Tidbits From the World

Officially, Canada is a binational country, which means that two nations are officially recognized among the population as being part of the majority: the Anglophone nation and the Francophone one. Unfortunately, the Natives are not officially recognized as a nation, so their languages and cultures have not been well preserved which almost caused them to disapear. The French were more lucky and they had more power to defend their rights to be recognized by the federal government. So, officially, Canada is a bilingual State, a country that has two official languages. As the capital city of this country, Ottawa must give the example by applying bilinguism to the letter. Here are some photos that proves that in Ottawa, bilinguism is not taken lightly!

“Rue Rideau Street”. The street names in Ottawa are all preceded by the French word “Rue” (street) and they are followed by the English word “Street”.

“Pont MacKenzie King Bridge” The same goes with bridges (pont), avenues, boulevards, etc.!

Here is something that is probably very surprising for a foreigner who comes for the first time to Canada: a bilingual stop sign (“Stop Arrêt”), probably unique in the world, or at least very rare!

Here, you have an “Arrêt Stop” sign. As you see, the order of the languages was inverted. This order is very important! The language that appears first on a sign frequently gives you the information about the language spoken by the majority living in the area. In the train that I took, the operator would sometimes take the microphone to communicate with the passengers, to inform them about the traffic conditions on the track for example or to inform them that the train was arriving at a station where we would stop a few minutes. As the train was travelling through the province of Quebec, the first language that the operator would use was French and then, he would translate what he said into English. But as soon as we crossed the border with Ontario, the order changed. The operator would then talk to the passenger in English first and then translate what he said into French. I don’t know if he was thinking “now that we are in Ontario, I have to use the English language first!” or if he changed the order naturally without thinking about it. This story helps understand that the first language used in a sign or spoken by a person shows the language that is spoken by the majority living in the area.

Some bilingual signs. Warnings, threats of fines, …

I think this sign is very interesting. If you know the rules of the road, you can read this sentence. The verb is symbolized by a red and white triangle and the complement, by a white pictogram on a black background. The preposition is written in both languages! So, if you are an Anglophone, you will read “Yield TO Pedestrians”, while Francophones will read “Cédez le passage AUX piétons”.

The University of Ottawa, a bilingual university. The courses are taught in both languages.

It seems like on their signs, French is written first and then English.

A wierd fine of $53,75 if you forget to walk your bike… but how would you say that in French. The sign is unilingual! They forgot to translate it!

Ah! No they didn’t. Three feet further you can see the French sign.

Really everything is translated in Ottawa.

This is an interesting aspect of both the French and the English languages: 1/3 of all the English vocabulary is made of words of French origin or sometimes simply French words, without any modification. Most of these words were added to the English vocabulary when the British aristocracy used to speak French as their language in the United Kingdom. The word “centre” is a good example of this. On the picture, the first “centre” is French and is used in the phrase “Centre Rideau“, while the second “centre” is used both in English and in French. In English, you have “Rideau CENTRE” and in French you have “CENTRE Congress“. The third “centre” is exclusively English and is used in the phrase “Congress CENTRE“. This is a good way of saving space on a sign without compromising bilinguism!

In book stores, there is a French section.

Everywhere, everything is translated!

To conclude, this picture. You see the bilingual text “Do Not Enter / Entrée interdite”, and higher, you see a translation of another kind: a conversion from one measuring system to another. 6 feet / 1.8 Metres. Those who don’t know yet what 1.8 metres means can understand this sign anyway thanks to the conversion from the metric system to the imperial one, that was still in use officially in Canada until the 1970s. At first, the metric system was the measuring system in use in France and the imperial system was in use in the United Kingdom. Not only these two countries left the American continent with a legacy of both the French and the English languages, but they also brought two different measuring systems that are in use everyday in the spoken language.

Last friday for the first time this year, I went out of the Metropolitan Region of Montreal and I visited Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. It did me good to go out and discover this city.

I took the train for the first time of my life. For short distances, taking the train costs the same as taking the bus. Going to Ottawa by train took 2 hours.

