that she was not fluent. Her accent was horrible, and even I knew it. We had two Québecois students in our class, who were there because their parents were afraid they would lose their French in our extremely English town. She asked them how to say things almost every day. Once again, I was in a class that was all about grammar and I didn't need to speak French in order to get through. Perhaps you saw this coming, but I got my credits and didn't take the language again until university.
Here's my concern: I have talked to a lot of people from all over Ontario, and this experience is pretty common. It seems rare to get a French teacher who is fluent in the language, let alone Francophone, especially in rural Ontario. I'm sure you know how crucial it is to pick up language skills when you are very young. People reach a certain point where learning languages is no longer natural, not the way it is when you are in kindergarten and elementary school. I think that Ontario schools deserve competent and fluent French teachers, and I think it's especially crucial to ensure this for the earlier grades.
Secondly, I have been having this conversation that I would like to win. You see, I was playing 20 questions with a friend and I had already determined that the object was a piece of clothing, so I asked if it was something that was worn for warmth. He answered 'yes.' Now, I guessed snowpants AND long-johns, but the answer was PANTS. Pants?! Am I wrong in supposing that pants, for the most part, are worn for decency over warmth? I mean, sure, there are days that it is too cold not to wear pants. We are Canadians; this is obvious. However, in the summer, many people wear pants when it is clearly warm enough to go without. Why do they do this? Because they want to look presentable. Because running around without pants on is something tolerated only in those of us who are under five years old. Would the decency motivation not explain cotton pants, which are clearly useless for warmth? Now, I have mulled over the objection that shorts are just as decent as pants. However, Mr. Premier, surely you would not wear shorts to something like Parliament sessions or the office or charity dinners? And why would you not? Because you are a decent man. I trust you will support me in this.
With all my love,
Heather Ann Kaldeway
P.S. Dear letter opener, you support me on the pants issue too, don't you?
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