Thank you for your questions. I will begin with the last question as to whether the interest in teaching Chinese will necessarily have an impact on French.
Personally, I have lived in China and I learned Chinese. I believe it is a beautiful language that certainly deserves to be studied. However, there are very long waiting lists for French immersion programs. So we first need to make sure that French is learned since it is the second official language in order to be able to work at the federal level. So it is often desirable to be able to speak French.
My concern is that by adding the possibility of Chinese or Hindi immersion, we are diluting already-limited provincial resources. First, I think it would be important, while not preventing learning a third language, to ensure that priority is given to learning French.
As for studying French in British Columbia at the postsecondary level, the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs has been in place now for more than six years and has created two programs: one in administration and the other in education. So, it is becoming possible, but it would preferable to provide more support to this core at Simon Fraser by supporting the development of postsecondary education in other universities in British Columbia. There are a number of Francophones and Francophiles who could teach. For example, at the University of Victoria, about 15%—about one hundred profs—have French as their first, second or third language. They could teach courses in French. There are several people from various communities who could teach courses in French.