I will be on a panel discussion on CBC Radio's  The Current

Friday Dec 14
somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30am.

The topic is “Canada's 3rd Official language”

As
you may know…. Stats Canada released last week that Chinese languages
are now Canada's 3rd most widely spoken language following English and
French.

I get to give pros and cons for Chinese, Scottish, First Nations, Punjabi, etc.

I
am a multi-generational Chinese-Canadian that speaks better French than
Chinese.  I claim English as my first language, and Italian as my 2nd
language… because I learned to read music fluently at a young age. 

But maybe my 2nd language should be Cantonese Chinese, because that's what my paternal grandparents always spoke to me.  Can you claim a language if you are not fluent in it?  If I can play mah jong and order dim sum at a Chinese restaurant, does that count a a fluency?

Yesterday I wrote down some of my thoughts on this topic:

Canada's new immigrants have now made Chinese languages #3 in Canada:
CBC Radio's “The Current” asks me about the possibility of a 3rd
official language for Canada

Interesting twist:
The CBC producer who phoned me is Farha Akhtar.  She shared with me that her father was from India and her mother from the Phillipines.  Their common language was English… now she is Canadian.  Very cool… very Gung Haggis!  I told Farha that I am hoping to create a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner for Toronto, and it would be great if she could attend!