>>>I disagree with you here because Quebec is the only province in North America that has a majority of citizens that use french as its primary language. I'd really like to see it another way but it really looks like that to preserve our culture we have to have laws to protect it. Without those laws I think that it would be close to impossible to do business in french in the future. I think that at one point if you can't get others to respect you the only way to get that respect is to take actions so that others will be forced to follow the rules. I don't like that situation one bit but I don't think that there is another solution if we want to preserve our culture.
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>>It seems to me that if you have to have a law that mandates the langauge then the language is not really that ingrained. People are obviously using english and will continue to do so because of outside influence. In the end you will end up preserving nothing; instead, you'll be limiting your economy for several years.
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>I don't think Paul that you understand what's happening over here. Yes those laws could hurt our businesses but maybe not.
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>Like you say people will always use english but they also have to use french. That way we can be sure to preserve our music industry (they have to respect a certain percentage of french music on the radio). That gives work to french artists.
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>On the same patter we'll be able to keep our french magazines, french film industry, french stores... I don't think that I have to tell more of what we can keep by having laws to protect our language.
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>If we don't have those laws eventually we'll be stuck with things coming only by the bigger guys and not the ones that respond to our needs. Usually when there are no laws you can't expect to have something good in the end to preserve the rights of a minority (in this case a french province).

Denis,

PMFJI...

I think what gets folks attention is the "have to" phrase. Personally, I think a lot of American culture is really ugly, crass, and often downright obscene. I think that morally it is often the equivilent of poison quite frankly. I am embarassed by it and would be the first in line to say that it needs to become "healthier."

However, having said that I also would question the notion that in order for a culture to survive it must be mandated by law. That strikes me as absurd, simply because laws are always "post facto", or after the fact. By the time the Culture Police identify some new perceived threat it's too late, as the culture has moved on. IOW, it seems an awful waste of time to me.

How can laws mandate desire?

If folks do not desire to speak English, Spanish or French does forcing them make them want to speak those languages?

Perhaps if any culture does not elicit enough desire in folks to sustain itself it ought to disappear.... No one speaks Latin much these days and Rome was certainly the last real world power. There's no guarantee everyone will always speak English either. From some point of view it comes across as being extremely insecure or elitist and I doubt that French speaking folks are that insecure. The elitist part, I don't know about either but is sure seems odd.

*shrug*

Don't misunderstand.... I am not suggesting anything other than the notion that is seems odd and counterproductive to mandate a language by law.

Of course, here in the States there's quite a bit of interest in "English Only" so perhaps this isa case of the pot calling the kettle black.. <g>

John, should we mandate "English Only" here? *bg*

Best,

DD (just stirring the pot an eensy weensy bit. <g>)