Toronto: Language Other Than English

Japanese Vowels Dept: The top floor of the bustling bar echoes each week with the staccato clack of German consonants, the melodic lilt of Japanese vowels and persistent peals of laughter as more than a hundred aspiring language students struggle to master their new tongues, according to CBC. The din of different languages is loudest in Toronto, where 1.8 million people reported speaking an immigrant language at home, according to fresh 2011 census numbers released Wednesday. Vancouver ranked a distant second with 711,515 people reporting an at-home preference for a language other than English or French, Statistics Canada reported and not even the relentless throb of a hip-hop beat can drown out the sounds of a typical Tuesday night upstairs at Toronto's Rivoli nightclub. The students from all walks of life and ranging in age from early 20s to late 70s are members of Toronto Babel, an informal language exchange program that has been giving the city's international community a chance to speak in new and native tongues alike for the past three years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.