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You Don’t Have To Be Fluent In French To Be A Canadien
by Paul on 08/01/10 at 07:28 AM ET
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from Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette,
Under the headline “He shoots, he scores,” Journal columnist Richard Martineau attacked Ted Bird for writing on his Bird’s Eye View blog at ctv. ca that the Canadiens’ Andrei Markov doesn’t need to learn French after recently becoming a Canadian citizen. The blog was followed by some anti-French comments from readers.
Wrote Bird: “It’s like this: Markov pays his taxes in Quebec, but as a National Hockey League player, even in Montreal, he lives and works in overwhelmingly English-speaking circles. He doesn’t need to learn French.
“Yes, it would be a nice courtesy to the provincial majority if he could appear on l’Antichambre and exchange bon mots with les boys, but learning a new language is a substantial undertaking, and Markov has more important things to do in-season and better things to do off-season than sit in a classroom conjugating verbs if he doesn’t want to, which evidently he doesn’t.”
Responded Martineau: “We are not asking Markov to recite by heart the complete works of Moliere, just to be able to get by in French.”
I like Bird, but I have to disagree with him on this one. Markov should make the effort to learn some French, even if it’s just to say “bonjour,” “comment ca va?” and “merci.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Montreal Canadiens | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Andrei+Markov,
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