Quebec Language Debate Spurs Eerie Sense of Déjà-Vu
MONTREAL — When I go for a stroll in my Montreal neighborhood, the bourgeois-bohemian Plateau-Mont-Royal, I hear a Babel of languages — French, English, Arabic, Mandarin — and pass graffiti that playfully mixes English and French words.The waiter at my favorite Lebanese restaurant welcomes me with an upbeat “bonjour-hi” — a popular greeting in the city — dispensing hummus and Fattoush, a Lebanese salad, while he speaks English and French.These […]
