Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
The difference is that North America is a sea of English, as is also the case in Australia and New Zealand. Other parts of the world are entirely different with no linguistic group being so dominant over such a wide area. Because of the degree of interaction with other linguistic groups, more people naturally learn other languages.
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Puh-leese. Ottawa abuts a French-speaking city that's one third of its size. One-third of Ottawa's metro is French-speaking. Ottawa is right across the river from a mainly French-speaking province of 8 million people. It's the second-most populated province in the country, with the second-biggest city which happens to be the closest "big city" to Ottawa. French is also an official language of the country and an important job requirement for Ottawa's main employer. A good chunk of Ottawa's population (way more than the 10-15% that are francophone according to the stats) have French Canadian roots even if the language has been lost or lapsed. French is also not some obscure language, it's one of the world's most widely spoken languages. Arguably it's the most widely spoken lingua franca in the world after English.
Those are pretty good motivators in favour of learning French if you're a non-francophone in Ottawa. (The motivators for learning English in many parts of the world are likely less compelling than those for learning French in Ottawa.)
The problem is in people's heads and hearts.