Almost to the day a year ago I was heading to Gatwick Airport on my way to Switzerland, and then on to France to visit a location for a conference for the Executive Learning Project.
As I was driving along, I listened to the early breakfast show with Nemone on National BBC Radio 1.
I text Nemone, and she read my messages out on the radio.
I then wrote an article called: How to get on the Radio.
Every morning on the brilliant Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on Radio 1 Comedy Dave (Chris’s co-host) reads out a tedious link he has written.
The tedious link is used to get from yesterday’s 9am song to today’s 9am song.
Confused? Have a listen to todays tedious link, as read by Comedy Dave:
In the link, Dave clearly stated:”The Italian language shares certain similarities with the French language which is spoken through much of Canada and of course France.”
During the song being played I sent a text message to BBC Radio 1 (txt: 81199) saying….
Dave, only about 1/8 of Canada speak French, that is not much
Listeners often pull apart Dave’s Tedious Link by pointing out the errors, and each time I’ve pointed out an error in the past, it has never been read out on air, although this morning it was:
So, with 7 million people listening, and loads texting I finally got a message read out on National Radio 1 Breakfast Show.But, was I right? How many people in Canada speak French? I’ve been to Canada a couple of times, and I think only one province speaks French, Montreal.
Thanks to Ultralab’s Neil Boughen for converting and producing the sound clips.
Unoffical Chris Moyles Website | Official Chris Moyles Website.
If you enjoy French art and theatre while in Canada, how about learning French? Or maybe you want to be a part of the theatre, then take acting classes. Combine your love of theatre and comedy with French literature. Continue your education and take a class on French literature with online learning where you will find classes that interest you. Here you will find a list of French culture resources to learn more about the country.
—
A history of 0 credit cards is preferred to messy bills on credit cards. The mastercard has always maintained its stand on this issue. Now the citi cards will be following the suit too.
November 7th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Punctuation is everything
Submitted by visitor on Wed, 03/02/2005 - 22:20.
You said that Dave said “The Italian languages shares certain similarities with the French language which is spoken through much of Canada and of course France.”
I think he probably said “The Italian language shares certain similarities with the French language, which is spoken through much of Canada and, of course, France.”
The comma is important as Italian is not spoken much in Canada (or France come to that).
November 7th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Thanks….I think , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Submitted by Matthew Eaves on Wed, 03/02/2005 - 22:30.
Thanks, but you said:
‘You said that Dave said “The Italian…’
Should that not be: ‘You said, that Dave said: “The Italian…
I’d also think about the following:
You said: “The comma is important as Italian is not spoken much in Canada (or France come to that).”
I suggest: “The comma is important, as Italian is not spoken much in Canada (or France come to that).”
Think we both need to get out more
We’ll, I’ll put my name to that 
November 7th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Francophones
Submitted by visitor on Wed, 03/02/2005 - 22:18.
Yes, but the 25% who speak French speak French. the majority do not speak English. Québec is a French-speaking province. English is a foreign language there. Only one Canadian province is bilingual - New Brunswick (Nouvelle Brunswick). Québec whould probably be independent but it’s geographical location means it would cut anglophone Canada in two distinct bits.
Candaian french (Québecois) has many distinct words and syntax. When we were there, through, I never found out the French for eggs over easy. Sunnyside up eggs is ‘ouefs au miroir’
Pete (Pierre à vous, mec!)
November 7th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Miss H
Submitted by visitor on Thu, 03/10/2005 - 22:48.
Tourné - oeufs tournés. Yes, Québec is a predominantly French speaking province. There are, in the larger metros (okay, maybe only really Montréal), Anglophone populations. However, scattered across Canada there are a variety of smaller French populations. While it is true that New Brunswick is a bilingual province, other provinces also have large linguistic populations. There are the Franco-Ontariens, the French-speaking population of Ontario, and there is also the Franco-Manitobiens, not to be confused with the Métis population out west! The Métis evolved from the settlement of French people in the west of Canada, who then mingled with the indigenous populations là-bas. So yes, there are purely mono-lingual populations, due to settlement patterns, BUT, Canada on the whole (it is in our CONSTITUTION, baby!) is constitutionally a bilingual country. EVERYONE is expected to study both official languages (whether or not they end up being able to SPEAK it, that is another story!)
November 7th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Languages
Submitted by Andy on Thu, 03/03/2005 - 09:19.
Belgian french or ( Walloonian?) has a few distinct words as well but that doesn’t stop it from being French.
It’s all ‘des ouefs au plat’ to me.
November 7th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Je suis en désaccord
Submitted by Matthew Eaves on Thu, 03/03/2005 - 09:31.
Je pense qu’il l’arrête d’être Français français. Comment est-ce que confondant il serait si vous appreniez le français à l’école, et est puis allé au Canada et ne pourrait pas comprendre ce qui était dit ?
November 7th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Thanks Pete
Submitted by Matthew Eaves on Wed, 03/02/2005 - 22:35.
Good thoughts Pete
Oh, how I love Dave’s Tedious Link.
8:58am, BBC Radio One.
November 7th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Aha…
Thank you for taking the time to lookup this information.
Submitted by Matthew Eaves on Wed, 03/02/2005 - 15:57.
Thankyou Andy for the comment, I forgot all about Quebec….silly me. Not too bad an estimate though … I remember watching a documentary in-flight on my second visit to the country. Hands up, I got it wrong
Wikipedia? What is that?
So, if 25% of Canadians (roughly) speak French, I don’t think that is much….and I’m not convinced that French is widely spoken. Especially in Geographical terms, remember Dave stated ‘much of Canada’.
So I’ll take the ‘Chris Moyles Attitude’ and disagree with you, in the spirit of the show. I’d have to have all the statistics from all of the states before I could agree on ‘much’ of Canada speaking French. If the largest proportion of French speaking Canadians are in Quebec, then ‘thats not much of Canada’ - in geographical terms.
And I’ll ask Anita to come along and add her 2p…..and see what she thinks….
November 7th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
French Canadians
Submitted by Andy on Wed, 03/02/2005 - 15:35.
Well Matt, I think you have definitely underestimated the number of francophone Canadians and how coud you ignore Quebec?
Wikipedia says:
“Francophone Canadians may be found across Canada, although the largest concentration of French speakers is to be found in Quebec. Roughly 23 per cent of Canadian citizens are French-speaking and 25 per cent are of French descent. Not all French-speakers are of French descent, especially in modern-day Quebec, and not all people of French Canadian heritage are exclusively or primarily francophone.”
Dave was quite right to say that french is spoken through much of Canada - in fact he could probably have said through all of Canada, though not by a majority in each state of course.
December 4th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Matt, you are entirely misguided in your suggestions of comma placement. Please remember- commas do not represent a pause for breath, hence the correct usage for the given expression would most likely be:
“You said, that Dave said, “The Italians…” (note the colon is purposefully absent.)
Whilst this is still slightly askew, the commas at least represent something other than a dysporsic stop of the hard palate. Don’t worry, it’s a common misconception. Personally I would happily have left the statement as it was first given. There is no other meaning achievable bar that intended; that you indeed had stated that Dave had said that Italians are all hairy, or whatever the point was in the first place. Oh, and my use of the semi-colon there is a linguistic affectation, and hence perfectly acceptable.
Goodbye!