My crazy old job

As some of you may now, I once had a job teaching English as a second language at an ultra-extreme summer school run by fascists. They were very severe about their rule of "full immersion" in English: you could get booted out of the programme at your own expense for speaking your native tongue. Anyway, their hardcore antics have made the news:

Globe and Mail: Quebec native Yvan Tessier was only too happy to sign on for an English-immersion course in New Brunswick this summer. But he hadn't anticipated that his guide dog, Pavot, would effectively have to take English classes too. Now a storm has erupted at the University of New Brunswick over its iron-clad rule that no one -- not even a dog -- may be addressed in a language other than English.

The conflict stretches Canada's bilingualism conundrum to new lengths, since Pavot is unilingual. Trained to understand commands in French only, he responds to "Pavot, reste!" but not "Pavot, stay!" Mr. Tessier, 39, blind for 20 years because of a degenerative illness, wants to file a complaint with human-rights officials, arguing the university is discriminating because of his disability.

P.S. I learned from my flatmate Christine that it even made the news in Germany! Check out Spiegel Online.

Posted by matt at July 29, 2004 11:57 AM