Pasta...Italian no more

How do you say Pasta in French?

Sometimes I can’t believe what goes on in this crazy world we live in. I can understand that the French speaking population in Quebec wants to keep the French language  from dying, but then they shouldn’t bring in immigrants who speak a different language. Strange stuff going on in Quebec anyway. Apparently, a woman can’t take on her husband’s last name when she gets married. It’s the law. The first time I heard about that I couldn’t believe such nonsense . That’s exactly the opposite of what I believe in. A woman should take her husband’s last name. For me it’s a western tradition. Never mind what they do in the Arab countries, where a woman keeps her family name. That is their tradition. Unfortunately, so many couples these days are bucking tradition and that is a shame. So many don’t even get married anymore, while gay people want to get married. Crazy. But that is just me. I’m a dinosaur.

But that is not what I wanted to write about. It’s all about Pasta. There is this Italian restaurant in Quebec with an Italian menu. What else? Nothing unusual about that, is there? Well, not in the Free province of Quebec where they have a language police. Hard to believe, but they have one. And one overzealous language police inspector wants the restaurant to change the menu to French. They don’t allow anything written in another language. It all has to be in French. Quebec is part of Canada, but they don’t allow any English signs there either. The Party Quebecois government wants to remove the Canadian flag from the provincial legislature’s upper chamber, also known as ‘red room’. That’s almost sacrilege. Like spitting into the face of the rest of Canada.

It bugs me every time when I’m on holidays when they announce that some people are from Canada, and others from Quebec. Hello! Quebec is part of Canada, but the Quebecers don’t see it that way. They take the Canadian taxpayer’s money and all the other benefits, but they don’t want to be called Canadians. Just like some of our natives.

No English allowed in Quebec, but the rest of Canada is bilingual, by law. Everything has to be written in English and French. In some parts of Winnipeg there are street names that end in ‘street’ with ‘rue’ in front of it. It’s like saying ‘street Moritz street’. I’m pretty much certain street names in Quebec don’t end with ‘street’. We’ve clearly got a double standard here.

This whole thing smacks of a dictatorship. I’m surprised they are allowed to listen to English (or other language) radio broadcasts or watch English television.

With that attitude it is no wonder there is such animosity between people of different backgrounds and people who speak different languages, or people of different religions. It is not surprising the world is in such an array these days. We need to be more tolerant with each other. Of course, that is easier said than done. Most of us have little tolerance when it comes to people who are or want to be different. I don’t want to have people coming into my country and then try to change it by introducing new customs and laws, but, unfortunately, that can’t be stopped. The Quebecers are trying hard to keep their customs and language pure, but in the end they will have to change. It is only a question of time. We can’t keep on living in the past, even though some of us want nothing more than that.

So, how do you say Pasta in French?