Statistics Canada this week released data from the 2021 census on languages spoken at home across the country. We note that French is used less and less, not only in Canada, but in Quebec as well. This decline is terribly worrying. Beyond the measures that must be taken to protect our language, it is up to each Francophone to commit to promoting it, before we are full assimilated.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Having said that, allow me, this morning, to go elsewhere. If the Statistics Canada report tells us that people speak French to each other less, it does not tell us that people speak to each other less, period. It doesn’t matter which language you choose. However, we find that this is the case. And I would like to have figures to confirm the theory here…
The human no longer speaks as much as before. As proof, for a century, the telephone was an object for talking to each other, today it is an object for writing, for listening, for watching, for buying. Exceptionally for conversing with the mouth. But not too long.
It’s the mantra of our days: write and watch. the small talk or, if you prefer, the little chat, the chat, is no longer practiced, we settle it by text messages. How are you ? What are you doing ? Did you eat ? I’m tired. I like you. Kisses. Kisses. No need to stop everything for these daily conversations. Moreover, we can small talker with several people at the same time. What would have taken up an hour of our day is resolved in five minutes.
When you have something important to say to someone, what do you do? An email. A long email. This allows us to explain our point of view well without being interrupted. Because that’s what boredom with speaking requires listening, attention, availability. Whereas with writing, everything happens when it suits us. Someone asks us how you are at 9 a.m., we answer him “good, and you? ” at 17 o’clock. We are not taken hostage as in a verbal exchange.
When the correspondent is heavy, it is ghost, that’s all. No more wasted time listening to the jeremiads of an acquaintance whose fate hardly interests us. And when, unfortunately, we are caught in this situation, we always prioritize the word in blue or green that we receive.
We share our joys and worries in a Facebook status. And when we see something really big, we send a picture, it’s worth a thousand words!
The mother tongue at home is no longer used in the same way. Each member of the family has their headphones on and lives in their own world. Of course, they sometimes watch Netflix together, but before, when we watched good old TV in gangs, there were ads to talk to each other, whereas now, we can binge Stranger Things side by side for 10 hours without uttering a single syllable.
Before, we listened to the radio in the kitchen. She was playing for everyone, at the same time. We bounced between us on the words of Arcand, Ron or Christiane. Today, everyone listens to his podcast. If one spouse is at the second episode and the other is already at the sixth, it is important not to talk to him about it. Honey, don’t say anything!
In the past, we went to cafes to meet people, now we go there for WiFi. Instead of conversing with the person at the next table, we pussy with another person, in a café on the street next door, who is also surrounded by people with whom she does not speak.
On TikTok, we make sounds, but it’s never very long. In our stories, we talk on the kodak to join our thousands of friends. It’s more profitable.
In short, we are saving our saliva like never before in history. And with the metaverse, that’s not about to change. In the next census, this question will have to be added: “How many minutes do you speak per day?” The trend will be downward regardless of the language.
Too bad, because it’s still nice to talk. It’s not me who’s going to devalue writing, on the contrary, but there’s a moment for everything. And everyday life leads to speaking. There is a vibration in verbal conversation that resonates in the heart. The sound of the voice often says more than the words spoken. And that’s what we lose in the messages; we have the text, but we don’t have the song. We can add all the emojis we want, it lacks emotions.
I know it’s hot today there to get the hang of it, but with a good beer, we’re eight billion, we have to talk to each other!