Ni hao. Dorood. Kamusta. Chances are greater than ever that if you live on the North Shore, those are the words you would use to greet someone in your mother tongue.
According to the latest batch of census data, the North Shore is becoming a more linguistically diverse place, with greater numbers of folks who speak something other than English or French as their mother tongue.
Farsi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog and Korean are the most common first languages, depending what neighbourhood you’re in. About one in four West Vancouverites speak an immigrant language. In the City of North Vancouver, it’s about one third and in the District of North Van, a quarter, all up from the last census.
These kinds of stats tend to be red meat for racists who flock to Internet comment boards to bemoan immigrants who won’t integrate. But the numbers show even in West Van, 83.9 per cent of the overall population still listed English as the language spoken most often or regularly at home.
We shouldn’t fear these statistics, nor should we bemoan them. They’re just a reflection of who we are. And they help us determine where our priorities should be.
The North Shore English Language Centre currently has 618 people on the wait-list trying to get English language training.
On Tuesday, Premier John Horgan announced the province would eliminate tuition fees for English language learners at local colleges, which we applaud.
This will no doubt be an immense help for those trying to learn and get a foothold in the economy.
We say embrace diversity. And when it comes to xenophobia, let’s all say zàijiàn, bedrood and paalam.
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