English Lessons

OTTAWA — The head of Library and Archives Canada has landed in agua caliente — hot water — after billing taxpayers almost $4,500 for personal Spanish lessons. Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore says he intends to speak “very soon” to Daniel Caron about the inappropriate spending. And judging from Moore’s clipped responses in the House of Commons, the conversation won’t be a pleasant one.

Messy weather is on the way just in time for the GTA’s morning commute: Environment Canada has issued a freezing rain warning for Toronto and a spate of freezing rain and winter storm warnings covering the entirety of southern Ontario.

OTTAWA — The office of International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino twice issued a directive that all communication with his signature be in English only, even if the recipient was French-speaking. Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser has agreed to look into the matter after a complaint from the New Democrats, who argue the order may violate the Official Languages Act. The legislation guarantees the right of federal employees to work in their own language.

QUEBEC — The Quebec government has introduced a new initiative that encourages cabinet ministers to speak only French to their counterparts from other provinces and Ottawa. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Alexandre Cloutier says the change is only a guideline, not a restriction. Cloutier says the French-only guideline refers to exchanges by Quebec cabinet and deputy ministers during ministerial meetings.

Gabriel Power, a loyal MR reader, asks: What works really ought to be read in their original language? Does this suggest classesor types that are best read in the original? Does it suggest that some languages are poorly translated into English while others are well translated (indeed, possibly improved upon, e.g. Poe into French)? Why?

Learning a foreign language, if you’ve ever tried, is really hard. Meanwhile, it’s clearly also important for people living in the United States of America to do their best to learn to speak and read standard American English. But this takes hard work. Sonia Sotomayor, like many Americans, was born into a Spanish-dominant family. But she worked hard, learned English, went to Princeton, then Yale Law School, then had a successful career as a lawyer, as a District Court judge, as an Appeals Court judge, and now as a Justice of the Supreme Court.

A bit of an aside in some commentary on Avatar “It is also worth repeating the observation that humans in American science fiction films almost always seem to be English speaking white-folk.”

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