ƒɛʃɑ ʈɑ ʁɛʊ ʜəʃɑ ʸɛʃɑ ʔɛʃɑ ɛʃɑ ʝɛʃɑ ʔʃɑ ʳɛʃɑ ʸɛʃɑ ʑʝʊ ʔʜʔʔ ʔʔʔ ʔʔ ʔʔʔʔ ʔʔʔ ʕʏʔʔʔ ʔʔʔʔʔʔ ʔʔʔ ʔʔʔ ʔʔ ʔ ʔʔʔ ʔʔ ʔʔʔʔu ʔʔ ʔʔʔʔ ʔʔʔ �
Why did I choose McGill?
Well, first, to study in English, that was something that was very important for me that I wanted to do.
I felt that until I really had studied in this language, in my second language,
that I couldn't really master it until I had studied in this language.
So that's the main reason why I came here also because I love Montreal.
And obviously I love the campus because it is so nice out here.
I'm originally from Quebec City, so I kind of wanted to discover this great city
and to live outside my family house in my hometown.
And I guess also because just McGill's great reputation abroad,
I wanted to go study elsewhere for my masters and made my PhD as well.
So I felt that coming here would give me a good basis, a good training
and a good diploma to show other universities for future studies.
If I would consider myself as a McGill student or a Francophone first,
well, I mean, in general as a human being, I'm a Francophone first.
But on campus, I would say McGill student.
That's what justifies me being here on campus, talking to you or me being in class.
But in general, I would say I'm a Francophone McGill student.
I don't think that one goes against the other.
I think I can be both without any problem.
So yes, outside obviously I would say first I'm a Francophone,
but if I'm here, I'm just a McGill student like every other.
I consider McGill as bilingual. I would say no.
I really consider McGill as an English university, which is why I came here.
So it's a good thing.
But for it to claim that it's bilingual, I wouldn't agree with that.
I think if you want to say that a university is bilingual,
well, I mean, some classes should be taught in French.
But I think that you should be able to go along in your day and speak only French at the cafeteria
or in different services that you need.
And well, that's not really possible.
The Dailies started in 1977 having articles in the McGill Dailies.
But they shared some pages and they were called the McGill Dailies version Française, so French version.
But the whole story started about ten years before that when there was a group of 10,000 people,
10,000 young people that went through the McGill gates.
I think that the story of French
the language and French culture, French Canadian and Quebec culture
at McGill get a kind of take off in the mid-60s
with the famous manifestation McGill-Française in 1968.
That was a crucial moment.
The following one was the passing of law 101.
And I think that from there the reality of French on the campus became quite different.
I'm not sure how much impact we have, but we sure have an influence and a voice on campus.
We are a space where French students can come and talk about the same issues that happened on campus
or around the province or internationally.
The future of Dailies I guess is going towards getting more contributors,
getting more on campus, like no one on campus.
I think we have a lot of faithful readers and faithful editors,
but our existence is sometimes unknown.
I think the state of French at McGill is very good and very bad.
It depends on which levels we're talking about.
I think a lot of students are open to learn French also.
But sometimes we find that the administration might not put the same efforts that some students would.
For example, last year when we did a referendum to ask for one more dollar for both the McGill Dailies and Lodili publications,
we ran into a lot of tension and debate with some students that actually didn't know much that we existed,
that had more issues with the McGill Dailies and their stance.
But still they sort of question why we should have a French paper on campus
because we're an English university, but the question shouldn't be there because we're in Quebec.
What does it mean for you to be a Francophone at McGill?
I'm an engineering, so the Francophone community, the way we sort of deal with it is
that there are separate streams because they come in from Sijap.
Yeah, besides speaking French and being a student of McGill, I don't really know too much about what it means.
I have one Francophone friend and he screams a lot.
Who is it?
Phil.
Phil?
McKench project.
Oh yeah, he does screw up.
I think it's a different social world.
A lot of the Francophones don't live in residence in the first place.
They miss O'Donnell, not miss O, but they have a different like introduction to McGill society.
There were students on the campus from the very beginning.
There were professors in the faculty of law who were responsible for the teaching of French civil law.
And there is an history in itself of the Francophone contribution to the faculty of law.
Those Francophones who taught in law were people associated with the liberal critical tradition in Quebec
who were of protestant denomination.
So there were many ways of having French on the campus, religious, legal, cultural and so on.
But the real take off is after World War II.
