Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity to speak today.
My presentation concerns the integration of students in the school environment. I find that the student population is growing quickly, especially at the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest. I'm going to talk mainly about the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest because that's where I arrived. I arrived in Canada last year, in September 2009.
At the school, I noticed that a lot of English was spoken. I was a bit afraid of integrating into that environment, which is essentially anglophone, as I only speak French. I therefore think that immigration can contribute a lot by leading people to speak French, particularly by bringing the young people from here together with immigrants so they can develop closer relations.
Teachers should also play an important role, particularly by encouraging these closer relations, which permit better integration and promote the emancipation of the French language. A lot of people don't speak French and it is difficult to communicate with people who want to speak only English and who are not really interested in French, or with whom a conservation started in French switches directly to English. That may be because their vocabulary is not broad enough or because they don't know the French word and switch to English. That's the way it is every time and it is not easy for francophones always to listen to something they don't understand.
Immigrants who speak only French should also be given adequate training in English so they can integrate while retaining their francophone culture. When we arrived here in Ottawa, the first thing we were told was that we wouldn't be able to get by if we didn't speak English. You either have to speak English or go to Quebec.
That's all I had to tell you.