How French is Canada?

Always interested in bilingualism I did some research on bilingualism in Canada and thought I might share it

with you. Enjoy :)

So I always knew that Canada had a french speaking population but I never really knew what this was all about. Is  it an official language? Are those a lot of people? Is french their mother tongue? Or did they just learn it in school as and that's what remained of “New France”? And most of all is it used in every day life?

Those were the things I had been wondering about so I did not hesitate to ask all these questions when I met a girl from Montreal. Speaking with her I soon noticed that although she spoke fluently and without mistakes she wasn't an English native. So I asked if English was her mother tongue and she said no.

She told me that French was along with English the official language of Canada and the sole official language of the province of Quebec. Quebec is the largest province of Canada and the second most populous. The province's capital is Quebec-City and the largest city Montreal.

So what about French now?

Well since Montreal is a big and multicultural city with people from all over the world English is wide spread there. It is established in services and everything, but she also said that this is something many French Canadians look sceptically towards. She made clear that French is the official language of the province and that if she didn't feel comfortable enough in English she would insist on being served in French.

79% of Quebecois listed French as their mother tongue, like the girl I have the information on all this from. They are raised completely in French, speak it at home and in everyday life and then learn English in school. This was something that really surprised me. I always thought those people were raised bilingual. She even said a lot of her friends don't speak good English at all and hers was just so good because she attended an English school. Also there are still tensions between the French and English speaking population, and Quebec even passed several laws that shall guarantee the importance and preservation of the French language. Also she said that Quebec City was completely French speaking and that some people might get unfriendly towards English speakers.

Also Canadian French is said to be different from European. One thing is that European French is more likely to use or borrow words from English which Canadians don't in order to protect their language. Here are some differences between Quebec and European French:

Quebec French	Metropolitan French	English gloss
abrier	couvrir	to cover
astheure (à c't'heure)	maintenant	now
chum (m)	copain (m)	boyfriend
magasiner	faire des courses	to go shopping/do errands
placoter	papoter	to chat/chatter

Here is a very interesting video on the differences:

I was really surprised by what I learned about Canada and in the End it turned out to be much more French than I thought. But I'm really glad my confusion about this was cleared up as I'm always interested in bilingualism in several countries, but most of the time also confused about it.

Montreal

Pan-City and Pollo frito

Bank district

Today I want to introduce you to a city that I could scratch off my “Places I really wanna see list” from a previous post this February. Overall I spent 7 nights in Panama's capital during term break and can only say this city is fascinating. Being the economic hub of the country Panama-City enjoys all the advantages of thewealth the Panama Canal brought the country. The city is completely clean, banks and international companies have their skyscrapers shooting to the sky like mushrooms and lining up with luxury apartment complexes in the upscale neighborhoods Marbella and Bella Vista on the bay. By taking a cab around the city one will soon realize though, that with all this wealth come the contrasts as well. The problem with Panama is that most of the money they make with the Canal stays in the capital, and by taking a closer look at the city one will soon see it does not only stay in the city but also in the hands of a very few people. As impressing and beautiful this city is, if you move away from the fancy districts you will soon see yourself confronted with poverty and social problems. The circumstances most people there live under are unimaginable for the most of us I guess. Nevertheless I highly recommend this city to anyone who travels Middle-America. Here I summed up some of the must-see things in Pan-City and vicinity for you:

The coastal belt

The Coastal-Belt: My absolute favorite in Pan-City. Like a big grass verge this belt runs between the busy Avenida balboa and the pacific coast. This place is a true resort, it offers benches to sit down in a trees shadow, gym equipment free to use for anybody, soccer fields and all that with an amazing view of the city's skyline and the Pacific. It's a place you can sit at for hours just watching the sea and the people passing by.

Allbrook mall: The biggest mall in Panama and also the biggest I've ever been is located right next to the City's Central bus terminal. This place's food court is bigger than most malls here in Austria, you can find anything you want here. It offers all international fast food chains and also a lot of local ones. Most Panamanian fast food chains like Pio Pio serve pollo frito, fried chicken. Overall it is save to say, without being stereotypical that Panamanians love their chicken. You get it everywhere. One fast food chain even has a chicklet serving fried chicken on a tray as logo.. pretty macabre if you think of it right?

The food court

Are you serving your family?

Casco-Viejo: The city's old town has been renovated over the past years and some parts are still under construction. The heavy armed tourism police is omni present there so it's very safe during the day. This place is really worth a visit as you will think you landed in Spain.

Casco Viejo

Miras flores locks: Of course the Panama-Canal is a must see when in Panama but frankly this was one of the bummers of this trip. I imagined it to be more grand but its just a small lock where ships pass through while you fight with mostly 65+ year old tourist for a spot where you can snap a pic. What I really like about this place was the museum though.

A ship passing through the Panama-Canal

After all Panama-City really is a place that will fascinate you once you are there.

A little tip: To cope in the city you have to know at least some basic Spanish because no one there will speak English and cabs etc will rip you off if you don't speak their language. Also note that cabs cost maximum 2$ per ride within the city. So really try to learn some basics before visiting Panama. I fortunately had Spanish in school which I was very glad about since people won't even try to understand if you don't speak a word of Spanish

Miami- Lignano on steroids

This term break I had the chance to visit Miami in the course of my trip around Panama. Since I had never been to Miami or Florida in general before I was excited to see this part of the U.S.

