Talk about obnoxious...

[ShadowHM]

Until then, though, most people's reaction to 'different' is hatred.  I know, I've seen it (and heard the ignorant rednecks comment on it, thinking we didn't understand English) many times when I was out with my folks and we were speaking Italian.

That was in a country that values and promulgates assimilation. :) I hear a multitude of languages spoken every day, here. And I am not seeing any hatred expressed over it.

No. Give me one nation with one language. If a group wishes to uses an additional language among themselves, more power to them.  But embracing diversity is another one of those ivory tower ideas based on lack of understanding of how the vast unwashed masses actually behave. The diversity s embraced until the individuals become a mob -- then 'death to those others' becomes the watchword.

Perhaps. You live in your ivory tower and I get mine. :) I do live in a highly multicultural city - more so than any other in the world. There just are not enough of any particular one to allow for that 'death to the others' mentality. They are all either very small minorities or part of one big concept - a Canada that embraces tolerance. Guess which one they all seem to be choosing?

And, by the way, how is the Quebec independence movement faring?  Do they still want a country of their own where they can speak their own sorta French dialect and don't have to hear that 'bloody English'?  How anyone can be a Canadian and not think that language differences are disruptive is beyond my understanding.  The problem is so under your nose, and you don't even seem to notice the stench.

--Pete
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Nice try on the button pressing, Pete. :) But you are betraying a woeful ignorance of what is going on in that Quebec independence movement. It ain't about language. It is all about getting more money out of the Federal government, and it has been so for a long time. The French language has been merely a lever in the age-old game of power juggling. The Separatists actually do not like multi-culturalism, because it erodes their 'special status' and hence the credibility of their claims for 'more'.