For some reason, VANOC CEO John Furlong attempted to try French at the Olympics Closing Ceremonies, possibly for the first time ever because it certainly sounded like it. Too bad he chose a TV audience of billions to do it in front of, representing a nation and probably leaving it as the ultimate symbol of his legacy. I wish I had a YouTube link to it to show you had horrible it was, if you hadn’t watched it on television.
Probably pressured to include more French in the Closing Ceremonies by the Conservatives trying to get votes in Quebec, as Heritage Minister James Moore tried by speaking out after the Opening Ceremonies (CBC), John could not have faked an English speaker reading French for the first time ever any better. He read it so badly that I could have written him better phonetics than that. He abused that French worse than anything guilty Catholic priests have ever done to boys over the years!
John’s attempt at French was a disgraceful symbol of our bilingualism. Mind you, it was perhaps also an appropriate symbol of our Canadian struggle with it. Still, everybody should rightly trash Furlong for his disgusting French at the closing ceremonies. There’s a point where trying is not honourable, and that point is not trying so little you show disrespect by your lack of effort rather than lack of ability. He could have, and should have done much better. He would have if he only practiced more.
You’d think he’d have learned something about “trying” with all the inspirational athletic performances over the past 17 days, eh?
Some francophones have loudly voiced their disappointment at the lack of French at the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Well, I hope they’re happy now. If they still want something to complain about, I hope they’ll scream loudly at John. There’s nobody deserving of it any more than he did for his lack of effort, especially for such a podium as the one he at at the Closing Ceremonies. It was so disrespectful that if I were Francophone, I’d rather not have had the French, thank you very much!
Really, have you heard worst French at an international event? I am ashamed we put someone with that atrocious an incompetency of verbal French as John had tonight.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 9.6
