61 replies to this topic

[Electrophile]

Y Frog dot com? Seriously? AWESOME.

Actually, not quite so awesome. Yfrog isn't the name of the paper or the paper's website, but the name of an URL shortening service for posting links on sites like Facebook or Twitter. It's a part of Imageshack. I often use it when I post on Twitter because I can upload something that might have 56 characters in it, and get it down to maybe 15.

[KrazyGangsta]

I'm from Montreal & here's my opinion on it.

A coach that wants to coach the Montreal Canadiens should not be hired for his language but for his knowledge and what he will bring to the team. All tho, I do think that the coach should take french courses and address to the french media in french. As you guys know, Quebec is a french state and not an English one, therefore our first language here in Montreal is french. It would be like bringing a russian / swedish / chinese coach that doesn't speak english coming and coaching a U.S. team. I'm sure you would want him to go and learn English to address to the media in English wouldn't you?

Edited by KrazyGangsta, 21 December 2011 - 12:56 AM.

[LeftWinger]

I'm from Montreal & here's my opinion on it.

A coach that wants to coach the Montreal Canadiens should not be hired for his language but for his knowledge and what he will bring to the team. All tho, I do think that the coach should take french courses and address to the french media in french. As you guys know, Quebec is a french state and not an English one, therefore our first language here in Montreal is french. It would be like bringing a russian / swedish / chinese coach that doesn't speak english coming and coaching a U.S. team. I'm sure you would want him to go and learn English to address to the media in English wouldn't you?

...that's what I say! Learn f&cking English if you are gonna work and live here!

Edited by LeftWinger, 21 December 2011 - 06:28 AM.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros]

I took 6 years of French in middle and high school, and just completed a french course in college. I think the Quebecois give the French a bad name. In Paris, they're much more welcoming and tolerant of tourists. I've been to Montreal on a class trip, and we literally got mocked at one of the local restaurants we went into. We didn't speak fluent french, so one of the workers started blabbing some broken english. She proceeded to yell to what appeared as the manager "Ils ne parle francais." (Meaning "They don't speak french"). The manager came up to the cash register and was a complete tool about taking our orders, "slowly" repeating our orders back to emphasize how much of an inconvenience we were causing at an otherwise dead reataurant. Needless to say, we left no tip.

Anyway, these kind of comments coming from the french-canadians don't surprise me. Sure, they're not all like that, but still. If it was up to them, every player on the team would be required to speak fluent french, as well as all coaches. Obviously, fans will look up to players from the surrounding area, but not liking someone based on what language they speak or where they were born is ridiculous.

Also, maybe the government should be worrying about the bigger problems in Quebec, as opposed to regulating the language the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens speaks. The fact that they even released a statement about it pisses me off.

[Hack & Whack Rule!]

I'm sure that most level-headed Quebecois think that their culture minister needs to get the sand out of her arse.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one...I would say that about 5-10% think that way. The rest think that every English speaking Canadian should learn to speak French. I lived in Quebec for about two years, and my father grew up there. I don't speak French, and that's when you become a second class citizen there...except for in the peeler bars.

[WorkingOvertime]

I'm from Montreal & here's my opinion on it.

A coach that wants to coach the Montreal Canadiens should not be hired for his language but for his knowledge and what he will bring to the team. All tho, I do think that the coach should take french courses and address to the french media in french. As you guys know, Quebec is a french state and not an English one, therefore our first language here in Montreal is french. It would be like bringing a russian / swedish / chinese coach that doesn't speak english coming and coaching a U.S. team. I'm sure you would want him to go and learn English to address to the media in English wouldn't you?

To me, I think this has gained attention because a government agency is calling for a french-speaking coach. Although (I believe) they don't any power to force the team, it is not ordinary to see a government official/section have a stated opinion on the coach of a hockey team.

Can you speak to the demographic in Montreal (and Quebec) that does not speak english? I know there is a significant population that only speaks french, but I haven't been able to find statistics.

IMO being bilingual is important for the eventual coach, but being a competent NHL-level coach should be more important.

[cusimano_brothers]

I've never been to Montreal, but isn't hockey always on the front page news there?

