Association of Canadian Studies complains Ottawa not sufficiently bilingual

Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association of Canadian Studies, is disappointed that Ottawa has fewer bilingual speakers than does Gatineau. “I’m kind of surprised that Ottawa would be dragging down Gatineau so much in terms of the level of bilingualism.”

Mr. Jedwab apparently sees the Canadian albatross of bilingualism through the prism of Francophones, a view that requires Canadians to learn French because it is our official duty to do so. It says so in the constitution.

Fortunately, Canadians generally have other ideas of what is  important in the life of our nation and speaking French out of a misplaced sense of duty (or sense of guilt at having not lost in 1759) is not one of them.

People learn a second language when it is their interest to do so. Europeans and Asians speak English, not because England demands they do so, but simply because speaking English makes it easier to function in the modern world. The reason most Americans, British, and Canadians don’t speak a second language is because we don’t have to; most of the rest of the world speaks English.

Mr. Jedwab’s maudlin complaint that “… efforts to promote official bilingualism were not going much further than jobs within the federal government.” ignores two salient factors:

1. our very human inclination to learn only that which satisfies our curiosity or that which gains us an advantage

2. our very human inclination to resist learning French because they demand that we do so and because we find their whine unpalatable.