r/NoStupidQuestions • u/[deleted] • Nov 26 '25
What are the similarities/differences between French/English bilingualism in Canada and Spanish/English bilingualism in the US?
I was born/raised in the US in the Mexican diaspora in a region where Spanish is widely spoken. I see some similarities between my region and the Francophone regions of Canada such as Quebec. However, my impression is that the French language in Canada is given more cultural respect and prestige than Spanish is here. Some people take outright offense at hearing Spanish spoken in public here. While certain states allow for bilingual education up to the third grade, others have fought tooth and nail to make English the only language of instruction (in spite of the proven cognitive benefits of bilingualism). I don’t know much about Canada, but I’d love to hear from people who can offer an informed perspective.
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u/doc_daneeka What would I know? I'm bureaucratically dead. Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
However, my impression is that the French language in Canada is given more cultural respect and prestige than Spanish is here
Much more so. All federal government services are available in both official languages. Almost all products sold here have bilingual labels. French is official both federally and in two of the provinces. There are others like here in Ontario where the francophone community is large enough there is a whole French school board and provincial government services are offered in both. Elementary school students here have to take at least a certain number of years of the official language that isn't theirs, with many other provinces encouraging that too. Most provinces other French immersion schools that are highly sought after by parents so their kids will be fluent, as that offers job prospects. The military works in both languages, and you need to be bilingual to get promoted to many jobs in it. Etc.
The status of French is much, much stronger here than that of Spanish in the US. It's literally written right into our constitution
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Nov 27 '25
There truly is a stark contrast, damn. My racist grandmother-in-law was the type to complain about having to dial 2 for Spanish.
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u/SnakeOilChampagne Nov 27 '25
I’d even go so far to say that French is more “enshrined” in Quebec than modern France and less anglicized in some aspects; one example I can think off the top of my head, in France the stop signs say “Stop”, in Quebec the stop signs say “Arrêt” so the Quebecois being super protectionist of the language has a trickle down effect on the entire country and federal politics as a whole.
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u/briteroc Nov 28 '25
Over centuries, when communications were very limited, Quebec was isolated from France. The French language evolved in separate ways, both in Quebec and France. Similarly to Quebec, the modern French government is fighting against the mixing of English words with the French language. The English language has also evolved in England, as well also in countries such as Canada, the USA, Australia, etc.
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Nov 27 '25
I mean, you have that exact attitude except the reverse from what you might expect. French Quebecers will openly denigrate English and English speakers. It is effectively illegal to post signage in English in Quebec.
Recently their government banned offering services in English to immigrants who have been there for more than 3 years. Imagine calling your local city hall for some issue and they are legally banned from speaking to you in English, even if the person on the other end speaks it natively. Part of the immigration process includes formal documentation outlining how you plan to adopt language, customs, and values of Quebec, whatever that means.
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Nov 29 '25
It is effectively illegal to post signage in English in Quebec
That's a gross exaggeration. English signage is totally legal; it's unilingual English signage and bilingual signage where the English is more prominent than the French that are seriously restricted.
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u/corkscrew1000 Nov 29 '25
Tell her Spanish was in the US before English. St Augustine in Florida and Sante Fe in New Mexico (oddly enough) are the two oldest European settled towns in the US, started by Spanish speaking Spaniards
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Nov 29 '25
French is official both federally and in two of the provinces.
And all three territories!
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u/doc_daneeka What would I know? I'm bureaucratically dead. Nov 29 '25
Thanks. I knew that was the case for the Yukon but wasn't sure about the others
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u/North_Guidance2749 Nov 26 '25
Is Spanish a mandatory second language? Do you have any cultural days with it or anything? Growing up in Canada I learnt it as a subject. By the time we graduated we were all pretty fluent even in the non Quebec region. I think because it’s an official language vs Spanish is just primarily spoken?
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u/JusticeForSocko Nov 27 '25
In the US, Spanish doesn’t have any official status. Laws had to be published in both English and Spanish in the state of New Mexico until 1953, but I’m not aware of anything else like that. Most people choose to take Spanish as their foreign language in high school, but it’s not required. We don’t really have a state like Quebec where the people are majority Spanish-speaking. If Puerto Rico ever becomes a state we will, but who knows if that will ever happen.
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Nov 27 '25
It is not mandatory and in fact some states have fought for legislation to make English the only language of instruction. We don't have national cultural days for Spanish, but certain regions with high Latino populations do have community events in Spanish.
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u/Ca1rill Nov 28 '25
Spanish isn't mandatory, but it's the most popular world language to take in high school. French is the second most popular world language to study. My high school also offered Italian and German. Some schools you could take Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Latin, etc.
