It was just this week that I learned the reality of heritage languages: in Canada, only half of second generation Canadians will retain it. According to Stat Canada’s 2008 survey, only 55% of us 5,702,700 second generation Canadians nationally defined as children with at least one immigrant parent will preserve their mother tongue. Although this might be an improvement from the 41% in 1981, the future doesn’t seem too bright. Compared to our neighbours the United States, Canada plays a major support to multiculturalism and heritage languages. According to the Canadian government, a heritage language is one other than the official languages of Canada that contributes to the linguistic heritage of Canada. The government promotes culture, funds
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Living in any country with an official language, it is obvious that schools will require students to learn in that language and it becomes the norm for everyone to use it, even if their classmates also speak their heritage language. Using their mother tongue is often limited to conversations with family members and going to stores of your culture. Their mother tongue may seem to be valueless to them. What are the results from that? Students become far more comfortable with the host’s language rather than their own mother tongue because of the more frequent use. They could have been raised with that language, forced to speak with family in that language, even their first words could have been in that language, but how comfortable they are cannot compare to the language they write and speak in …show more content…
Despite an official Act and community support, languages are still suffering from the pressures of learning English or French. But in exchange for Canada’s official language, they are giving up their own language because of resisting to learn but more seriously, the pressure given by society. Canada has always focused on supporting education when the main issue lies within the feeling of belonging. Canada has the potential to sustain foreign languages but the supportive public has just been looking in the wrong direction and using the wrong tactics all
Living in any country with an official language, it is obvious that schools will require students to learn in that language and it becomes the norm for everyone to use it, even if their classmates also speak their heritage language. Using their mother tongue is often limited to conversations with family members and going to stores of your culture. Their mother tongue may seem to be valueless to them. What are the results from that? Students become far more comfortable with the host’s language rather than their own mother tongue because of the more frequent use. They could have been raised with that language, forced to speak with family in that language, even their first words could have been in that language, but how comfortable they are cannot compare to the language they write and speak in …show more content…
Despite an official Act and community support, languages are still suffering from the pressures of learning English or French. But in exchange for Canada’s official language, they are giving up their own language because of resisting to learn but more seriously, the pressure given by society. Canada has always focused on supporting education when the main issue lies within the feeling of belonging. Canada has the potential to sustain foreign languages but the supportive public has just been looking in the wrong direction and using the wrong tactics all