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Quebec as a Language Learning Destination | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 5094 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 9 of 46 20 September 2011 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Well I have been to Montréal many times, since it is relatively close and easy for me to take a weekend leisure trip there. I don't speak French, though, even in Montréal I would still run into people who would be unwilling to speak any English with me. This would happen at least once every trip, so there were certainly situations where people wouldn't simply switch to English. Still, one thing I noticed after every trip, is that I'd always come back accumulating more French words, because there are just so many bilingual signs and messages everywhere you look. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LorenzoGuapo Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6444 days ago 79 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: French | Message 10 of 46 21 September 2011 at 1:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Starrye thanks for the feedback however two things, 1 I wrote the word "majority" and 2 if people don't switch to English then that is a positive thing for those of us who want to go to that province and speak the majority language including the original poster.
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| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 5094 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 11 of 46 21 September 2011 at 1:49am | IP Logged | ||
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@Lorenzo, I agree it's a positive thing if you are wanting to learn French. I personally got the impression
there that generally people are willing to use French with you, and sometimes will expect it, so I think it would be a perfectly fine place to learn even though there is plenty of English in the city. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 12 of 46 21 September 2011 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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This a no-brainer. If you are seriously interested in learning to speak French and you live close to Quebec, there really isn't much to argue about. To paraphrase what other posters have said, if you want to engage the language, if you want to see and hear the language for real, then this is it. You can start speaking French immediately. There is probably a language meetup group you could attend right away.
I believe that among the two most important success factors in second language learning are intensive contact, i.e. immersion, and having a relationship with a native speaker. The latter is not always easy to cultivate, but you stand a better chance in a French-speaking environment than anywhere else. So, pack your bags and come. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5471 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 13 of 46 08 October 2011 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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As an update to my comments on the first page of this thread, I can summarize my experience so far in Quebec City as highly positive. I don't normally like classroom instruction but because of the newness of this program (google Edu-Inter), the class sizes are very small. I think the two lower level classes have 4 or 5 students but the advanced class that I am in has only 3 and one is often missing making it just two of us. That is essentially semi-private lessons and with with the 50% discount this fall it cost only $6 per hour (as compared to $60 for private instruction most places). I had suspected this might be the case which is why I was interested.
One of the other 2 students is an American from Nevada (if I recall correctly) who has been studying French for only 2 years but has spent 8 months living and working in France and is a very keen student of the language. He demonstrates well that one can readily adapt to the accent as I believe his comprehension of the teacher (she is québécoise de souche) is better than my own - but he has been in the class for a two months prior to my arrival. As I predicted before, the class teaches "Standard French" and uses a series of books by CLE published in France. However, with such small class sizes there is a lot of flexibility and the other day, the teacher recited a dialog contained in the book by CLE but in real time adapted it to genuine québécois while we followed along. Besides the accent, there were changes in vocabulary, some which I expected but several that I did not. I had planned to stay only to the end of this month but feel like I should take advantage of both the small group (which is hard to find in most schools) and the 50% discount that lasts through Dec. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4824 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 14 of 46 21 October 2011 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I found this little interesting page about Quebec french. It features many expressions (with their regular french
translation). Most of them, I would say, are quite accurate and frequently used. Expressions québécoises A few expressions I enjoy : Parler anglais comme une vache espagnole (speaking English very badly) Manger une volée (to get beaten up) Avoir le coeur gros (feeling sad, depressed) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 46 21 October 2011 at 3:51am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for reporting on this, Microsnout. Even with 5 students per class, that's still a very good staff to student ratio. And the price sounds excellent too. I went to the Edu-Inter Quebec website (that's the correct one, yes?) but couldn't find the fees listed anywhere at all. Do you remember if they displayed only after you filled out a registration form? Or I wonder if they may be in the process of changing the fees...? Do you remember if you had to write to them to get the rates? (Perhaps they're buried somewhere on the site, but I think I clicked on all the links.) Edited by songlines on 21 October 2011 at 4:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6304 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 16 of 46 21 October 2011 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
That page is nice. Indeed most of these expressions are used very frequently but I admit that there are some that I have never heard, and I lived in Montreal for over 20 years. For instance "Enfirouaper". 1 person has voted this message useful |
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