Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Yes that is very true. It's quite odd to us for example to see people who speak no French be involved and active in Franco-American associations. You'd obviously never see that here, although I suppose that's the point that the community down there is at in its evolution
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I never thought about this but it's kind of interesting. Even here in Vancouver, which is barely more "French" than most American cities, I am only aware of Francophone cultural groups that revolve around speaking French. There is little or no French culture or ancestry stuff. There are other groups for, say, Ukrainians which are as far as I can tell much more based around ethnic heritage than language. Many of these groups also have religious connotations. Maybe there was a time when certain Catholic churches played a role like this for French Canadians in cities like Vancouver.
I implicitly tend to think of "French background" as being about language or maybe place of birth. Having a French last name is not interesting, because it is so common in Canada and because so many people in that category are fully assimilated to English-speaking culture. The idea of somebody doing the Italian thing but with a French theme seems very silly. As far as I know it does not happen.