Then the pattern of the department of French, for instance, changed and changed up to the mid-60s.
McGill took note of the changes before the famous manifestation of 1968.
Being at McGill since 1972, I was able to compare the situation of French on the campus before and after the passing of law 101 in 1977.
And it's clear for me that after 1977 McGill behaved in a new way, not a radical new way, but for instance,
law 101 made clear that any legal document in Quebec should be in French or in English,
available in both languages.
The activity in the McLennan library, for instance, were more and more bilingual,
and I would say that within ten years any student from UQAM or UFM coming to borrow a book
and talking to a professional librarian at McLennan would find someone speaking French.
My decision to come to McGill was clearly an intention of being exposed to another language,
but mostly I would say to another culture.
And for me, for instance, departmental meetings or faculty meetings learned me to get to the point.
A difference being that when you're between Francophone, for instance,
you would be more evasive, you would be more cultural with more consideration on X or Y.
But at McGill within the Anglophone culture, what is always firstly at stake is under which principle are you talking or behaving.
So you have to have clear ideas and get to the point.
This is more just a language experience.
It's a cultural, it's an intellectual experience and that I really loved.
Well, during my first year, the difficulties I experienced were very basic things
that I did not think about before coming here.
I expected to live some difficulties, but nothing much.
I thought this would be really easy.
But turned out that studying in another language means that all the little things,
the little tools that you have to study are totally different.
Just taking class notes would be longer.
I would have to use new abbreviations when writing notes.
Doing my readings would take me twice the time, mostly during the first semester.
Obviously now, after a year and a half, I'm used to reading in English and speaking English and everything.
But the first semester was really a big adaptation period for the language and for the culture as well.
Because it's different to come here with all these Anglophone students.
It's not the same thing, it's not the same rituals, if I can say.
As in Francophone universities or Francophone schools, it's possible to hear French when you're on campus
and to speak in French on campus with other students.
If there are divisions, I think so.
I don't know if it's something that's being done consciously though.
I think that naturally, if you're a Francophone in an English environment and you hear someone else speak French,
you just naturally go to this person because you share this Francophone thing, the language.
I have some Anglophone friends as well.
I mean, it's not one side of the campus for Francophone and the other for Anglophone.
I think it's just something that's done pretty much unconsciously.
What did I choose, Miguel?
Actually, I don't fully remember why I chose Miguel because the first time that I heard about Miguel was when I was in high school.
There's some Miguel students that came to make a presentation to us.
And I was very impressed by the way that they were presenting the school,
by the way that they were presenting the programs, the teachers and everything.
I would say that French has a good place, like I just said.
But I don't think that you could say that Miguel is a bilingual school in itself.
But I don't think that there's any specific problems with regards to Francophones being at Miguel.
The only important issue that would probably present itself is the fact that there's historical tensions between Anglophones in Canada and Francophones in mostly Quebec.
But I think in general people don't see it as a very pressing issue or something that takes such a big part in their life at Miguel on campus when they're in class.
I feel like it's not always easy to integrate because it seems like a lot of the events are more focused towards Anglophones.
But I have one friend, Mary-Lise, this microphone.
And it seems like in general it's more difficult but it seems like there's still a little bit of integration.
Probably a lot of kids come in from Seja after they have all of their friends and there's that sort of, I guess, friendship inertia, if you will.
And it's tough to sort of break through that.
Most of my friends at Miguel are Anglophones, but from Seja I've got my Francophone friends.
So I feel like I would point, do you remember my 19th birthday?
I tried to bring up together my French friends and my English friends and it was kind of a mess because no one could really understand each other.
Yeah, it was kind of a failure again, but not for me because I knew both, but I feel like it was difficult for the two sides to merge.
But generally I think I would tend to say that there is a linguistic division between on-campus.
But it doesn't, I don't think it makes it really, I don't think it's a negative thing if there's a division.
There's a division because people tend to be more confident in having their people in the same background as them, so that's one fine.
So at some point you will have to face the other group and you will have to talk and you will have to debate with them.
So there's a division, but I don't think it's negative, I don't think it's bad, it just happens.
The reaction of my friends and family, well non-Miguel people when I say I studied in Miguel, I think,
I first get a feeling of admiration if I can say, just like oh wow impressive you're studying in Miguel.
Just because Miguel has such a good reputation and I think some of them are kind of proud,
at least my parents are proud that I'm able to come here and study in English and do well anyway.
