[Magdalen] Quebec City.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Hardly the image of Mister President, but there it is:

http://tinyurl.com/mb4nn2h

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 1:39 AM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> A bit north of Hyde Park, and south of Albany lies the village of
> Kinderhook, borthplace of Martin van Buren, eighth President of the United
> States.  His first language was Dutch. Drop by the center of Kinderhook and
> you'll find a statue of him sitting at one of the local benches.
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things
> better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting
> your time on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente
>
> On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Joseph Cirou <romanos at mindspring.com>
> wrote:
>
>> There are English speaking villages between the St Lawrence and Us border.
>> You go close to the border in Vermont (as I remember) and Maine and the
>> signs are bilingual English and French--probably elsewhere. There are a
>> number French Canadian settlements in Mass and NH. Our lead at the IRS
>> didn't speak English until she went to first grade. Now this is  a 100
>> years ago; but my father did not speak English as his first language altho
>> he later forgot a great deal of his French.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Charles Wohlers <
>> charles.wohlers at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> > We last visited Quebec City about 7 years ago, and didn't encounter
>> anyone
>> > who couldn't speak English. And the English was always quite
>> > understandable. In a previous trip, ten years ago, we only encountered
>> one
>> > person who couldn't speak English - a 10-year old (or so) pumping gas
>> at a
>> > fairly remote gas station near Gaspésie Nat'l. Park.
>> >
>> > All signs, even the menus at Tim Horton's, however, are in French only -
>> > no English, even at Anglophone-owned establishments.
>> >
>> > Chad Wohlers
>> > Woodbury, VT USA
>> > just 40 miles from the Quebec border
>> > chadwohl at satucket.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message----- From: Cantor03--- via Magdalen
>> > Sent: Friday, January 09, 2015 11:59 PM
>> > To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
>> > Subject: [Magdalen] Quebec City.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > I saw a travelogue this evening featuring Quebec City.  The City  was
>> > its usual charming and picturesque self.  This was expected.
>> >
>> > What was not expected was the heavily accented, even broken English
>> > of the dozen or so locals who were interviewed during the course of
>> > the program.
>> >
>> > I know of the tensions between Anglophones and Francophones in  Quebec,
>> > but it was obvious that English doesn't come easily to Quebec natives,
>> if
>> > these
>> > interviewees are typical.
>> >
>> > I have always envisioned Quebec (and really all Canadians) as an
>> > ideal setting for the very early familiarity with both languages
>> producing
>> > a fluent, relatively unaccented French and English bilingual
>> population.
>> >
>> > I appear to have been wrong in this assumption.
>> >
>> >
>> > David S.
>> >
>>
>
>