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France Says 'Au Revoir' to the Word 'Smartphone' (smithsonianmag.com)
Hoping to prevent English tech vocabulary from entering the French language, officials have suggested 'mobile multifunction' as an alternative. An anonymous reader shares a report: The official journal of the French Republic, the Journal officiel, has suggested "internet clandestin" instead of dark net. It's dubbed a casual gamer "joueur occasionnel" for messieurs and "joueuse occasionnelle" for mesdames. To replace hashtag, it's selected "mot-diese." Now, as the Local reports, the latest word to get the official boot in France is smartphone. It's time to say bonjour to the "le mobile multifonction." The recommendation was put forth by the Commission d'enrichissement de la langue francaise, which works in conjunction with the Academie Francaise to preserve the French language. This isn't the first time that the commission has tried to encourage French citizens to switch over to a Franco-friendly word for "smartphone." Previous suggestions included "ordiphone" (from "ordinateur," the French word for computer) and "terminal de poche" (or pocket terminal). These, it seems, did not quite stick.
Surely this must be sarcastic. Especially with the grammar error.
I have studied a handful of languages and taught English. English is a train wreck to learn.
It is extremely flexible and expressive but the grammar rules and spelling are the linguistic equivalent of the worst spaghetti code.
That's a lie. English classes are mandatory in all french schools in Québec. Moreover anglophones in Québec have full access to english education from kindergarten to university. There's nothing equivalent for the French in the other provinces. Maybe they mandate french as second language in the other provinces, but I assure you that by having contacts with english canadian tourists that these programs are utter failures.
And by the way, we don't give a fuck about the signage in Winnipeg or Moose Jaw. Past the Outaouais, it's very clear that we are in a foreign country posing as us.
Except in the case of Quebec and Canada, French is mandated in all English-primary provinces, but English doesn't enjoy the same privilege in Quebec.
Wrong on so many levels it's not even funny.
Quebec is the only single-language province (NB doesn't count as it is a bilingual province) which is constitutionally mandated (read: forced by the other provinces) to publish all its laws in English and French, and with both versions having equal precedence. All the judiciary system in Quebec must therefore be bilingual.
All 8 English-only speaking provinces are free to choose the language of their laws.
Quebec is also forced to have a English schooling system in addition to the main French one. It is far superior, by any measurement, to any French system in any other province, even including bilingual New Brunswick. Obviously, English teaching in the French system is also orders of magnitudes better than the French teaching in English provinces.
Quebec also has a network of English-speaking hospitals which has no equivalent in English Canada.
And most importantly, when you enter a shop, a French hospital, a restaurant, a provincial government building, chances are you'll be able to get some level of service in English, while you can't really expect any service in French in English provinces.
So Quebec'ers, special snowflakes that they are, require French in schools, signage, etc everywhere in the country,
Quebecers don't require that. French-speaking Canadians living outside Quebec do. And they mostly fail.