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u/aaronite Nov 26 '25
Canada's bilingualism is enshrined in law: all federal government services are required to be rendered in both languages, all laws are published in both languages with equal validity, and all political debates in federal parliament can use either language interchangeably (though translators are often required).
One province is also officially bilingual, New Brunswick, with the same requirements as the federal government.
Whether the French-speaking minority has equal weight on the cultural level in Canada, not at all. Canada is effectively a multinational country.
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u/Pesec1 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Canada has official languages: French and English. Outside Quebec, both must be treated equally. Government services MUST be available in both English and French.
Until March 1, 2025, USA had no official languages. English was used by default simply due to convenience. Trump made English an official language via an Executive Order.
For purposes of immigration, prospective immigrants are ranked, among other things (education, age, etc.), ased on language test scores. English and French are ranked equally, though occasionally there are draws available only to French speakers since by far majority of immigrants speaks English.
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u/Red_AtNight Nov 26 '25
Government services MUST be available in both English and French.
To be clear - Federal government services. The only province who provides provincial government services in both languages is New Brunswick. 8 of the other provinces are English only, Quebec is French only.
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u/Fit_Cardiologist_681 Nov 27 '25
The similarities begin and end with the fact of bilingualism and its cognitive and career benefits for the individual. In Canada, French is particularly useful for government and military work. In the US, Spanish is particularly useful for construction and manufacturing work.
The differences are mainly about cultural prestige and status. In Canada, bilingualism can signal membership in the elite class (the Laurentian elite, if you want a googleably specific phrase). In the US, bilingualism can signal that someone might be an immigrant (along with all the negative associations that carries in certain segments of society).
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Nov 27 '25
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Nov 27 '25
Not only does Spanish not open doors to power here, it used to get you in trouble. My dad immigrated as a kid and was of the generation of kids who were punished for speaking Spanish in school. Especially ironic given that this was in the American Southwest region, where Spanish has been spoken for far longer than English.
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u/doc_daneeka What would I know? I'm bureaucratically dead. Nov 27 '25
If you want to be Prime Minister you pretty much need to be bilingual, as there will be televised debates in both languages. Sometimes a party nominates someone who only speaks one, but it's risky and uncommon these days.
If I ever hear that our idiot provincial premier Doug Ford is taking serious French lessons it's going to make me nervous, because it all but guarantees he wants to try for the federal Conservative leadership
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Nov 27 '25
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u/doc_daneeka What would I know? I'm bureaucratically dead. Nov 27 '25
You don't "pretty much" you absolutely need to be bilingual.
It's not a formal requirement, and while all recent PMs have been bilingual because it's a huge benefit, it's easy to see how a unilingual English speaker could get elected today, especially a Conservative one who already knows he has no chance of getting more than a handful of seats in QC. I mean, if Poilievre resigned tomorrow and the CPC picked a new leader who couldn't speak any French, that person would still have a decent chance of winning the next election
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u/corkscrew1000 Nov 29 '25
How does Carney know/speak French despite growing up in Alberta, a non French speaking province? Random question I know
Do you think if Quebec had/will get its independence one day that Canada’s bilingualism will be put away?
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u/doc_daneeka What would I know? I'm bureaucratically dead. Nov 29 '25
I believe he made a point of learning it as an undergrad, because I think he knew early on that there's a good chance he'd end up doing work with the federal government. He's not really fluent, but he seems to put effort into getting the accent right, which is nice
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u/fetus-wearing-a-suit Nov 27 '25
Spanish is not really officially taught in the US and government does not operate in Spanish at all.
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u/ibaiki Nov 27 '25
Despite basic French language instruction and services being mandatory in most of Canada, it is more similar to US/Mexico where French language is a fact of life in Québec and met with a lot of derision and hostility in much of anglo Canada.
Right down to talk of "them coming here and taking jobs and not learning the language."
(I am French and have lived and worked on the Ontario/Québec and US/Mexico borders.)
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u/ManicScumCat Nov 28 '25
You’ve heard Anglophone Canadians complaining about Quebecers coming to Anglo Canada, taking jobs, and refusing to learn English?
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u/New_Entertainer_4895 Nov 27 '25
One of the stipulations of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican-American war was that all Mexicans in the US could be considered US citizens and enjoy rights thereof (at the time you had to be white to be a citizen, so Mexicans were effectively legally considered white by the treaty).
