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Title: Us Francophones.....
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Blog Entry:  MONTREAL (AFP) - A majority of Canada's anglophones admit to having a subpar knowledge of the French language, but support the country's official bilingual policy, a poll out Tuesday showed.ADVERTISEMENT About 70 percent of anglophones want to be more proficient in French, a language that only five percent of them say they speak, read and write fluently, according to the Angus Reid Strategies poll.English is the mother tongue of 17.3 million Canadians, while French is the first language for 6.7 million people, most of whom live in Quebec province, according to the latest census in 2001.The census also counted 5.2 million people who consider themselves bilingual, representing 17.7 percent of Canada's population.Some 44 percent of anglophones admit having no French speaking ability, while 43 percent say they have some knowledge. For reading, 43 percent have no ability and 45 percent some knowledge, while 57 percent say they have no writing ability and 33 percent claim some knowledge.Despite their lack of French-speaking skills, 58 percent of anglophones say Canada should continue to have two official languages and 56 percent say they should know at least a little French, the poll found.Only about six percent say they are highly proficient in each language skill.The highest rate of bilingualism among anglophones was in Quebec, where 80 percent say they are highly proficient or fluent French speakers and 56 percent can read the language.In Canadian provinces outside Quebec, French is the second most widely spoken language, followed closely by Mandarin.Statistics Canada, a government agency, will release in December its most recent language census.