Pilot project : five times more immigrants will have a tutor to work

Photo Dominic Scali
Mao Guo Xian ( right) and her husband Jun Huang will receive on their workplace during the two hours per week a student-mentor for three months.

Dominique Scali

Friday, 19 January 2018 21:15

UPDATE
Friday, 19 January 2018 21:15

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Mao Guo Xian feels that its customers are more satisfied with their work now that she better understands their demands in French. For a second year, she participated in a francization project at work which has now been extended to three montréal boroughs because of its ” success “.

“Now, I know how to say “zipper” and explain the difference between a mending sleeve $ 5 to $ 15 “, welcomes Mao Guo Xian, a seamstress at the dry cleaner Mauran.

It is part of the traders interviewed by The Newspaper a year ago in the framework of the pilot project of twinning francization between small traders in Côte-des-Neiges and students of the University of Montreal.

The minister of Culture Marie Montpetit announced on Friday that not only the project was renewed, but that the number of participating merchants increased from 30 to 160. Two new boroughs are now included, Saint-Laurent and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension.

Fully funded by Quebec, the budget of the project is changed from 132 000 $ to 500 000 $, said Ms. Montpetit. The minister had rightly been at the heart of the controversy surrounding the phrase “hello, hi” in the shops of Montreal, who qualified as” irritating “.

Generalization

“The twinning is probably a solution that will generalize,” says Michel Leblanc, president of the board of trade of metropolitan Montreal.

Participants can wear a badge stating ” I am learning French : encourage me ! “. This aspect of the project so that it touches not only immigrants, but also the public, who is encouraged to speak in French to the traders in learning, ” says Mr. Leblanc.

“The first thing that the participants tell us is that they are proud of. I think there is a wrong perception […] that immigrants don’t want to learn French. Their difficulty is finding the time. “

In order to extend the project, students from the universities of McGill and Sherbrooke have been recruited this year, in addition to the University of Montreal.

The students of the University of Sherbrooke are so motivated to participate that they take on themselves the costs of travel, says Nadine Vincent, a professor in the department of letters and communications.

“It is rare that one has access to an experience as concrete and customized as students,” says the guardian’s Amelia Manolescu, 29 years old and a phd student in linguistics at the University of Montreal. “Everyone finds his account. “