So I think there's this pride that my parents have about this.
It's a general thing in families when you go outside and you tell your family that you go to Miguel,
people tend to generally see you as being something very prestigious, people say oh you go to Miguel
and they tend to put, I feel like they tend to put Miguel apart from other universities.
That's one thing that I feel like.
Some people might feel a bit frisky if I might say when you say that you go to an Anglophone institution
that has a big history of being kind of elite-centered in the past.
Sometimes I do have the feeling that people kind of put me in a different section,
oh you're this kind of person who goes away and studies in English and doesn't speak French anymore,
doesn't want to speak French, which is absolutely not true.
I said I wanted to come to Miguel to study in English, but ironically I'm involved in everything
that touches the French language and Quebec culture.
So I'm doing a minor in Quebec studies, I'm also involved in the commission on Francophone affairs
and I sometimes write some articles for Le Delis, so the Miguel French newspaper.
So I guess yes, I have this desire to kind of stay in touch with something that's more familiar to me,
something that is easier for me too, because it's obviously easier for me to take class in French
compared to class in English.
In every classes you have the possibility to write your examinations in French,
you can hand in your papers or your homeworks in French,
and so that's one thing that's really good about the state of French in Miguel I think.
It's giving the opportunity to Francophones to make some kind of good transition between
a Francophone background and then an Anglophone school.
And also I think there's pretty good services in Miguel that are both bilingual.
It happened to me often actually that I went to the administration for various reasons
and it happened quite often that I was served either in English or in French.
So most of the time the people were either Quebecers or Francophones in origin
or they were Anglophones in origin and learned French while they were working in Miguel.
So I think that the French has a pretty good place right now in Miguel.
Francophones as well as Anglophones if they want to take advantage of that right
have the opportunity to write assignments, midterms, final exams,
basically all written work in French
and this is part of the charter of student rights
and we are there to just make sure that this clause of the charter is respected.
We have our social or cultural counterpart.
We organize different panels on language politics for example.
That's what we've done in the past.
Organize different things, different activities
so that we can get Anglophones to discover Francophone and Quebec culture.
I would say when you look at the stats for example,
in 1985 for example there were more than 25% of the students at Miguel
who could speak French as their mother tongue
and today we're at 17.5%
and we see quite a decline, a kind of significant decline from years to years.
I don't know what it's going to look like in a couple of years from now.
Probably we'll have more and more to do if our situation is more and more marginal.
So we'll have to just fight more for what we already have
and just make sure that what we've acquired is going to stay
so that we keep our rights, so that we sustain this right
that we have to submit all written work in French.
Right now we are working on a clause that we want the small executives to vote on.
That's pertaining to the expansion of the translation services.
So right now everything that has to do with internal things
like things that are particular to SMOO,
so in that I mean that all SMOO services such as queer Miguel for example
or just services that are offered by the SMOO,
we want them to have access to a translation service that's free
and that's really efficient.
I think it's a problem that the university has stopped
to sponsor French courses for the international students.
That was really a good thing so that they could engage with Quebec culture more
but unfortunately the university has stopped to do that
and there is not much that we can do about this unfortunately.
So I find it a problem and I think that
and I hope that's going to be different in the future.
Is Miguel bilingual?
No, it's English.
Just simply because of the huge international population here.
And the downtown area itself is sort of like the city of English
if you look at the larger picture in Quebec which is mostly French
but here if you meet someone you say hello initially you'll say it in English
because you don't know where they're from,
you won't allow me to speak if they speak French or not
so it's definitely English not that bilingual.
Yeah I would say that definitely on campus and around the campus
it's definitely more Anglophone
but there is a mix that makes it
you know Miguel is really a mix of English and French
and that's what makes it special in a way.
I did a job where I met a lot of French friends
I do speak a little French but it's kind of a little bit of a barrier
developing any personal relationship with people
because I can speak workable French sometimes
I could last summer and they could speak workable English
but having intelligent back and forth conversations is not the easiest.
I might say that most people forget how many Francophones are here
because people speak English really well
so you'll just speak to them in English and then they respond French
and you're like oh you're also from Quebec.
That was a pleasant surprise.
I didn't know much about Montreal before I came
but I also haven't found that I had used French yet very often
because it's a very bilingual city.
