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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 49 of 56 12 July 2012 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you're interested in this subject, there was recently a podcast on RFI:
Le français et la mondialisation (MP3, fr) Apparently, the number of French speakers in the world is still growing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5392 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 50 of 56 13 July 2012 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
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As someone interested in moving to Quebec this is a very relevant discussion for me.
Immigrating as an adult and integrating is never easy and I can understand why there would be special problems by immigrants who share the same language but not at all the same culture. I figure as an anglophone still wanting to improve my French to be the best it can be that even if I can't successfully break into native Quebec social circles, other francophone immigrants struggling to adapt would be more open to making new close friends than when I'm on their home turf here. One thing I did notice in my initial research which involved reading articles (and Montreal Reddit threads) was that despite all the differences that are mentioned, the only thing that made me aware that I was reading an article written by a Canadian and not a French writer was the .ca in the URL as well as the very occasional use of local slang words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 51 of 56 13 July 2012 at 2:27am | IP Logged | ||
You're thinking of living in Montreal, right? Even from my limited tourist perspective, Montreal seems to operate under different rules. If you go by mother tongues, Montreal is 50% francophone, 25% anglophone and 25% allophone(1). But in practice, I often can't tell—there are tons of people with no detectable accent in either language. And there's a huge amount of intermarriage between language groups(2), which means that people are socializing across language lines. In an environment like that, I'd expect that anyone with good French and English should be able to fit in somehow. This is the city of "Bonjour hello!" after all. If you go outside of Montreal, the situation seems different. Even people who use English professionally will often speak it slowly, with a heavy accent, and their Qubecois accent is often dramatically thicker. This doesn't mean that folks are unfriendly, but it does suggest that the social dynamics aren't necessarily the same. Then again, I've certainly never had to integrate or find close friends. But as a tourist, I've always found Montreal to be a remarkably welcoming city. EDIT: Written Quebec French is nearly identical to European French, from what I can tell. As for spoken Quebec French, it varies considerably: Half the people on the provincial TV news sound almost European, some firefighters we spoke to recently had a twangy but comprehensible accent, and one of my favorite Skype partners is really hard to understand. (1) un allophone = (Quebec) Somebody who has neither French nor English as a mother tongue. (2) According to official statistics. Edited by emk on 13 July 2012 at 2:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5392 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 52 of 56 13 July 2012 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I'm talking about building a new social circle which seems hard in general to do as an adult after
college. Being able to speak the local language is obviously a big plus (though it also helps to be knowledgable about local pop culture past and present). It's interesting when you know another language being able to read other perspectives of cultural integration. Every cultural guide will tend to tell you that the French are very reserved in general whereas Americans are very open but French people who have immigrated will often tell you that openness doesn't lead to closeness and they feel that relationships are more superficial in the US. From what I've read so far from French immigrants in Quebec it seems they feel that that you can really feel the anglo saxon influence even in Quebec. It will be interesting to see for myself. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Coheed Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 4687 days ago 26 posts - 40 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Romanian, Irish | Message 53 of 56 16 July 2012 at 4:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know if the statistics on Wankipedia are erroneous, but wandering in the streets
of Ottawa, you'll find that most people there can speak french, whereas in downtown Montreal, there's almost no french to be found, yet french is regarded as the only official language in Quebec. Maybe its due to the proximity between Ottawa and Gatineau... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4778 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 54 of 56 16 July 2012 at 6:21am | IP Logged | ||
I'm not sure where in 'downtown Montreal' you're hanging, but French is almost everywhere even if there are a lot of people chatting away in English in certain areas (especially on Ste-Catherine). One key difference between MTL and Ottawa is that in Ottawa, you can't safely assume someone speaks French. Most people do not. In Montréal, while there are people who do not speak French, French remains the language of reference and you can address anyone in the language without feeling like a d**k. Most people speak it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kaloolah Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4866 days ago 16 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 55 of 56 17 July 2012 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Say what? Ottawa is definitely not as French as Montreal, and this is coming from someone who lives in Ottawa and frequently visits Montreal. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jsg Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4508 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 56 of 56 26 July 2012 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
I know a little Fench, very little. Even though I was exposed to mandatory French for 7 years in school beginning in grade 3. It just doesn't stick when your heart isn't in it. I was enjoying french my first couple of years but then we moved and I ended up in a new public school and the French teacher there was just horribe and made the classes a dreary, dreary, bore punctuated with more boredom. I also didn't mesh with her personality wise. By the time I graduated from that public school I was so fed up with French and the fact that I had no choice in the matter that I made no progress in highschool either, so I dropped it after grade 9 and prompty forgot virtually everything I learned. As long as you live in an English speaking part of the country, and do not pursue a career that requires French, you do just fine in Canada without it. Edited by jsg on 26 July 2012 at 1:34am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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