There are many cultures around the world that are suppressed by majoritarianism. They have to face challenges like forced assimilation, language discrimination and refusal to acknowledgement of their unique identity. In fact, many cultures have been identified by UNESCO, that will soon cease to exist - either that they’re vulnerable, or completely extinct. How do you, as a minority, feel, knowing that your entire identity will cease to exist in a few decades? Do you have a sense of camaraderie towards other minorities from other parts of the world, say, the Ainu people, or the Brahui pastoralist?
I’m french Canadian from my dad and native from my mom. I truly feel like most of the country would be more then happy if we disappear. They openly hate on french canadians and publicly pretend ro care about first nations but they really dont. I expect both cultures to be completly gone in a century or two, sooner maybe.
I wonder if this will get me downvoted. I don’t care one way or the other about French/Quebecois culture. It’s kinda neat, they can do their thing in Quebec. What I really don’t like is the forced French language on the rest of the country. You want a federal job? Better learn French. You want a provincial (not in Quebec) job? Better learn French. Want to enter politics? You need French. Want to move to the head of the line for any job in any sector? You’ll get that if you speak French. I think I’m treated like a second class Canadian because I don’t speak French. The Premier of British Columbia simply pointed out that there are more Mandarin speakers than French speakers in BC, and he was crucified. I’m sorry but this French language thing on the rest of the country is absolutely bonkers and needs to go.
Francophones are not prioritized for employment or political opportunities. Do you know which linguistic group is prioritized for such roles?
Bilinguals.
Do you think a unilingual French speaker would have more opportunities in Canada than a unilingual English speaker?
Of course, people whose first language is French have much higher rates of bilingualism than people whose first language is English, for a myriad of reasons. But I find it illuminating that for all the whining I see from (some) Anglophones about “lack of opportunities because they don’t speak French”, their proposed solutions always focus on stripping Francophones of their rights instead of encouraging French language education for Anglophones. Many countries around the world have huge percentages of their population being able to speak two (or more!) languages, why shouldn’t we strive for that? I see no downsides to increased bilingualism.
I live in New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in the Canada, where our unilingual Anglophone premier repeats the same talking points you do about how difficult it is for unilingual Anglophones to advance themselves in our province. All while holding the highest elected title in the province without speaking a lick of French.
… Yes bilinguals *in French and English. I thought that was so obvious that I didn’t say it specifically. And that requires, wait for it, French.
[*Actually no, not bilinguals. If you are bilingual in English and Mandarin, you don’t meet the French criteria. Repeat all languages. It’s French that they want and require above all others. But you’re trying to misframe the issue by saying not Francophones unilingual, and saying bilingual (with what I see as you defaulting to include French).]
So you speak French and work in Quebec. Fine. Why do I need French to get a good job in the prairies? Do you see how this goes? The demand for English is market demand because it’s the dominate language in Canada, the US, UK, and dare I say the international language of business and science. The vast majority of demand for French in Canada (outside of Quebec) is an artificial construct forced on the rest of the country. It’s completely artificial. There’s no natural demand or desire. But it’s forced on everyone and on to job requirements. You’re trying to confuse it with all these other things trying to make it sound like ‘both sides’.
I know. It must be really hard being from the majority and constantly being reminded that a minority exists.
It’s not that it exists, as you say. It’s that the French language is forced on to the rest of Canada. You can see my other comment in this thread.
I’ve thought of a good analogy. In Alberta there used to be so many Ukrainians they thought about making it a provincial language. So in this hypothetical let’s say that AB was bigger and had the political sway that Quebec has. Suddenly Ukrainian is a national official language. If you want a federal job, you better learn Ukrainian. Want to enter politics? Better speak Ukrainian. We’re going to open Ukrainian immersion schools across the country so lots of Canadians speak Ukrainian and so Ukrainian speakers from AB can get service when they travel across the country. I wonder if you’d be a proponent of that. And if you say that makes no sense, I’ll say “It must be really hard being from the majority and constantly being reminded that a minority exists”. So again, it’s not that it exists. It’s that it’s forced on the rest of the country.
This one surprises me. I had always thought Quebec had a strong cultural identity. How do you see it happening?
Honestly a lot of Quebecois have a persecution complex from centuries of actual mistreatment. But the current situation is fine and their culture is definitely not dying. I live near the Ontario Quebec border and it very clearly feels like a meeting point of two distinct cultures. And neither of them is being dominated by the other. They exist alongside eachother
We do have a strong cultural identity. But even I, who is aware of the problem and think we should defend our culture, have stopped consuming it since the arrival of Netflix and streaming services.
Internet has a part in that as well. When I was a kid, you would start learning English in grade 4, meaning 10 years old, in school. My son could count to 10 in English at 2 years old. Because youtube. Because of all the diversity of content we have access to now, that we didn’t have access to back in the days.
It’s probably the same thing in most non English countries.
Is slow, it’s pernicious, and probably inevitable over time. We can probably slow it down… I’m not sure.
I think you maybe don’t see that there is push and pull between cultures. For example, I’m an Anglo, but I went to French immersion in school, studied french at work for the feds and got certified, and now I enjoy consuming Quebecois media from time to time. Like just recently I started watching 19-2 on Netflix and it’s a really fucking good show.
Keep in mind, when a culture puts up walls between itself and its neighbors, that will stop the flow of ideas in both directions. Better to just accept that both cultures will intermix, and it isn’t going to destroy either one.
If you think that a child counting to 10 in a second language is a cultural threat, you have a persecution complex.
I’m a Tuluva, a minority group in the south of India. I am also a Tulu separatist for reasons mention here - I’m in agreement with most of them, but there are a few more reason I have this stance, including cultural appropriation and discrimination.
You can read about the recent efforts at digitization of my language in this article - although I’ve never met anyone who knows how to write. Maybe a few scholars are good at this? I tried to learn the abugida (the Indian equivalent of “alphabet”), but they’re pretty hard for someone like me who’s never learnt a Dravidian language before.
Three hours and no answers only one answer, which is understandable. Many of these people don’t have access to certain technology because of their economic situation, and even when they do, their voices are so small that they get overshadowed by the majority. I’m not of a dying culture, but I am aware of the many tribes in Papua and how they’re vulnerable from Indonesia’s interference. While many of the Papuan tribes aren’t dying per se, it’s very difficult to get online opinions from (indigenous) Papuans in regards to whether their land is colonized by Indonesians, let alone from tribes that are dying.
I don’t agree with this network access take. A lot of endangered cultures are simply being assimilated.
I was in a casual quiz in Hong Kong recently and one of the questions required us to know a language with less than 100 speakers. The default answer the quizzers had expected was Macanese Patuá. That sort of regional dialect existed in such a restricted set of conditions and between two different pressures to remove it (between Cantonese and Portuguese), that globalization simply drowned it out.
I’m Jewish and I feel meh. There was always a lot of pressure to continue practicing Judaism throughout my life because our numbers are so small and we’re the butt end of conspiracy theories and discrimination from all walks of life and have been for thousands of years.
I’m not religious and don’t believe in any sort of god so I guess I’m responsible for killing my religion and culture I guess. I can relate to the sense of camaraderie in finding another person with the same shared lived experiences in the wild, but I don’t know how much I can relate to the tribes you mentioned.
I’m not concerned as much about my culture dying out because life and everything in it is ultimate meaningless :)
Do you feel a connection to secular Jewish culture? I feel like Jewish culture goes beyond Judaism as a religion.
I know the white republicans in the USA sure feel like they’re gonna disappear.
many cultures have been identified by UNESCO, that will soon cease to exist
Any good links to read more about this?
