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French: Quebecois Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| LaDispute Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4016 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 1 of 9 06 June 2013 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, I feel that my French is solidly intermediate now. Until this point, I have been learning the standard parisian pronunciation used in most every course. However, I will be moving to Quebec next year and would like to focus now on learning to recognize and imitate the quebecois accent. There are hardly any courses which aim to teach the accent, so what is the best way to synthesize it and learn to use it myself without actually being there?
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| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5408 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 9 06 June 2013 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is a book called Le québécois en diz leçons. It has recordings too.
There were big discussions here on this site whether the type of language it teaches is too slangy, but its quality is undoubtedly high. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5341 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 06 June 2013 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to HTLAL!
About a year ago, I understood European French pretty well, at least in one-on-one conversations (I was B1+, working hard on B2). But under the same conditions, I understood maybe 40% of Quebec French. Today I can have a one-on-one conversation with the same people and it's no problem. (But I still can't understand Louis-José Houde.) So here are some random thoughts; take them with a grain of salt. My total exposure to Quebec French is a visit to Montreal every month or two, plus the occasional Skype conversation and a tiny amount of media. So I'm far from an expert. 1. Keep working on your overall level of French. Over the past year, I spent a lot of time listening to European French. And despite paying very little attention to Quebec French, I now understand it far better than I did a year ago. In general, some accents that are miserably difficult at B1 are easy at C1. Most of the "educated", metropolitan accents in Quebec are a lot closer to standard French than they sound right now. 2. Start listening to Quebec media, and get a feel for the enormous range of accents that are used in Quebec. My favorite science podcast, for example, is Les années lumières (recommended by Arrekusu). You'll hear everything from nearly-standard European French to very thick accents, all spoken by people who live in Quebec. You can see a similar range of accents in almost any group discussion on Quebec news channel. 3. For TV recommendations, see microsnout's Super Challenge log (click on the little notebook icon) and try Googling the titles. He made an effort to hunt down very colloquial TV series. 4. For an interesting introduction to really colloquial language, see Arrekusu's book, Le québécois en 10 leçons. I'd caution you against actually speaking like this, however, until you have a good feel for the accents and registers actually used in Quebec. One of my in-laws, for example, works in a French-speaking office job in Montreal, and she finds the dialogs hilarious, and she says that her coworkers would never speak like that at work. In general, I think your best strategy would be to push hard for C1 French without worrying too much about regional accents, and to supplement your media consumption with plenty of native media from Quebec. There's just not a lot of intermediate material for people learning Quebec French, and you can pick a lot of up by ear when you're a bit more advanced. As for speaking, solid European French will take you pretty far, especially in a professional context. After all, a large minority of people from Quebec sound nearly European if you point a TV camera at them. Now, you may also want something a little less formal for social use, but you're probably better off picking that up from native media and actual, live people. Anyway, this is far from the last word on Quebec French! As I said, I visit Montreal on a semi-regular basis, and I absolutely love it, but I'm in no way integrated into day-to-day life. I just wanted to let you know that reasonably fluent European French works fairly well in Montreal, and the accent isn't nearly as scary as it seemed back around B1. Edited by emk on 06 June 2013 at 4:06pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5190 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 9 06 June 2013 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Excellent advice from emk. There is certainly no shortage of Québec TV, movies or music available on the net. This will also give you a good cultural background in the relevant topics you will encounter when you move to Québec.
A note on this:
The average Québécois' French covers a spectrum of registers: on one end, a form of Standard French that mirrors written language, albeit with its own accent, and on the other, a distinct dialect of French. Some speakers may not have access to the more educated registers and some may shy away from the more colloquial registers, but on average, speakers move from one end to the other with ease depending on the situation, often mixing them up. I can certainly use standard French, but I also use the language the book covers. The book presents the dialectal end of the spectrum that is rarely taught and explained, and which I consider essential in understanding Québécois of all walks of life; the other end of the spectrum needs no explanation of course, other than a slight adjustment to the acccent. Armed with the knowledge the book offers, you should be able to match the speakers you meet and address them with the proper register. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4586 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 9 11 June 2013 at 3:16am | IP Logged | ||
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It might be useful to familiarize yourself with what is called "le français québécois
standard", which is basically what you will hear on news and radio broadcasts, what you'll hear on most interview shows, and what public officials speak. There you are sure to understand most everything, and it will get you used to the major features of the Québécois accent without descending into too heavy a dialect. Then you can gradually progess towards shows and films with more informal dialogue. Don't be too intimidated. It's the same language. It's not a creole or even a patois. It's just a distinct national variety of the same language you're learning in your normal classes. The differences are all pretty regular and consistent. Where vocabulary differs, you will get used to those differences and remember them naturally. Last but not least, no matter what the language is your studying, when you first get to the place that actually speaks it, you never understand very much. But your preparation will start to pay off within the first few weeks of your arrival here. Then it will take off at lightening speed! You'll see. And you won't need any books or special audiocassettes or anything. What part of Québec are you going to, may I ask? Edited by lecavaleur on 11 June 2013 at 3:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emily96 Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4237 days ago 270 posts - 342 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin | Message 6 of 9 11 June 2013 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I love hearing that people want to learn the quebecois accent! I used to think it was so hard to understand and
horrible sounding compared to parisian french but then i spent three months there and now i wish i could speak just like that. anyways, i'm not sure if this site is accessible to anyone outside of canada, but tou.tv has tons of quebecois tv shows. I've just started 30 vies and it's pretty good so far. lots of colloquialisms for sure. EDIT: it's one of the shows microsnout has been watching for the super challenge! Edited by Emily96 on 11 June 2013 at 7:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5018 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 9 11 June 2013 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forums, LaDispute. In a case of happy timing, I've just posted a list of resources for Canadian and Quebec French on my log.
See posts 198 and 199. It's not intended as a comprehensive list, but you may find it useful. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LaDispute Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4016 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 9 14 June 2013 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all the excellent advice and resources that you all have posted! I'll be moving at first for the purpose of
bettering my French, both standard and Quebecois. I plan to spend six months following an intensive course and doing a homestay. I haven't chosen which city, but it'll either be Montreal or Quebec City, most likely, since I have been to both and have some knowledge of them. Afterward, I plan to take the TEFAQ and apply for Quebec perm residency. I would score enough points without French, but I respect the francophone culture there and would like to contribute to its growth. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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