Speak "Chinese"!

My good, charitable, peace-loving wife did not want me to send this to the local papers, but I'll vent here. So now you know.

Going to cast our votes in the provincial election was the last straw. Who would have thought that Elections BC staff, in this country where English and French are the official languages, would speak to you first in Cantonese? Just because her ancestors left China perhaps 200 years ago - so long ago that no one any longer remembers exactly - is no more reason to speak "Chinese" to her than it is to speak Russian, Ukrainian or German to me because that is where my ancestors came from in the 19th century. I can’t tell you how many times my wife has been out in public, whether it is some community agency or even Sears or The Bay, not even some "Chinese" shop or restaurant, where she has been spoken to first in "Chinese", usually Cantonese. Just because most of the first Asian immigrants here were from Kwangtung province or Hong Kong does not mean they should assume everyone who looks like they do is from that part of China. Cantonese is only one of many "Chinese" languages, and not even the official one. Most recent immigrants are from mainland China where Mandarin is more common, not to mention the ones that come from Taiwan, Malaysia and other places who have their own dialects or speak Mandarin. My wife has even been rebuked by "Chinese-speaking" immigrants because she does not speak their particular version of "Chinese."

There have been many letters in these papers recently about immigration, language and signage. If it is any comfort to the non-Asian citizens of this city, you are not the only ones who have problems with language and signage. The problem is that we have been overwhelmed with new immigrants who have been able to open their own businesses, run in their own languages, so that they do not need "the rest of us" to survive and function. I do not think it is the case in most instances that their signage is only in Chinese because they feel uncomfortable trying to communicate in English. That may be the case, but why are they not learning English? My ancestors all learned English at a time when there was no such thing as free ESL training. Nor did they have all the other social agencies to try to help them assimilate and integrate that are available today. I am sure many of us know new Asian immigrants who have been here 20 years who can't function in English. Something is wrong with this picture. Part of the problem is that it is almost only new immigrants who can afford to purchase dwellings in the city. I guess we can only conclude that the government in faraway Ottawa really doesn't care that the western edge of the country is fast turning into China. Indeed, with the selling of our resources in places like Alberta's tar sands, maybe they don't care about what happens anywhere, as long as they and their supporters ' pocketbooks are growing fatter and bank accounts bigger.