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Originally Posted by geotag277
There isn't much difference between music and advertising. Both are offering superfluous messages you can either take the time to understand or not. Some advertising is dense, some advertising is juvenile, some advertising requires you to understand the Income Tax Act, some advertising requires you understand calculus, etc. etc. You don't have any right to be able to understand any advertising, music, or message that is promoted by private enterprise, just like you don't have any "right" to understand all the allusions contained within "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot.
You are making an arbitrary distinction between arbitrary messages and worse, demanding the government get involved to sort it all out.
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I guess I just don't see them as arbitrary. Hearing a Spanish song on the radio doesn't limit your ability to participate in your local culture. Signage in your community that you can't even begin to understand does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RyLucky
Thanks for your honesty and patience. I'm sorry that you felt excluded. I too remember a time in my schooling when it felt like everyone was dividing into little race-cliques, and it became harder/different to upkeep childhood friendships with classmates that I'd never realized were different from me. Identity is a complex thing.
I'm curious: Have you noticed a change in Richmond over the years, or has it been more the less the same since elementary school? Secondly, and I mean this seriously, given that you live in an area with such a large Chinese community, do you regret learning French instead of Mandarin in school?
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Yeah, this has been a fun discussion for everybody, I appreciate everybody staying polite. These conversations don't normally go so smoothly for me.
I don't want to make it sound like I'm marginalized in the community or anything to that extent. I still go to the area where this is most prevalent (downtown Richmond) all the time. I've gotten used to it, and it's not like I get legitimately upset by it, but it does make me uncomfortable.
I really only started to notice it around grade 5, which was in 2005. Grade 5 was also the year I switched to a different school, so that may have something to do with it as well, but that'd be curious since the two schools are very close to each other. And when I got into high school, it was just crazy. It stayed the same throughout all of it, but it was to the point that walking down the hall at lunch, you'd easily hear just as much Chinese as English.
Not at all, for several reasons, some of which may be controversial. First of all, I was in French immersion meaning all of my classes were taught exclusively in French from grade 6 to 8, with less and less being offered as I got to grade 12. This meant that I actually became quite fluent in French, something that never could have happened taking a Mandarin course every second day. Plus the fact that it already qualified as my second language requirement I didn't need to take another one. Second of all, with French being Canada's national language I got a special high school diploma and I just wanted to be a "full" Canadian, if that makes any sense. And third of all, to be honest I felt that by learning Chinese I'd be acknowledging the fact that they were taking over the city and I needed to conform to them now to get an edge. I promise that's not as racist as it sounds. At the end of the day, French just interested me the most.