It's a constant battle with stories dealing with corruption in the construction industry, gangland slayings and roadwork slowdowns.

[akustyk]

it is not ordinary to see a government official/section have a stated opinion on the coach of a hockey team.

I don't want to start a flame war about politics but...

it's perfectly ordinary to see politicians stirring the pot with statements whenever they think they can gain any popularity, nevermind the subject and any common sense about issues really having anything to do with politics.

so, apparently, Quebec officials decided, that their electorate is likely to appreciate government doing its best "Francophone small **** syndrome" impression. If anything, this speaks volumes about... the electorate. Aparently, French-Canadian are more concerned about the language than the fact that their team is worthless...

[syntax]

I lived in upstate NY for a couple years, and we spent every other weekend in Quebec. There is definitely an intolerance for all things non-francais. Countless times we were treated rudely, and we would just laugh at them and go somewhere else. Montreal proper is much more tolerant of Anglophiles.

In my opinion, a Habs head coach should speak French...it's his job to communicate with the press, and French is the native language of the Province.

Good point on the politicians....they're all crooks and use anything they can to distract people from real problems.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

[The Secret]

There are plenty of coaches from North America that are hired to coach in various league's around the world and I have never heard or read about this sort of thing happening anywhere else. The worst part about it is that the Gov't officials are complaining about something so stupid when they should be focusing their efforts on the things that really matter in the community... and as someone mentioned there are plenty of negative things in montreal for them to be focusing on! Grow up Quebecois, French is dying a slow painful death in Canada and no matter how to try to force feed it you are out numbered and you won't win. I now live in Ottawa and there is a nice blending of English and French here without the need to fight and force it upon people. Most people here speak both languages quite well and more important quite willingly.

[ami]

what are you talking about?

the only reason that liberal should shut the f*ck up because government has absolutely nothing to do with this particular business. It has neither legal nor ethical right to tell businesses who and why they should hire! Period.

And Molson Family instead their statement should have cut it in to the form similar to this: 'Pardon my French, madam, but got f*ck your self!'

[bogeygolfer]

What you americans arent understanding is that Quebec is a majority french province who have been striving for decades to preserve their language. The canadiens are a major symbol of the french people, they have sport shows where all they talk about is the habs. Now they have a teams with like zero french players of any significance, an owner who never talks to the media, a gm who never talks to the media, and now an entire coaching staff that can't speak french. Jacque Martin literally did all the interviews for that team. I know that montreal is pretty bilingual, but the entire province is habs crazy. 90% of the fans are french. So who will now be the spokesman for the team? Could you imagine how pissed you'd be if the no one froms the wings where ever avialable for interviews? now multiply that by 10. Thats how they feel, its totally understandable they atleast dont have an assistant coach who can speak french. Is that too much to ask?

[8 Legged RedWing]

What you americans arent understanding is that Quebec is a majority french province who have been striving for decades to preserve their language. The canadiens are a major symbol of the french people, they have sport shows where all they talk about is the habs. Now they have a teams with like zero french players of any significance, an owner who never talks to the media, a gm who never talks to the media, and now an entire coaching staff that can't speak french. Jacque Martin literally did all the interviews for that team. I know that montreal is pretty bilingual, but the entire province is habs crazy. 90% of the fans are french. So who will now be the spokesman for the team? Could you imagine how pissed you'd be if the no one froms the wings where ever avialable for interviews? now multiply that by 10. Thats how they feel, its totally understandable they atleast dont have an assistant coach who can speak french. Is that too much to ask?

How many of those 90% French speaking fans do you think can speak English as well? Probably close to all of them especially the younger ones. So would it really be a burden to listen to an interview from the coach in English which you can certainly understand just fine? It's a game FFS. Everything of importance in their life like business and whatever else is probably done in French. I actually went to Montreal 2 years ago in the summer. I don't speak a lick of French and I had no trouble eating out or going to bars or anything really.

[bogeygolfer]

How many of those 90% French speaking fans do you think can speak English as well? Probably close to all of them especially the younger ones. So would it really be a burden to listen to an interview from the coach in English which you can certainly understand just fine? It's a game FFS. Everything of importance in their life like business and whatever else is probably done in French. I actually went to Montreal 2 years ago in the summer. I don't speak a lick of French and I had no trouble eating out or going to bars or anything really.