I did not come there with the highest expectations like someone else might had because this city is so hyped, no I was actually ready to be rather disappointed because most people who have been there told me it's actually not that great and I know from my own experience the U.S cities never really live up to your expectations. And once I was there I have to say I was underwhelmed. But lets start from the beginning.

I went there in February at a time my hometown experienced heavy ice rain that froze over half the city, so I was used to very cold weather. Once you get out of the airport hot and humid air surrounds you completely while you take in the busy airport streets lined with Palm trees. That at least was a good first impression. Also the drive from the airport to Miami Beach was very nice as the highways also have a lot of palm trees around and you get a glimpse at the skyline of downtown Miami. Our hotel was on Collins Avenue in Miami beach, just one street next to the famous Ocean Drive. But that was it for the positive stuff for now. While I was ranting about the worst hotel ever in my post about Rome, I have to take back what I said because compared to the one there Rome was the Burj. If you go to Miami don't ever ever stay at the Berkley Shore hotel, it's the most run-down place I have ever seen in my life, and to me its still an enigma how a place like this can be licensed in a civilized country.

Miami beach itself wasn't so great either, it really reminded me of a huge Lignano in Northern Italy, which we call the “janitor-beach” in Austria. Everything was kind of old an run down, I really didn't see whats so special about it, If I came all the way from Europe for Miami only this would have probably been the most disappointing trip of my life.

Also Miami airport was just a pain in the neck. When I went home from Panama I had to connect in Miami and almost missed my flight. The problem was: Anyone also if you're just connecting must enter the country, which means go through immigration again, claim your baggage, go through customs drop off your baggage and go through security again. And now try doing this when you only have a two hour lay over. Immigration was just a joke, there were hundreds of people lining up and all they had open were three counters while most of the staff just stood there bossing people around rather than opening another counter.

I had to go through this whole process again too although I still had a valid entrance permission stamp in my passport from my prior trip there. When asking the staff for help all you get is rude comments. How ever I managed to get placed in another shorter line and just was on time for boarding. A guy I guess he was in his 80s had only 15 minutes to his flight when still lining up for Immigration, I'd be surprised if he caught that flight. So if you are going to America I advice you taking a flight that flies to your destination directly without landing in the US prior because connecting there really sucks.

There were some peaks to Miami though: Whats really cool is walking down south beach at night to the marina from where you have a view of the skyline of downtown. As for food I'd suggest a BBQ burger at the art deco diner, which was one of the best I've had.

A fun fact about Miami: I did not hear a lot of English there. In fact it ranks number three behind Spanish and German. Due to the high population of Latin Americans Spanish can be heard everywhere and most signs are in English and Spanish. At the airport most of the staff automatically spoke Spanish to me because my ticket said Barcelona and Panama. As for German.. well I guess there were just a lot of tourists.

Travel the world from your kitchen

This semester food is gonna be one of the major topics in English class, so I guess I will be posting about that topic a couple more times, but as for now I'm starting out with this one. First of all I like to cook in general, but the thing I like best about it is that it's also another way of getting an insight on other cultures. So my

Khoresht-e fesenjān

favorite things to cook are dishes from foreign countries as it allows at least your taste buds to travel there. A week ago I read a great book called "Prisoner of Tehran" by Marina Nemat (I might review it in a later post) which arose my curiosity to learn more about Iran and Persian culture. After reading another book about Iranian politics and people's everyday life there i decided to try out a Persian recipe. The Persian cuisine uses pomegranate a lot which is one of my favorite fruits so I decided to make Khoresht-e fesenjān. It's some kind of stew with a sauce made from pomegranate syrup and walnuts. The dish was easy to prepare and turned out to have a great taste. While the first bite may be a little strange because it tastes nothing like familiar to anything else (at least to me) the combination of the sweet fruit , chicken and nuts with Persian rice is great.

As I said the thing I enjoy most about cooking is getting to know dishes and eating habits of other cultures and there are some good blogs out there related to that topic. I once read one where a woman was alphabetically going through all the countries of the world and prepared a typical desert. Sadly I didn't find it anymore but this one is quite interesting too: http://globalcookies.blogspot.co.at/ . In this blog you can find a variety of cookie recipes from all over the world.

If someone is interested in the fesenjan recipe here is the link to the recipe i used. It's in Ferman but if you google you can sure fnd an English one too

http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/993901204707395/Huhn-in-Granatapfel-Walnuss-Sauce.html

What good bloggers do

While looking through the list of best blogs I tried to determine what makes them so good. I soon realized most of them don't have an elaborate layout. And this is something I really liked and also keep on my own blog. I like it simple and easy to navigate, like you have one post chronological after the other. I once took a look at a blog you could see the owner really put a lot of effort into, especially the layout. And frankly after two post I got tired because finding your way through this blog was not the easiest. As for the layout I would say one should keep it simple.

Another thing, maybe the most important I realized is that the author really needs to be interested in the topic they are writing about. You could clearly see in which posts they put a lot of effort into and how much they actually enjoyed writing about it. And this is something that really improves the quality of posts. I also realize that when I'm writing stuff my own. Like this post here, frankly we were assigned to write it in class, and this is not really a topic I'm into and I had to force myself into writing this post while when I write about culture or travel related stuff it's easy as I keep having so many ideas about what to write. And that's why you can also expect some more posts on these topics.