Today was President Obama's visit to Ottawa to meet with PM Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, and the Governor General . So I was sitting at home, watching Oprah (for the first time in about a million years) who was talking about declutterifying your home (an appropriate topic for me!) when it cut away to the press conference with Obama and Stephen Harper. After some preamble, Stephen Harper started his speech completely in French. I was really trying to listen because I am trying to improve my French (though that endeavor may not be a great success if I try to improve it by listening to Stephen Harper) but the annoying translator lady was way too loud. Eventually, they got around to the time when Stephen Harper started to repeat the entire speech in English, at which point I turned off the TV because the translator lady pretty much told me everything he had to say (Although if I had listened to it twice, I may actually remember what was said). I now wish I had kept the TV on because I kinda wish I had heard what Obama had to say.
While I know why we do things in both official languages and actually appreciate it, I am not entirely sure why we do it if someone is pretty much translating everything as we go along. It seems like it just takes up a whole lot of time for no reason. Maybe the second time was for Obama because I don't think he has the need to learn French as our leaders do, but if that was the case, they could have started in English and had French translator. There is probably a good explanation that I am not seeing at the moment so if someone could explain it to me, that would be good. That being said, today's favourite thing is the fact that we have two official languages (even though it can occasionally make things long and/or repetitive).
Are you alive? Did you find your way?
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