Language Question

[Doktor Kosmos]

I have a couple questions concerning French that I was hoping you guys could answer.

1. What is the ratio of French and English speaking people in Quebec? Is it 50-50? Or 60-40 one way or the other? Or is the difference even bigger than that?

2. Do the Montreal Canadiens have some sort of policy on which language is to be used when communicating on the ice, in the dressing room, and such? I've heard interviews with Saku Koivu and I think his English is very good, especially considering he's Finnish. Swedish and English are much more closely related (both being Germanic languages) than Swedish and French are (French is a Latin language), and I take it most Swedish NHL players can easily make themselves understood just fine in English speaking parts of Nort America.

You see, for a long time we imported a lot of words from French, but I believe since about WWII English is the language from which we borrow most words. And in Sweden students start studying English in like fourth grade (least I did, perhaps they start even earlier nowadays), and English is mandatory all the way up to the college/university level. Unless you go to a special school, you can choose to start studying French, and it's not until the sixth grade, and IF you choose French at that time, or later, it is only as a third language.

3. Does Koivu speak French? Other non-French Canadian players? I'm guessing Huet is somewhat fluent in French, seeing as how he's from France an' all , but what about the rest of 'em? Aebischer and Streit are from Switzerland. Do they speak French?

Edited September 23, 2006 by Doktor Kosmos

[Jean]

1 - Québec is 82% french speakers, 8% english and 10% other (from memory). I could be off by a few %age points but thats roughly that.

2 - Considering english is the only language understood by all players, I would guess than english is the de facto working language of habs's players

3 - Koivu took french lessons but is not confident enough in his abilities in this language to use it with the media. Streit and Aebischer speak very good french altough it's not their mother tongue.

Edit : I checked Wilkipedia to see if my numbers were correct and my memory was right

Québec

* French speakers: 82.0%

* English speakers: 7.9%

* Others: 10.1% (Italian 5.2%, Spanish 2.3%, Arabic 1.9%, and others)

Montréal

"

About 67.8% of the population of Montreal area is composed of Francophones, 13.8% are Anglophones, and 18.4% have neither French nor English as their first language and are called allophones. On the island of Montreal itself, these numbers change and Francophones constitute only 53% of the population, with the balance of 18% Anglophones and 29% allophones. "

Edited September 23, 2006 by Jean

[KoZed]

2 - Considering english is the only language understood by all players, I would guess than english is the de facto working language of habs's players

Yeah, but guys from the same languages can talk to each other in anything else, ie. Begin and Bouillon, Markov and Kovalev, Bonk and Plekanec... I'm sure on the bench you can hear about 4 or 5 different languages at the same time sometimes. Having a goalie yell out instructions to his defenseman in a language different than english can be a good weapon against an anglo opponent.

[Colin]

Actually, I believe that Koivu instituted an English Only rule so that everyone was on the same page.

[Doktor Kosmos]

THanks guys. Really interesting answers. I appriciate it!

Edited September 24, 2006 by Doktor Kosmos