Only Nunavut has a higher percentage of people who speak a language other than English or French at home than British Columbia
According to Statistics Canada's latest census data, two out of five people in British Columbia speak at least two languages. I talk.
Its linguistic diversity is largely attributed to her 1.6 million British Columbians who are not native speakers of her two official languages of Canada, English and French. has been brought.
Speaking more than one language brings many benefits, whether personal, developmental or financial, says UBC professor and child Guofang Li, Chair of the Canadian Research Committee on International/Global Perspectives on Language and Literacy Education, said: and youth.
Speaking another language "opens up another world," she said, boosting activity and development throughout the brain. She also noted the resulting economic benefits, such as language classes for children, higher wages for people who speak multiple languages, or enhanced ties for international trade.
Li said one in four Canadians speak a native language other than English or French, but only half of them spoke a language other than English or French at home. New Canadians are passing their mother tongue on to their children.
According to StatCan, about 17.1% of British Columbians usually speak a language other than English or French at home, four percentage points higher than her Canadian average of 12.7%. It is higher than This is her second highest percentage after Nunavut.
The most commonly spoken languages in British Columbia are Mandarin, Punjabi and Cantonese. After English, about 500,000 people speak one of her three languages on a daily basis at home.
These figures come as no surprise to John Paul Katangal, a key professor of race and ethnic studies at UBC.
"Immigration policies, including targeted recruitment of labor migrants and international students, particularly from Asian countries, explain why Asian languages enjoy levels of home usage." I do," he said Catugnal.
Of her six metropolitan areas in BC, Vancouver has the highest linguistic diversity, with 34% of the population speaking a language other than English at home. Common. Mandarin is the most common language spoken in Metro Vancouver homes, followed by English, followed by Punjabi and Cantonese.
The Abbotsford Mission area has the next highest percentage of families who speak a language other than English at home. 16% of the people there usually speak Punjabi at home, followed by Korean and Vietnamese.
For his Gurinder Mann, a lecturer in UBC's Punjabi language and culture program, the popularity of the Punjabi language is not surprising.
This program offers beginner to advanced Punjabi classes and has grown to around 100 students per year in the last few years .
Many of our students come from a Punjabi background and take language classes that connect them to their parents' and ancestral heritage.
"For many, this is a way to connect with their culture and their predominantly Punjabi-speaking grandparents," Mann said.
UBC Professor Lee Gunderson said linguistic diversity could present challenges to his K-12 system.
Last year, Gunderson conducted a survey of primary school children in his seven school districts in Lower Mainland and found that linguistic diversity was distributed differently across school districts. .
``Some school districts have more Arabic speakers, while others have more Tagalog speakers. Some schools have a majority,” he said.
"Different school districts have to face a diversity of different kinds of students," he said. "This is very complicated." Especially for school systems that already face challenges in recruiting teachers, let alone those who are trained or experienced in teaching English as a second language.
According to StatCan, four of her five native Canadians speak the language at home at least routinely. , half were mainly talking about it.
The agency stated that UNESCO has declared the status of Canada's indigenous languages "precarious". 104}
In BC about 1,200 families regularly speak an indigenous language at home, most often Dakel, Tzilkotin and some Salish. was About 30 Indigenous languages are regularly spoken in BC homes.
StatCan said of the rapid growth of Asian languages in BC: are mainly due to immigrationImmigrants from India, China and the Philippines are the majority of immigrants to Canada from his 2016 to his 2020 and many new Canadians settled in his province of BC.
Since the last survey, Statistics Canada has found that Canadians who primarily speak South Asian languages such as Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi and Malayalam We noticed a significant increase in the number of The 2016 Census showed an immigration-accelerated rise.
According to StatCan, the rise of South Asian languages is closely aligned with immigration trends from these countries.
Mr Caungal said that the growing number of languages spoken by Canadians means that policies and programs implemented by governments and institutions "will respond to language and demographic changes." It means there is a need," he said. It is effective in reaching a wide range of communities.
He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the problems that have arisen from restricting public health messages to the official language, noting that the approach It is detrimental to our overall goal of protecting the wider public."
English is still the most commonly spoken language in the province, and British He is the primary (or only) spoken language by 78.5% of Columbians. ) language.
with Canadian Press files.
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