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Roughly, how easy is French..

  Tags: Difficulty | French
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center Post Reply
13 messages over 2 pages: 1
dmg
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Canada
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Dutch, Esperanto

 
 Message 9 of 13
24 December 2008 at 11:42am | IP Logged 
victor wrote:
living in Quebec as an Anglophone is far from easy...


It is quite easy to live in Montreal and speak nothing but English, or at least have a very limited amount of French. Yes, you'll be missing lots of fun French things, but to say that living in Quebec as a anglophone is far from easy is provably false.
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William Camden
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United Kingdom
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 Message 10 of 13
24 December 2008 at 11:56am | IP Logged 
French is widely taught in schools and is hardly considered an exotic language. Its vocabulary has a huge overlap with English, so that is an advantage for Anglophones. On the other hand, pronunciation can be difficult and the spelling is only somewhat easier than English spelling. I would say other Romance languages like Spanish or Italian are easier.
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spykel
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Canada
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Scottish Gaelic

 
 Message 11 of 13
24 December 2008 at 1:22pm | IP Logged 
dmg wrote:
victor wrote:
living in Quebec as an Anglophone is far from easy...


It is quite easy to live in Montreal and speak nothing but English, or at least have a very limited amount of
French. Yes, you'll be missing lots of fun French things, but to say that living in Quebec as a anglophone is far
from easy is provably false.


I briefly lived in Montreal, and I can attest that it's actually quite difficult to live there as an anglophone. For
starters, you won't be able to find a good job unless you speak French well. Perhaps you could be a janitor or a
shelf stocker in west Montreal with only English. I've heard this second hand mostly, I wasn't there looking for a
job (and my French is pretty good anyway).
But really, the hardest thing you'll have to deal with is the anglophobia. French-speaking Montrealers have a
long history of bitterness towards anglophones, and typically treat them like sludge. Waiters will ignore you or
spit in your food, bus drivers will sneer at you, students will heckle you and tell you to get out of their "pays".
And if Parisians are rude to people who are trying to learn French, they are nothing compared to the rudeness of
some Montrealers! Even if my French was better than their English, people would still roll their eyes at me, tell
me that my accent was awful and that I had no right to learn their language anyway. Some people were actually
offended that I spoke French. Certainly not everyone though, I don't mean to generalize. It is a beautiful city with
plenty of nice, friendly people in it. Just be prepared for a few uncomfortable confrontations if you plan to live
there long-term.
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linus
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Korea, South
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 Message 12 of 13
27 December 2008 at 12:35am | IP Logged 
For Koreans whose language structure is different from that of European languages, French might be quite hard.

Edited by linus on 27 December 2008 at 12:38am

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eoinda
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Senior Member
Sweden
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Speaks: Swedish*, English, Spanish, Mandarin
Studies: French

 
 Message 13 of 13
29 December 2008 at 9:30am | IP Logged 
If you are serious about this then you don't have to ask how hard it is, you can learn any language if you are
serious about it.

Edited by eoinda on 29 December 2008 at 9:30am



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