Quebec tries to ban cockrings because of too much English

lokican

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I don't know if anyone is aware of this or not, but the province of Quebec restricts how much non French a business can use. They have come under fire recently for trying to fine restaurants for using the word "pasta" because it was not a proper French term. Now they are going after a sex shop for selling an American made cock-ring that did not include instructions in French.

Keeping Quebec safe from English-only sex aids | Full Comment | National Post
 

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Clearly the French would need instructions.

lollll

I can understand that it can be exagerated, specialy in a word such as ''pasta''. But for many other reasons, I can understand that they want to protect their language, specially since they are surronded by english from Canada ans USA, the language is very fragile.

France should in many part take exemple of Quebec, because it be is becoming a problem also.
 

dandelion

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Clearly the French would need instructions.
According to the linked article, in fact the French do not need instructions, or at least are perfectly happy with instructions written in English. It is only quebecois, where one might imagine English is more often used than in France, who are incapable of understanding.
 
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French instructions.....Dip coq in red wine first before inserting in ring, mmmm fantastique.
 

Cuddler

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The Quebec government is doing this?

Yes, the Office québécois de la langue française is responsible for all kinds of nonsense. Like taping over on/off buttons on microwaves and measuring signs to make sure the English lettering is half the size of the French. The infrastructure is crumbling, education and health budgets are being slashed, but the OQLF got a big increase.:confused:

For more of the absurdities caused by the xenophobes running the province, take a look at NoDogsOrAnglophones
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D_Anna_Mott_Aphia

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It's not that we're unable to understand, English is understood by a very high proportion of Quebecois. It's just that French is our language and if you wanna do business with us, you must supply french instructions for your products. If you respect your business partners, you translate your documentation in their language. Seriously it's not difficult and it's quite inexpensive to hire a translator ONCE for a few hours for a product you'll sell for years. Would you like buying a product with instructions only in French or German? Ok a cockring doesn't need much explaining and the Office is, once again, being over-zealous. But it's definitely NOT because we can't understand or because we're stupid.
 

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If that were only true. The OQLF, or the language police as they're also known, are a waste of money.

Toys `Я` Us and other international companies are suing the government to not have to call themselves something like "Magasin pour enfants Toys `Я` Us".

A French bistro was ordered to translate the "W.C." sign on their bathroom door, even though that's what's used in France.
Not good enough for the pure laine Quebecois, who require that the pure French term "toilette" be used here.

Complaints have been made about Italian cafés that use the Italian spelling (caffè). One was made to replace $10,000 worth of glasses because they only had the non-French word on it. All that because of an f and the wrong accent on the e.

A lot of people here want the OQLF to get the f out of their lives.
Its budget would be better spent fixing our crumbling bridges and highways, the educational system or the health system.

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D_Anna_Mott_Aphia

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Yeah that's what people hear about the OQLF because it's what they do wrong. It's sad because most people are unaware of the other roles of the Office. Back when it was established, it did a wonderful job translating and adapting english terminology, analyzing corpuses of canadian french and promoting our own standard french. Now it's reputation is forever tarnished because of some stupid zealous inspectors... and the Parti Québecois won't help the cause...
 

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I've been to Quebec half a dozen times, and I've never had the problem many Anglos complain about - people who obviously understand english but won't speak it to you when you can't understand french, etc. - even further north in Val D'or and Noranda, never mind Montreal. Just my two cents.
 

ConanTheBarber

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Yeah that's what people hear about the OQLF because it's what they do wrong. It's sad because most people are unaware of the other roles of the Office. Back when it was established, it did a wonderful job translating and adapting english terminology, analyzing corpuses of canadian french and promoting our own standard french. Now it's reputation is forever tarnished because of some stupid zealous inspectors... and the Parti Québecois won't help the cause...
I hope Philiippe Couillard wins the next election and brings a sense of proportion back to the just barely simmering language wars.
French is perfectly safe in Quebec.
Allophones are turning more and more to French in preference to English.
All young anglophones have learned French.
There's really no emergency.

I've been to Quebec half a dozen times, and I've never had the problem many Anglos complain about - people who obviously understand english but won't speak it to you when you can't understand french, etc. - even further north in Val D'or and Noranda, never mind Montreal. Just my two cents.
I haven't had any of those bad experiences either. (Mind you, I spoke a half-serviceable French, and I think they appreciated the effort. And they want to practise their English; when I lived in Quebec City, which is nominally 98 percent francophone, I had to fight to keep conversations in French.)
I think the passion has largely died down.
I think, and hope, the PQ are flogging a dead horse.
 

D_Anna_Mott_Aphia

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The PQ is using the linguistic statistics to their own advantage. The only place where the proportion of French has dropped is in the category "Language used at home"... but this is totally irrelevant because it's normal. If I was an immigrant, I wouldn't use French at home with my family. Also, the ONLY place in all of Quebec where overall French usage dropped a little is Montreal... everywhere else it stayed the same.
The biggest problem at the OQLF is they don't hire REAL linguists to conduct their surveys. A sociolinguist wouldn't panic about the current state of French in Quebec. My teachers are kinda annoyed by the OQLF right now hehe...

Oh and you're not the first to say how difficult it is to keep a conversation in French. A friend of mine told me the exact same thing last week. I don't know why we do that... I don't because I would be mad if I went in an english-speaking (or other language) and people would speak to me in french. It must be a little insulting actually.
 
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ConanTheBarber

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The PQ is using the linguistic statistics to their own advantage. The only place where the proportion of French has dropped is in the category "Language used at home"... but this is totally irrelevant because it's normal. If I was an immigrant, I wouldn't use French at home with my family. Also, the ONLY place in all of Quebec where overall French usage dropped a little is Montreal... everywhere else it stayed the same.


Yes, but that's half the population, right?
But it only dropped on the Plateau, as I understand things. And only a little.
So you're right. It's no big deal.

The biggest problem at the OQLF is they don't hire REAL linguists to conduct their surveys. A sociolinguist wouldn't panic about the current state of French in Quebec.

Agreed.

My teachers are kinda annoyed by the OQLF right now hehe...

Good. Signs of sanity.
(Are you in CEGEP, nordiq?)