Last spring, a friend posted an infographic on facebook illustrating the most common second language in each US state, and said she wished someone would make a similar version for Canada. I enjoy these kinds of infographics and was also curious to see the result. Having access to the necessary tools (the internet and an editable eps file of a Canadian map), I quickly pulled the info-map together.
It is important to note that unlike the US, Canada has two official languages, English and French, and each province or territory may have their own official languages; NWT has a whopping 11 official languages. Nunavut has 4. So on this map, I included both the most common non-English/French language as well as most common non-official territorial language.
The exercise got me thinking about language and how living in a country with multiple official languages can affect design. So often I have worked on projects where the copy is culturally exclusive. I recall working on a campaign for a large music retailer that needed to quickly find a French equivalent for the phrase “give ‘er” and a smoking cessation campaign in the north that had settled on a catchy English motto that translated to the length of a novella in Inuktitut. It is quite challenging to do good design that is good in all languages. It can also be challenging to have multiple languages work effectively in a single design. I just feel, given the country we live in, we don’t give proper consideration to translation and cultural context when writing copy and launching new projects. (Don’t get me started on the overuse of acronyms.)
A final note: the information used on the map is based on 2011 data collected by Statistics Canada, the year Stephen Harper killed the mandatory long-form census, effectively making important statistical information about the country unknown. (And forcing organizations to purchase information from private companies.) The long-form census returned when Trudeau formed government in 2016, but because of Harper, there will a permanent gap in the statistical data. It’s likely my map needs updating; the 2016 information has a much more detailed breakdown.