Providing service in both official languages
By Brian Kreissl
I recently returned from a trip to Mont Tremblant, Que., with my family and some friends. We had an absolutely wonderful time sightseeing, swimming, boating, exploring the local area and sampling the excellent cuisine and fine Quebec craft beer. It was also nice to take a couple of day trips into Montreal.
Contrary to popular belief, Mont Tremblant is far more than just a ski resort. There are tons of things to do in the summer, and the natural beauty of the area is absolutely breathtaking, with actual mountains, several lakes, boutiques and a quaint little village. In many ways, it reminds me of the Scottish Highlands (particularly the Cairngorms for those familiar with the area).
Discrimination as English speakers
Suffice to say, we really enjoyed our vacation and we definitely will be back. However, there was one minor incident that kind of irked us. While we don’t have 100 per cent proof, we were pretty sure we encountered discrimination in one restaurant because we spoke English.
After the six of us were seated at our table, it took us quite some time to get menus. The server didn’t take our drink orders, but she did tell us her English was limited and asked us if we spoke any French. I answered “un peu” and she smiled.
At that point, I thought we would be fine. The menus were bilingual and I thought we would get by just pointing to what we wanted and with her broken English and our broken French. After all, it was a family restaurant and the menu seemed pretty simple.
Before I go any further, I should explain that I am not criticizing our server for not knowing English. I can hardly fault her for having a limited grasp of English when my understanding of French is rudimentary at best. We were in a French-speaking province, and we could hardly demand that we be served in English.
To cut a long story short, we waited and waited, but our server never even came to get our drink orders. The restaurant wasn’t busy at all, and there was another server working as well.
To make matters worse, our server took orders from and brought food to the table next to us perhaps five or six times while we waited. It was if she was being deliberately attentive to the next table while making a point of ignoring us.
Eventually, we got tired of waiting and just got up and left. Our server saw us and apologized, but neither she nor her colleague tried to do anything to stop us. Instead, we ended up going to a lovely Italian restaurant down the street where the food was amazing and the service and atmosphere were fabulous (in fact, we went there again a few days later).
After that incident, I began to understand to a certain extent how people must feel when they are discriminated against based on their race, nationality, religion or sexuality. It seems crazy that companies would actually turn away business or a server would refuse the tips for such reasons, but it does happen.
I appreciate that the server would have felt awkward serving a table of English speakers just as I would feel the same if I had to serve a table of people who only spoke French, but we are all reasonable people and she could have at least tried. I mention this because it was an obvious training issue for the organization in avoiding discrimination and ensuring employees make everyone feel welcome.
Few people are truly bilingual
My trip to Quebec also made me think about how we still have a long way to go before we can call ourselves a truly bilingual country. I have come across so-called bilingual people who weren’t comfortable working in French, and a surprisingly large percentage of English-speaking people in this country speak little to no French at all.
I seriously regret my own decision to drop French in high school after Grade 9, and I’m extremely envious of people who are fluently bilingual and able to effortlessly switch from English to French. At some point, I would really like to start learning French again.
Speaking both languages opens up many opportunities not only for employment, but also for travel and leisure and being able to fully experience both cultures. We should do more to promote bilingualism among Canadians.
