法语之争在加拿大继续发酵

Canada has two official languages – English and French. But recent events in Canada have caused a new debate over whether French speakers face discrimination.

加拿大有两种官方语言--英语和法语。但是最近在法国发生的事情引发了关于说法语人士是否面临歧视的新辩论。

Canada's largest railway company, CN, is based in Montreal. The city is in the province of Quebec, where 95 percent of the population speaks French. However, none of CN's recently named nominees¹ for its corporate² board are native French speakers. After public anger, the company said it plans to search for a French-speaking board member in the coming months.

加拿大最大的铁路公司--加拿大国家铁路公司位于蒙特利尔。该市位于魁北克省，当地95%的人口说法语。但是，加拿大国家铁路公司最近的公司董事会提名人中没有一个说法语。在引发公众愤怒之后，该公司称计划在未来几个月内寻找一名讲法语的董事会成员。

The question of whether Canadian business leaders should be bilingual in French and English began receiving attention last November. The attention came after comments made by Air Canada President Michael Rousseau. Rousseau said he did not have the time to learn French. The airline leader later publicly apologized for what he said.

加拿大商业领袖是否应该使用英法双语的问题在去年11月开始受到关注。加拿大航空公司总裁迈克尔·卢梭发表言论后引发了关注。卢梭说他没有时间学法语。这位航空公司负责人后来为这番言论公开道歉。

Canadian law requires state-owned companies like CN and Air Canada to provide services in both English and French. The same is true for places like airports and government ministries³.

加拿大法律要求加拿大国家铁路公司和加拿大航空公司等国有企业提供英语和法语服务。机场和政府部门等地也是如此。

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is bilingual. He said this week he was concerned about the lack of French speakers on CN's board.

加拿大总理贾斯汀·特鲁多会说双语。他本周表示，他对加拿大国家铁路公司没人会说法语感到担心。

"French-speaking Canadians across the country should see themselves reflected in our major national institutions," Trudeau said.

特鲁多表示：“全国各地讲法语的加拿大人应当看到自己体现在我们国家的主要机构中。”

Of Canada's 37 million people, only 8 million speak French. The Canadian constitution in 1982 officially protected the French language as an official language. But the recent happenings have reminded people of the continued fight to support the language.

在加拿大3700万人口中，只有800万人说法语。加拿大宪法在1982年正式保护法语作为官方语言。但最近发生的事情让人们想起了支持这种语言的持续斗争。

A recent public opinion study found that over 90 percent of Canadians support bilingualism as part of Canada's culture. However, only 20 percent of the population can speak both French and English.

最近的一项民意调查发现，90%以上的加拿大人支持将双语作为加拿大文化的一部分。然而，只有20%的人口会说法语和英语。

Stephane Beaulac is a law professor and co-director of the University of Montreal's National Observatory⁴ of Linguistic⁵ Rights. He said that, in the past, supporting the use of French meant to be in favor of the separation of Quebec from Canada. Quebec is a mostly French-speaking province in Canada.

斯蒂芬尼·博拉克是一名法学教授，也是蒙特利尔大学国家语言权利观察站的联合主任。他说，过去支持使用法语意味着支持魁北克和加拿大的分裂。魁北克是加拿大主要讲法语的省份。

"Things have changed today," Beaulac said, "so people are more daring to challenge the domination of English."

博拉克表示：“如今情况发生了变化，所以人们更敢于挑战英语的统治地位。”

Some Canadians criticized Trudeau's decision last year to not choose a French speaker as Canada's governor general. The position serves as Queen Elizabeth II's official representative in the country. Instead, Trudeau appointed an Indigenous⁶ Canadian, Mary Simon, to the position. She is from Nunavik in northern Quebec. She speaks English and an Inuit language, but not French.

一些加拿大人批评特鲁多决定不选一位说法语的人士担任加拿大总督。该职位是英国女王伊丽莎白二世在该国的官方代表。相反，特鲁多任命了加拿大原住民玛丽·西蒙担任该职务。她来自魁北克省北部的努纳维克。她会说英语和因纽特语，但是不会说法语。

This Prime Minister's office also recently faced criticism from the Canada Commissioner⁷ of Official Languages. The criticism came because the Prime Minister's office does not have French subtitles⁸ in all videos on their social media page.

加拿大总理办公室最近还面临加拿大官方语言专员的批评。批评是因为总理办公室的社交媒体页面上所有视频都没有法语字幕。

Stephanie Chouinard is a political science professor at the Royal Military College of Canada. She said, "Everyone must be able to be served in their preferred language since few Canadians are truly bilingual."

史蒂芬妮·乔伊纳德是加拿大皇家军事学院的政治学教授。她说：“每个人都必须能够以他们喜欢的语言获得服务，因为很少有加拿大人真会说双语。”

1 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

2 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

3 ministries   

（政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期

参考例句：

• Local authorities must refer everything to the central ministries. 地方管理机构应请示中央主管部门。
• The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third. 部委的数量已经减少了1/3。

4 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

5 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

6 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

7 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

8 subtitles   

n.说明字幕，印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕，译文对白字幕；小标题，副标题( subtitle的名词复数 )；（电影的）字幕

参考例句：

• subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
• a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片