Bonjour / Hi no more

[EldrickOnIce]

Lived in Montreal for 4 years.
I loved the city. It is fantastic.
The usual greeting you get, almost anywhere, in retail places is Bonjour / Hi. It is perfect. Tells the consumer that French is their language, but they are capable of serving you in English.
Well, no more.
It is apparently now 'illegal' to use the multi language hybrid greeting.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/...ting-1.3701305

[N-E-B]

I'm sorry, but if you're part of this country it should be legal to speak either official language. I love that they want to preserve their heritage, but English is an official language. This is just silly and pointless.

[northcrunk]

The most awkward thing is being mandated to say "Hello, Bonjour" when entering airport security. I hated it when I worked during university.

[GGG]

It isn't making it illegal.

It's just inviting shopkeepers to do it.

This is designed to create controversy between French and English.

[chemgear]

They blocked SNES sales in Quebec for a while because of the language laws, or Nintendo just figured it wasn't worth the hassle. It was pretty amusing given how ridiculous it is to have actual Language Police roaming the streets in Canada.

[NinePack]

http://torontosun.com/2014/10/28/cou...9-34a1178d59f7

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Lived in Montreal for 4 years.
I loved the city. It is fantastic.
The usual greeting you get, almost anywhere, in retail places is Bonjour / Hi. It is perfect. Tells the consumer that French is their language, but they are capable of serving you in English.
Well, no more.
It is apparently now 'illegal' to use the multi language hybrid greeting.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/...ting-1.3701305

The debate may have passed a motion but it is not legally binding. No one is a criminal if they say Bonjour Hi. Just anxious francophones who made a knee jerk reaction to some statistics that show the greeting of bonjour (only) is on the decline so they debated it for too long in the assembly.

[BloodFetish]

Mrs. B and I just returned from four days in Montreal. Everywhere we went we were greeted with just Bonjour, and occasionally Hello Bonjour. Which is fine, I'm a guest in a french-speaking region so whatever.

But I'd hate to work retail there, where every conversation has to begin with figuring out what language you're going to use. At least with "Bonjour Hi" or "Hello Bonjour" it dispenses with that initial tap-dance.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by NinePack

http://torontosun.com/2014/10/28/cou...9-34a1178d59f7

I can't believe money and time are wasted on frivolous lawsuits like this.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I can't believe money and time are wasted on frivolous lawsuits like this.

I cant believe the judges decision didn't start with

'one look at you tells me you are an arrogant self important little prick'

[driveway]

I had a great time in Montreal this summer. I speak pretty good French, though not fluent, and I found that people were perfectly happy to speak French to me as long as I could go, and then once I switched to English they would also switch seamlessly.

Fantastic city, probably the best city in Canada.

[Northendzone]

Language police....they must be a real group on cunning luingists........I am assuming the starting salary for this type of job is around $75k and it comes with 6weeks of vacation, a uniform and a sweet DB pension plan.