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What's wrong with all you people that have a problem with bilingualism? Quebecois french can be used anywhere in the world that speaks french, which is actually quite a lot of people. The United States is so proud to be a monolingual country, so much of the time... but Americans are mocked by much of the rest of the world for it. It's not jealousy; it's head-shaking pity at the confidently isolationist American us/them ethos. Oh well. Maybe the steady increase in the use of Spanish in the US will wake some people up.
It's nice living in a bilingual community, if you don't fan the flames of bullshit by getting all angry at each other. There have been some shitty, shitty laws in Quebec about signs that have pissed me off a lot (you actually are allowed to have english on signs, by the way), but that doesn't mean bilingualism is a bad thing. Usually, children who are raised in bilingual environments have increased linguistic aptitude, and adapt better socially in international situations (obviously).
The kind of people who have a problem with more than one language are people who have probably not traveled much, or have been the type to travel and say "what the hell, these cars are fuckin' tiny!" while they look for the nearest McDonalds and whip they cameras out of their fanny packs and take snapshots of monuments on the way. Some countries actually have three languages (omg!!!), and they get by just fine. It's because they take the time to learn, and realize that some languages can express ideas in different and often better ways than other languages.
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simon -at- iacash dot com
icq: 231-421-229
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