Des immigrants plus scolarisés, mais moins rémunérés

« Avec des taux de scolarisation largement plus élevés que la moyenne des natifs du Québec, les immigrants affichent des taux de chômage 2 à 3 fois plus élevés et d'importantes différences salariales », affirme le chercheur de l'IRIS, Mathieu Forcier. « Ces différences sont d'ailleurs plus marquées au Québec qu'au Canada. »

 Des résultats d'une recherche intéressante de l'IRIS.

McGill course: Study English pronunciation

You absolutely don't need the course I take at McGill if you read the following poem with no pronunciation problem:

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough -
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Comment faire un papillon

Canadian party

In the beginning of our life in Canada, once we were invited for a visit by a Quebecois family; they said it would be a dinner in a home environment. A few other guests were invited, too. I must admit that we, Russians, love these kinds of ‘home-dinner-party’. Actually, it is in our culture.

As recommended, we bought a couple of bottle of wine, some chocolate, and I don’t even remember what else – it does not matter.

I should say that the way to their home took about one hour; so, when we showed up at their home I was a bit hungry.

Just to explain how it usually goes on in Russia: when everybody sits at the table, guests begin to eat and drink, and then the conversation starts. Wishing it was!

After hand-shaking and welcome kisses, the hosts gave us a tour of their home, represented to other guests and got us some Champaign. There were also some small pieces of food on the table aside. Not that much, I would say! And, you know what? We started a small talk, which was dragging on and on and on… How long? Maybe it was only my imagination but it seemed about one hour. Ah! On top of that! All that time we had been standing before we were finally asked to sit at the table.

So, I was drunk, exhausted, and starving to death!

Now, I see that the problem was in mismatch between my assumptions and expectations and the local traditions and customs of hospitality. They gave me the warmest welcome, but I could not enjoy it because I was not properly prepared.

It served me as a good example of intercultural communication conflict. After that, whenever I go for a dinner to a Canadian family, I eat in advance.

full of allusions

it is like a conundrum full of allusions to american and sometimes international cultural artifacts like events, movies, heroes and so on.

we are supposed to be larger educated and well informed, in other words -- enculturated -- to fully enjoy all these parodies, to estimate its multilayered structure.

i really love such sophisticated stuff: it motivates me to learn culture.

try to guess what i am talking about!

Epitome of American Humor: ‘Epic’ Daily Show Segment Blasts U.S. For Cutting Off UNESCO Funding

What I love about Americans that they do not take themselves too seriously.

I do not know this guy, but I am really impressed by his ability of making jokes with a dead-pan face!

Enjoy!

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/epic-daily-show-segment-blasts-u-s-for-cutting-off-unesco-funding/

Cross-gender communication

It is hard to imagine society itself without cross-gender communication, which is really important because men and women are still different not only biologically.

Considering this communication as a form of intercultural communication will help us to better understand the ways to develop related skills when speaking across genders.

A quick glance on the history of the modern human society can shed light on the questions why men and women speak differently and why language generally implies different roles for them. Obviously, it is consequences of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, patriarchate dominance, and some other important acting factors like religion, etc.

For a member of society, gender predefines belonging to a family group like wife or husband; therefore, in certain cases, an ascribed societal role can lead to an achieved role. During life, some roles can be changed, but behavior expectations to each role, formed by society norms and mores, generally stay the same.

The first place in life where a child begins to adopt these norms and expectations is the family in which he or she lives. On the other hand, the most important mean of communication is the language the family speaks. Language usage reflects the roles ascribed to men and women, and it is mirrored even in grammatical gender. Diversity of cultural and historical backgrounds has huge impact on forming gender specific aspects of every language.

For example, in Arabic, the question How many children do you have? sounds literally like How many boys do you have? The word ‘girl’ in German (Mädchen) is treated as neuter. In Russian, it is impossible to call some professions like blacksmith, carpenter, etc. as feminine. (In fact, in Russian, everything is possible to say, but it would be really awkward and funny.)

Another interesting phenomenon is the way of speaking that is commonly expected from men and women in a particular society. Not to make anyone blushing by giving examples, but ladies are not supposed to use some expressions and so on.

Moreover, in culturally mixed environments, like that in Canada, the situation at the family and society level can be more complex because of the different norms and behavioural patterns added by immigrants to the whole mosaic.

All in all, to speak effectively, to be understood correctly, to avoid risqué situations when it comes to cross-gender communication, it requires special linguistic practices and knowing the cultural background and context.