Hello. It's an honour to be here with you today. My name is Laura Sims, and for me, education is hope.
In this context—this might seem crazy, but please indulge me—I think it's worthwhile to remind ourselves of the larger importance of what we do as educators and as elected representatives in a pluralistic society. For the next minute or so, I invite you to reflect upon the following question: In Canada, what is the beauty of creating bilingual citizens?
Feel free to write down your ideas. I'll give you about 30 seconds. Think about it. In Canada, what is the beauty of creating bilingual citizens? You still have another 10 seconds to think through your ideas.
Thank you very much. Hopefully we'll later be able to explore this question in more detail.
With this in mind, my presentation will be in both languages. I consider being bilingual a way of showing respect to both linguistic communities.
Prior to appearing before you today, I asked myself the following question: how has immersion changed my life?
I can honestly say that learning French and having access to all sorts of authentic immersion activities gave me an opportunity to have a much richer life in terms of experiences, adventures, friendships and educational and professional opportunities than I would have had otherwise. I think of immersion as encompassing all the formal and informal educational experiences offered in Canada and elsewhere.
Like Raymond, I started in the immersion program when I was 12. Later, I was able to discover Quebec and Acadian culture through the Summer Language Bursary Program. That allowed me to better recognize our cultural diversity and the issues facing our communities. The learning of French as a second language opened my eyes to the value and usefulness of learning other languages and it gave me the linguistic foundation to learn them more easily. As a result, I was able to learn Spanish as well.
By speaking three languages fluently, I was able to easily travel around the world—in Africa, Europe, Asia, Canada and Latin America—and make new friends everywhere I went. I was able to study in Latin America and conduct my master's and PhD research in Spanish. This skill also allowed me to develop professionally, because I was a teacher for ten years in the French immersion program in Winnipeg and in the English immersion program in the Dominican Republic. I was then able to manage a project developed by the Canadian International Development Agency in Central America and Canada.
In my current work at Université de Saint-Boniface, I am absolutely delighted to be able to teach in French and to do my research in the three languages. Working at the Université de Saint-Boniface, the only francophone university in western Canada, has directly and authentically allowed me to better understand my community, particularly the contributions of the Franco-Manitoban community.