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(Not) speaking French in Montreal | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5384 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 9 of 14 26 February 2014 at 5:44am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Outside of Montreal, would you be more likely to hear French only? I wasn't sure what you meant by situation being different outside of Montreal, and now I'm curious.
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| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4294 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 10 of 14 26 February 2014 at 6:03am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I have an uncle who lives in Beaconsfield (probably no more than 30 minutes drive from
Rue St Denis/Rue St Catherine), in Île Ouest, which apparently is mostly Anglophone. Unfortunately in Montréal I have been switched approximately 80% of the time. I rate not my pronunciation as high or very high, but honestly I still feel that it is not so bad that someone should switch to English when they hear me. My uncle moved there in 1968 from Liverpool, and according to him almost never uses French, so I know not how he adapts in daily life, especially when he drives to the Downtown/Centre-ville area. When I visited him for a day several years ago during a holiday in Montréal, my uncle took us to dinner in Beaconsfield, we ate at a restaurant there, and I ordered all of my items in French despite my uncle and my other family members speaking English. They addressed all of us in English, but I remember that, ironically, and to my surprise, to me they kept speaking in French for the entire time. Even though I messed up the diphthongue in «grénouille» when I ordered some frog legs, they never switched with me. So there must be some sort of etiquette even in the suburbs of Montréal. I have no idea what the hell they are though. My new technique is simply to pretend that my English is not even A1. That usually solves everything related to switching. I have a Spanish forename, which could also serve as French, Portuguese, or Italian, which helps greatly. Edited by 1e4e6 on 26 February 2014 at 6:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5536 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 14 26 February 2014 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Absolutely. Montréal is basically a bilingual city in a French-speaking province, and I've never had anybody be rude or awkward about language choice. In Québec City, on the other hand, French is the default, but most people who work with tourists can get by in English. In the smaller cities and the countryside, the level of English drops dramatically. And outside of Montréal, I've occasionally run into people who were rude or awkward about language choice.
Well, this is part of the whole "bilingual city" thing. Many Montréalers take pride in their bilingualism, whether it's "true" bilingualism, or merely the ability to use the other language with ease. The following quote (which I've posted before) captures the attitude nicely:
To give you a personal example, I went out to brunch this Sunday with my wife. While we waiting in line, a family arrived behind us, speaking English. But one of the women heard my wife speaking French with our children, and so she struck up a friendly conversation in perfectly comfortable French, with a slight local accent. I joined in, also speaking French. So with two anglophones and one francophone, we wound up in French. But if my wife had spoken first, she probably would have said hello in English, and we all would have spoken English. In other words, people in Montréal don't intend to insult your French by switching. They switch all the time, even among themselves. Seriously, I've seen people working in shops switch language four times in 30 seconds, as they speak to different coworkers and customers.
In large parts of Montreal, there's nothing even slightly unusual about mixed language dinner parties. Nor is it strange for anglophones to speak French in public. And if you're a paying customer, of course, you have a little extra influence on language choice—but if the restaurant is busy, and you're having trouble keeping up, they may switch to English in the name of efficiency. Again, please keep in mind that all this is just my personal impression, as anglophone with serviceable French, based on semi-frequent visits. Locals will presumably have a different view of things. Also, merely by being an anglophone who's happy to default to French, I see a different side of things than a monolingual anglophone would. If you have reasonably solid English and French, and if you're at all interested in how real-world bilingualism works, then Montréal is an absolutely fascinating city. And students of French should not miss the section of Rue St Denis with Librairie Planète BD and Librairie Michel Fortin (a great language bookstore), and several fun restaurants, including a Breton-style crêperie. I think it was songlines who pointed out this neighborhood to me, and I try to get there whenever I can. :-) 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| jpmtl Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 4006 days ago 44 posts - 115 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 12 of 14 26 February 2014 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Not to excuse this sort of behavior, but did you start with a Bonjour, Pardon or Excusez-moi? It's a cultural norm in Quebec, especially outside Montreal. I'm the first to admit part of the population is very rude about the language issue (STM workers in Montreal come to mind), but at the same time, you're far less likely to encounter negativity if you start with a couple of words in the local language, and this is true anywhere in the world, especially in places where language is a sensitive issue. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5385 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 13 of 14 26 February 2014 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Allow me a gross generalisation to depict the situation outside of Montréal.
As an outsider, you will be quickly seized up as part of one of two possible groups: 1) friends, ie. people who understand why French is important to Québécois and who support their right to defend and promote it, or 2) enemies of the nation, ie. people who'd rather everyone spoke English, who couldn't be bothered to learn French and who cast a certain imperialistic vibe. How people treat you has nothing to do with whether you actually speak French or where you are from -- it's about whether they get the impression that you are on their side or not. In essence, giving whatever little French you have a try, no matter how embarrassing, is how you are going to get people to open up and switch to English (when they can, of course). This, obviously, is a generalisation, because although I'm originally from Québec, I've driven there with an out-of-province plate and I've had people approach me in English in small towns asking where we were from and why we came, etc. Like everywhere else, there are all kinds of people and most people are open and curious. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| kazonca Bilingual Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 5400 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, Greek* Studies: French | Message 14 of 14 27 February 2014 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I would not worry about this if you are moving to Montreal at all. Amost everyone can speak BOTH English and french especially if you decide to live in my favourite area mile end area. This is a very trendy area full of artsy hipsters and kinda well edumated.
The only area that might want you to switch to french is the plateau area or the heart of the french hipster / inteligencia area. My experience is the opposite, though I speak ok french when I show up at my favourite Starbucks and try to order in French they change to English :( I find that even in more French areas the only people that `should' try to speak french sentiment is only intended for other Canadians, Americans get a free pass on this. Edited by kazonca on 27 February 2014 at 5:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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