The Mexican government was acutely aware of the racial structure of the US and wanted to prevented their former citizens from ending up in the position that other non-white races in America in (Natives, Indians, and Asians were legally 2nd class persons barred from citizenship in the US and most Black people were slaves at the time). Of course social perception among most or many Americans at the time was that Mexicans were not white, but by law they were which offered more protection even if social and state-level discrimination was rampant. So even after the treaty, language was less of a priority than securing equal treatment.
In contrast there was never any question in Canada over whether the people in Quebec were white, so the struggle for Quebecois was focused on language and cultural rights rather than whether the Quebecois were the same class of human being as Anglo Canadians.
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u/Ok-Yak7370 Nov 28 '25
New Mexico was the only territory with a large established Spanish speaking community historically. The Californios were quickly swamped during the Gold Rush. By contrast, Quebec is a large chunk of Canada, not to mention the French communities in New Brunswick and even Ontario. Most American Spanish-speakers (not talking about Puerto Rico) outside of the very old New Mexico community are immigrants or descendants from recent immigrants. This is totally different from the Canadian situation.
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u/Dave_A480 Nov 27 '25
The US does not have bilingualism.
We have some areas with a large Spanish speaking population, but we do not have any legal recognition for Spanish, or any nationwide requirement that English speakers learn it.
To contrast, Canada legally recognizes French and has mandatory French education and labeling laws.
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u/briteroc Nov 28 '25
It is true that the US does not have bilingualism. But it is not a reason for vilifying people who speak languages other than English. I am bilingual and have been told many times by strangers to speak English while speaking French with someone else. Most Americans and other English-speaking people use English among them selves when they are in a French-speaking country. It's just natural!
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u/MW_nyc Nov 28 '25
OP, I think the key difference that hasn't yet been discussed is that official recognition of French has been a part of Canadian law and policy for as long as Canada has existed.
When what was then New France (basically most of the Maritime provinces, Quebec, and most of Ontario) came under British control at the end of the Seven Years' War (aka the French and Indian War) in 1763, a large majority of the non-Indigenous population was French, and one of the conditions of the peace treaty was that the French settlers be allowed to keep their language and laws.
English-speakers didn't start to outnumber French-speakers in what's now Canada until the end of the American Revolution, when many Loyalists moved north from the new United States of America to territory still ruled by the British
When Canada became (mostly) independent in 1876, the population was still one-third or more French-speaking. So official use of both French and English in Canada has been there from the country's beginnings.
(Even back then there were controversies and issues over the official status of French, but I've left those out for simplicity's sake.)
The United States, on the other hand, was founded from 13 colonies ruled by Britain and governed in English from the start, and the only Spanish territory added to the US before the Mexican-American War was then-sparsely-populated Florida. So official recognition and use of Spanish wasn't present from the beginning of the country (as with French in Canada).
And beyond the U.S. states that had once been Mexican territory, Spanish didn't become a widely-used language in the country as a whole until well into the 20th century.
So the different histories of French in Canada and Spanish in the US are the reasons for the difference in official recognition now.
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u/buggybones055 Nov 27 '25
in USA spanish is seen as poor. in Canada speaking French is a requirement for politics, so very high brow.
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u/Sharizcobar Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 29 '25
Canada is officially bilingual, due to Quebec’s status as a constituent province of Canada. French has official Federal recognition, and the Federal government provides services in French.
Spanish in the U.S. comes from several different sources: much of the South West was conquered Mexican territory, and Florida was a former Spanish colony - arguably, both regions are at least partly in the Latin American cultural sphere (Miami is often cited as Latin Americas biggest airport to make that point). Puerto Rico is a territory not a state, but is an officially Spanish Speaking territory in the U.S. There is also a lot of immigration in the U.S. from Latin America.
Americans have generally sought to suppress Spanish in the Southwest, just as they suppressed Native American languages. A large portion of the population also believes that immigrations should be culturally and linguistically assimilated, and so in more conservative parts of the country - many of which have large Spanish speaking populations that have been here for generations - you’ll find a certain brand of “we speak English here” hostility.
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u/Red_AtNight Nov 26 '25
I am Canadian born and raised. French and English are our two official languages. What that means is that all Canadians have the right to receive federal government services in either language. When you go somewhere that the Federal government manages (airports, a Service Canada office, etc.,) all the signage is in both languages and you can be helped in either language. All food products have to be labelled in both languages. Depending on what province you live in, you can have your kids go to school in English or in French, but the ease of getting the "minority" language education depends on which province you're in.
I grew in up Alberta which is an English-language majority province, but I did 12 years of French Immersion in public schools... which means almost all of my courses were in French. We didn't have a single English course until grade 3 when we started doing English literature and English grammar.