The comments attached to this amuse me. Perhaps it’s time I create some automated Google Translate version of this blog.
Or I could send my blog posts to QMI Agency’s translation department.
(For the record, this is what the Google Translate version of the post referenced above looks like)
Steve have you ever read any of Louis Prefontaines stuff? The only generous characterisation is…..crypto-fascist
My internal translator has now been reset. Every time I see “En français SVP” I read it as “Unwilling and unable to learn anything.”
Aww you’ve been blessed by the visit of zealot-par-excellence, Préfontaine!
He also posted his vile to the FB site set up by Genevieve Coulombe for last week’s Allaite-In. Big tough guy….
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191376997542504
Wow, Never heard of this guy before.
Classic case of setting up your thesis and then sorting and picking your data to ‘prove’ it.
-Quebec makes up less of the population of Canada: anglo-federalist plot (Quebec women deciding not to have 10 kids or get married has *absolutely nothing* to do with it)
-“On parle d’imposer l’anglais intensif au primaire ou au secondaire, mais qui parle d’imposer le français intensif dans les écoles anglaises?” : Guess he pays absolutely no attention to what happens in the EMSB…
Although he does have a point if Village des Valeurs is playing recorded messages in English-only, but I have to wonder how many people in Laval would actually complain.
Those people fucking annoy me. Can you IMAGINE the unmitigated gall to write “in English please.” I mean anywhere other than in the US. Learn another fucking language like the rest of us have to do. God. (Yes, I have inherited my daughter’s extreme annoyance with people who can’t even slog through an article in a second language. If you can operate a computer and get a FB account you should spend that time learning your nation’s second language and don’t give me that “my nation is quebec shit” last time I heard the referendum voted NO to separation.)
Haha! Totally agree. Pure laziness topped with a chip on his shoulder.
Still waiting for the day when Mr. Prefontaine and his admirers hit some South Florida waitress (or bartender) with “En Francais SVP!”
And the Google translate engine is currently available for French, not “Franglais” (or is it “French-NOTTHATWORD”?) which would be the better “engine” Monsieur Prefontaine can find his amusement with. On the other hand, if Google ever put that one together, I’m sure the Parisien French would laugh even harder.
“Still waiting for the day when Mr. Prefontaine and his admirers hit some South Florida waitress (or bartender) with “En Francais SVP!””
Don’t think it hasn’t already happened. When in NY a few years back at the Times Square McDonald’s, a friend of mine witnessed just such an exchange. Seems that a young Quebecois, fresh off the bus from La Belle Province, didn’t realize the absurdity of his request in the Big Apple. The voluptious (to put it kindly) African-American behind the counter told him “We speak English only here sir”!
I think it is very important that anglophones learn also about what is happening at the Journal de Montréal. Every strike or lock-out of this magnitude might happen in other parts of the country. I am glad that Fagstein made a good resumé about this sad story, which might go on and on for weeks, even months.
About Préfontaine, I can’t stand him. He is a purist. I am francophone but not that narrow minded.
language zealots such as prefontaine are fading in quebec. They are dinosaurs and we know what happened to them! Francophones understand english is an asset to their own success in the world. Long live the English language!
O.M.G. I called Louis Prefontaine a crypto-fascist for which I really feel I should apologize. I just read his latest post where he calls for ,get this, ” pur sang” citizenship.I again would like to apologize for calling him a crypto-fascist. He has proven without a doubt that he is a fascist and an embarrassment to all who live in Quebec and Montreal and love it here.
Can you please post the link, John? Thanks!
Ahhhh Louis Préfontaine. There’s nothing else to say. It’s Louis Préfontaine. *sigh / shakes her head*
Prefontaine… I have a morbid curiosity with his ridiculous site, kind of like watching dying roadkill on the side of the road. I always feel guilty giving the “connard” hits.
When someone says “en francais svp, c;est quebec” like last year when a diehard pur laine ran through a red light and almost killed me with his bicycle ( I was on my bicycle with the green light), I simply said, “that’s the way your wife likes it.” It was evident that he could understand english just fine.
Why does anyone give this guy the time of day? The great majority of French-speaking Quebecers refuse to be identified to idiots like that. Because they’re then used to perpetuate anti-Quebec rethoric.
I would agree with Heather H. Just ignore this guy.
Oh come on? You can’t translate your blog into perfect French? What kind of a Quebecer are you? ; ) I am kidding, of course.
That would be something though if you were able to whip up a translation.
I notice more and more job listings stating French is the language of work. Even for businesses in Western NDG. Time for me to perfect my French.
You shouldn’t be surprised by this. French has been the sole permitted language of the workplace since 1977.
There are francos living in western NDG.
Never a bad thing. Although you are free to move to Ontario if you’re not up to it. :)