The purpose of my travel to Ottawa was to go to the chinese embassy, because there is no chinese consulate in Montreal and all the residents of the province of Quebec must go to the embassy in Ottawa to do their business. I will have to go back at least two more times, one time to make the application and another time to pick up the visa. I was very surprised by the kindness of the staff working at the embassy… I had never seen before bureaucrats smiling and joking… All the staff were wearing regular clothes (no suits) and everybody seemed to enjoy working at the embassy…

When I was done with the embassy, I visited the city. I took the first train that arrived to Ottawa this day, it left Montreal at 6 o’clock in the morning and I booked a ticket for one of the last trains going back to Montreal, which was leaving at 6 pm. So, I had approximately ten hours to visit the city! On the picture the guy that you see is a preacher announcing the arrival of Jesus Christ to planet Earth.

If you want to know if your are still finding yourself in Quebec or in another province, simply look for canadian flags. In the province of Quebec, canadian flags are relatively scarce. You can find some on federal buildings and on some other buildings but almost always besides a Quebec flag. Outside Quebec, though, Canadian flags are proudly flown on the roof of any buildings, be them banks, libraries, museums, houses, etc.

This is the canadian parliament, where the federal government sits.

At the foot of the parliament, some people protest calmly for injustices they are experiencing. They bring pictures and they sit, waiting for visitors to come to them and ask them questions about their problem.

The parliament is protected by two police officers from the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

But I don’t know who is watching the door. I probably could have entered the parliament without hindrance because the person whom I saw entering, looked more as a tourist than as an employee of the parliament!

Here is another governmental building on the parliamentary hill.

And a tourist who takes the same picture as I did!

Here is a veteran from World War II. He tells his story at the entrance of the parliamentary hill. He is also a British citizen and he fought with the British forces against the Italians. He was injured in combat and today he is retired and lives poorly in Ontario, because the British government would not give him the pension he should be allowed to receive. The documents that prove that he fought with the british army were lost when he was injured…

This is something that is forbidden in Montreal, but allowed in most North American cities: itinerant businesses. Here, you see a hotdog stand. These stands give some life to neighborhoods, which blatantly lacks on Montreal’s streets…

As she saw me taking pictures of anything, a resident of Ottawa went to see me and asked me if I wanted her to take a picture of me with my camera. I accepted and here is the result… By chance she did not flee with my camera! I don’t think I would have been able to reach her if she had fled with it (I am officially still on convalescence!). But Ottawa seemed to be such a safe city… I even wonder if there is any crime out there. In all the cities that I have known, there is always at least one bad street where all the problems of society are concentrated. In Montreal, the street is Ste-Catherine, but in Ottawa, I saw no city that ressembled even remotely to Ste-Catherine street. I went all around Ottawa, downtown and outside, but nothing! So, I trusted the lady so she could take a picture of me with my camera!

The buses in Ottawa are among the most modern ones in Canada. They are painted with the colors that identifies the canadian nation. You can see a maple leaf that was painted on the back of the bus.

The seats are placed almost in the same disposition as in Montreal. The thing that really surprised me was that the seats are padded with synthetic foam. In Montreal and in other places, seats are made of plastic or hard metal, but in Ottawa, they are stuffed with foam, with is very soft and comfortable. I have always thought that this kind of seats would be ripped up by young delinquents, but apparently that does not happen. A poster that is not seen on the picture says: “Reward up to $500 for information leading to a conviction of any person or persons willfully damaging this property”. Maybe this poster had a deterent effect that worked. I have seen only one little “scratchitti” on the back of a bus that was passing beside me. But the majority of busses seem to be very clean.

The Franco-Ontarian Festival was taking place in Ottawa from June 12 to June 14. This festival celebrates the French language in Ontario.

This was the stage. The artists were Quebecois, French, Africans, Acadians, …

Ontario broadcasting channels had their cameras on the site.

Before I left Ottawa, I visited the University of Ottawa. I took this picture from the last floor, the eleventh. The parliament is to be seen through the window. Nice view, isn’t? This was what I saw in Ottawa. Next city to visit: Toronto. And then, Europe, Russia and China!