French speaking students coming to Miguel
they're not necessarily here to fight for a Miguel français
they will exercise their rights on the campus
but they're here to learn something
if for instance for various reasons
University of Ottawa made bilingual as his trademark
one would argue that Miguel should be as if not more bilingual
than University of Ottawa
there are many good reasons to do that
and I think that Miguel is conscious of that
I'm sure it's going that way
even as I told you if Miguel is doing
is fighting his own fight in terms of university organization
within the university system in Quebec
Miguel might want to do things its way
I think that Miguel has a right to challenge the system
to propose something and sometimes to force
the Quebec university system to adapt and improve its nature
if the Miguel administration is to blame for the current state of French
I guess so
I think there could be a greater effort to promote French
I understand that Miguel administration doesn't want to put French proficiency
as an admissibility criterion for students
that's obvious they don't want to decrease the incentives
of other students to come here if they don't speak French
however I think that they should really encourage people
that are here to take part in the learning of French
and the French culture and they're here
and why not take one class of French of Quebec history
just to know what's going on around you
because students will be here for minimum three years
four years and maybe more
so I think the administration could encourage students
make it easier for students
and to be fair I have to say a lot of students that I've met
Anglophone students have manifested their interest
in learning French, practicing French
a lot of people from Canada have been through the immersion program
and they say oh I've learned French
I want to practice French here in Montreal
but it's obviously very difficult when you're on Miguel campus
it's very easy to go on without French
so I think that the administration could help these people
help these students make it easier for them to learn French
take a French class that for example doesn't count in your GPA
or take a history class as an elective
even if it's not in your program
something like this
in order to change the misperceptions
between Francophones and Anglophones
because I think there are misperceptions on both sides
I think first us Francophones
we have kind of a responsibility to come here
and speak French with people
and kind of be open to people who don't speak perfectly
the French language but who want to try
I think that Miguel really respects the fact that
Francophone people come to Miguel
and that Miguel is in a city
where the majority of the people are Francophones
they do respect this
now I don't know if Miguel should try to implement
more policies that would favor or protect the French language in Miguel
I really don't know if they should
I think I know that right now
where I feel like right now things are going well
things are not negative
things are not dualistic
things are just very smooth
so I just think that in general
if Anglophone people
if people that come to Miguel
they want to learn French
then it's up to them
they should try to do it themselves
there's some good services
there's some good French classes
there's some good opportunities for them to learn it
I usually know a lot of kids from like
you know all over the world
but I also know a few Quebecois
I know Italians so there's like a little way
you can get around that
but if I find there's a bit of a difference
you see like French kids from France
we'll chill a lot together
and you'll see kids from like large cities
like Toronto kids all chill with each other
but everyone sort of makes this
there definitely is kind of a segregation
between French cliques and English cliques
and if you don't speak the other language quite well
then it's kind of like intermix
but if you have the privilege of being bilingual
then you can navigate between the two
it's always you start a sentence in English
you finish in French
we call it franglais here
and I do have Anglophone friends as well
but yeah I tend to hang out a lot with Anglophones
sometimes it can get kind of
kind of say weird
especially for Anglophones that hear us
and don't understand half what we say
we don't like realize it
because we speak both
but I do have a friend who is an international student
and she gets kind of you know
uncomfortable when she's near us
because she's like I don't understand what you say half the time
so you know it's sort of
it is a barrier but
in terms of that whole English-French mix
I would say that it only happens around campus
I don't really feel Francophone
I just have the ability to speak French
so I can reach out and make Francophone friends
you know integrate into the community if you want
what does it mean to be Francophone at McGill
that is a very good question
I'm still trying to figure this out I think
being a Francophone is
well at first I think this is a perfect example
me being a Francophone
speaking English to you
who is a Francophone as well
on this documentary that
is about being a Francophone
I think it's this kind of
contradiction of us speaking French
but wanting to speak English
and wanting to fit in this Anglophone culture
but not wanting to
to leave
our French language
and our French culture
not do one at the expense of the other
some people might
identify themselves more in terms of their
linguistic background
they would say like oh I'm a Quebecer
or I'm a French
I come from Cameroon
but I personally
would identify myself from
from McGill rather than saying anything else
if someone would ask me specifically
where I came from then I would say it obviously
but yeah on campus yeah definitely
it's very interesting to be a Francophone at McGill
because of all these little differences
all these things that you discover about
the English culture
the English language
and people also from everywhere else
who speak English
not as their mother tongue
but just as a way of communicating with us
so it makes it
it makes the McGill experience very interesting
I think to be a Francophone.
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