A Comparative Study on Bilingual Language Policy in Quebec and in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture

A Comparative Study on Bilingual Language Policy in Quebec and in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture

The linguistic reality in any multi-ethnic countries has always the focal point for criticism, namely, the monopoly of the majority language, in many cases the economically and politically privileged language, is claimed to undermine the vitality of the minority languages, in particular in the countries that practice assimilatory language policy. The language policy advocated by the Canadian government in general and the Quebecker government in particular, though the latter is rather radical, is worth being studied and compared with that in countries with the similar linguistic dilemma. By comparing the language policy and the bilingualism in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (Hereinafter the YKAP) of China and in Quebec of Canada, the authors find that the language policy system in the YKAP implicitly shuns the diction of “bilingualism” or “bilingual”, though endowed the minority language with sufficient freedom for social use and development. The demographic survey of the language use and language education indicates that the societal bilingualism is barely the linguistic reality in the YKAP. The bilingual use and education generally confines themselves in the Korean ethnic community with decreasing number of bilingual users inside it and increasing number outside it, the totally different story other than Quebec of Canada. The authors also find the different government intervention in formulating bilingual legal framework and building the societal bilingualism toward the equal use of the majority and minority language. The segregational education program and the immersion program are representative of the political environment and discourse in the YKAP and Quebec.