Barrel Strength

Still think that they are the poor oppressed victims of history, so they have the right to be bigots and assholes.

MONTREAL – At least now he knows how to say “Quelle heure est-il?”

Muhammad Ahmad Munir, a master’s student from Pakistan studying at McGill University, was kicked off the No. 66 bus at 6:45 Friday morning after he asked the driver what the time was in English.

“I got on the bus and I didn’t have a watch, so I asked the driver for the time,” he said. “She started talking in French and I didn’t understand what she was saying.”

The 32-year-old native of Islamabad came to Montreal a few months ago to enroll in a master’s degree program in Islamic studies at McGill.

After twice telling the bus driver he didn’t understand French, she responded in English, saying: “I don’t speak English.”

“I then told her that she just showed me that she does speak English, and that’s when she really got angry.”

The police were called, the passengers forced off, and more.

I was told recently of German tourists in Ayer’s Cliff, Quebec who were  loudly told off and followed out of the shop into tthe street by an irate Quebecoise who was offended they had asked for bread in her bakery <gasp!> in English!!

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!” – Robert Burns

Quebec’s language legislation, which tells the Quebecois they have the right – the legal right - to work exlusively in French – has created a vast sheltered workshop. Occasionally it takes a foreigner unaccustomed to this folly hold up the mirror to them. As friend once said, why is it that shopkeepers in Ramallah (or Bangkok) can express themselves  in English better than most Quebecois?

This entry is about learning and teaching. In an earlier posting I ranted about how no one actually knows how to do anything practical anymore, such as observe the problem, reframe it if necessary, and solve it.  Today’s sermon is taken from recent experiences with the people mentioned in the title to this posting.

I have three kids of my own, two step-children by a recent marriage, aged 18 and 26, and a son-in-law, aged 41.

There comes a time when the young ones are ready to learn. Once upon a time, it might have been when they were twelve or thirteen; now with advances in technology and the extension of schooling, it seems to come after they have turned twenty five.

Three cases in point:

Read the rest…