Like I said, montreal is bilingual, but the rest of the province is not. I'd say at least a majority would be unable to understand an interview in english. They also would be unable to read quotes in the newspaper, things are lost in translation... If scotty bowman was expected to learn french, then its not unreasonable for this bum to learn too.

[Doc Holliday]

Like I said, montreal is bilingual, but the rest of the province is not. I'd say at least a majority would be unable to understand an interview in english. They also would be unable to read quotes in the newspaper, things are lost in translation... If scotty bowman was expected to learn french, then its not unreasonable for this bum to learn too.

If only they had some kind of subtitle to interpret the English speak to French speak.

Oh well, guess they will be in the dark for all interviews.

Edited by Doc Holliday, 21 December 2011 - 08:08 PM.

[Electrophile]

I speak semi-fluent French. I mean, I could go to Paris or Montreal and get along fine, without needing to rely on English much to get around. If I ever planned on moving to either locale, it would behoove me to learn French to a much greater extent than I already do, because if I'm going to live and work amongst people that speak that language, I need to know it well enough to communicate with people who may not speak English at all. You're always supposed to work from the perspective of the least, not the greatest. Meaning, learn a language to be able to effectively communicate with someone who has zero English language skills. That way, you're guaranteed to be fine with people who speak varying degrees of English as well.

If you're going to coach the Montreal Canadiens, you need to speak French. That is what happens when you choose to live and work in a city where English is not the dominant or majority language. It would be no different than Babs going to coach in Russia and then not learning to speak Russian. He'd be mocked, and rightly so.

[Ray1905]

please don't get me started about Francophones and their approach to "ze-uerlzd", especially when ze-uerlzd is speaking English, towards which they
have an utterly prevailing small d* syndrome (not French per se, but Canadian Francophones are prime example here).

I live in Netherlands and am quite often in Belgium, Luxemburg, Switzerland or France. wherever there is a French speaking community there are people
who show zero effort to try any other language. even in bilingual Belgium (where there really is no escape from bilingualism) people in Wallon refuse to
speak Flemish which they learn in school. same goes to French part of Switzerland - where the German speaking part is generally modern, tech savvy
and open to other cultures, Francophones are just hopeless... they answer English or German emails in French, provide no translations of their web pages
(if they have one at all!) and generally show little effort to help you.

anyway, we do have some friends who are French here, and at personal level they are quite OK. zey onestly do spiik inglish diferónt, meehh... zey ah
generalement tres bien. unless they start complaining about things not being to their liking (very easy in spartan Dutch culture) - then you instantly get
the impression, that every French is raised in profound conviction that the only reason other people exist is to kiss Frencj in the *ss. and they sure bi* a lot...

Scuse my french... mais tu es un cave!!!

[akustyk]

Thats how they feel, its totally understandable they atleast dont have an assistant coach who can speak french. Is that too much to ask?

to the defense of Cunneyworth - he didn't even have a chance to react but was slammed directly by the media. I understand it's mostly "garbage" journalists, but come on... the guy should at least get some time to get his French to decent level. he should be fine after living in Montreal for a while (I can't really imagine that he doesn't understand a lot passively) so the only thing he needs to do is to get hold on some basics to be able to produce some correct sentences. for now.

I have myself moved from Poland to Netherlands 4 years ago. despite knowing best that 90% of Dutch are perfectly fine with English at daily basis, on the very second day in NL I started learning the language, for the pure sake of my own comfort of living in this country and out of respect to people with whom I'd have to work.

you don't really have to convince me that learning the language of the host country/province (or at least putting an effort to do so) is a must - I know it first hand. what I don't get is so much outrage directed towards an employee. Poor guy is just trying to do his job...

Scuse my french... mais tu es un cave!!!

oh yes, thanks for the knowledgeable opinion that adds so much value to the discussion... unfortunately, I'm not 15 years old any more, and won't bite on this crap...

[akustyk]

double post

Edited by akustyk, 22 December 2011 - 07:05 AM.

[cusimano_brothers]

Montreal Gazette.