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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • Once, I was in a sandwich shop in the Netherlands, ordering in English (as I don’t speak Dutch). The fellow behind the counter had excellent English. When he heard my friend and I speak to each other in French, he switched to French, and it was nearly as good as his English.

    That’s a guy working in a sandwich shop, speaking at least three languages rather fluently. Heck, he probably speaks a bit of German too, seeing as we were close to the border with Germany. It blew my mind as a Canadian who’s used to people being stubbornly unilingual.

    Speaking more than one language is so cool. It’s good for your brain, it helps one understand the structure of language better, it opens up doors to new cultures and ideas. I truly don’t understand why so many anglophones (and, if I’m being honest, a good number of francophones in Québec) are so opposed to the idea of bilingualism.

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    Une fois, j’étais dans une shop à sandwich aux Pays-Bas, passant ma commande en anglais (étant donné que je ne parle pas le néerlandais). Le gars derrière le comptoir parlait très bien l’anglais. Quand il a entendu mon amie et moi parler français ensemble, il a changé à un français presque aussi bon que son anglais.

    C’est un gars qui fait des sandwich, qui parle couramment un minimum de trois langues. Crisse, il parle probablement aussi un peu l’allemand vu qu’on était proche de la frontière avec l’Allemagne. Ça m’a ébloui en tant que canadien•ne habitué•e aux gens qui s’entêtent à ne parler qu’une langue.

    Parler plus qu’une langue, c’est tellement cool. C’est bon pour le cerveau, ça t’aide à mieux comprendre les structures de la langue, ça ouvre des portes à de nouvelles idées et cultures. Je ne comprend réellement pas pourquoi tant d’anglophones (et, pour être honnête, un bon nombre de francophones du Québec) sont si opposé•es à l’idée du bilinguisme.


  • The 87-year-old pontiff reportedly made the homophobic remark in a closed-door meeting last week as he told Italian bishops that gay men shouldn’t be allowed to train for the priesthood.

    The newspaper articles, which were translated from Italian, claimed the Pope had said there is “frociaggine” – which translates in English to “faggotry” – in some of the seminaries.

    Francis’ comments were made in the context of proposals from the Italian bishops to amend guidelines on candidates to seminaries.

    “Faggotry in the Seminary” sounds like a Catholic-themed porno movie from the '80s.

    As gross and homophobic as this is, I doubt it cracks the top 1000 worse things the Church has done.


  • It’s not about the tuition (although most of our universities are effectively subsidized by foreign students paying higher tuition fees), it’s about having an easily exploitable labour force while they’re here studying. Less familiarity with labour laws and less protections than a citizen make for attractive wage slaves.

    Of course, the solution isn’t tightening immigration, but the actual solutions might make the wealthy accumulate riches at a slightly slower pace, therefore it is unimaginable.



  • This is great news, it’s frankly embarrassing that it took this long. I know here in New Brunswick, our Conservative government has done the absolute bare minimum to help out hungry kids, of which there are many (30 000 kids live in poverty in NB, and many more probably suffer from some degree of food insecurity.)

    It’s such a no-brainer to invest in this, like even if you’re a heartless neoliberal ultra-capitalist who thinks the poor should suffer, do you not want your future-workforce-in-training to actually absorb their training? Hungry kids don’t learn good.


  • Have you considered the possibility that the majority of people are shitty and/or psychopaths?

    Like most people will hear about companies using child slaves in impoverished countries and the biggest reaction is what, a boycott? Even that’s a minority of people, most just keep on truckin’ as if we don’t live in a disgusting fucked up world.

    When’s the last time you heard about that Apple factory where people were regularly committing suicide? Why does Nestlé still exist despite widespread public knowledge of all the horrible shit they’ve pulled?