Montreal City Weblog

Kate 08:02 on 2019-02-18 Permalink Reply  

• Bill Binns 11:33 on 2019-02-18 Permalink

  THIS – “The message addresses a basic truth in Montreal: Most people are bilingual and tend to switch to English if they sense that a newcomer is struggling in French.”

  There are about as many opportunities to practice bad French in Montreal as there are in Houston. I mostly gave up trying years ago. If I go to France for two weeks I can feel my French proficiency and confidence growing everyday. It’s nobody’s fault but it is a uniquely Montreal angle on language learning.

• Jack Frost 20:52 on 2019-02-18 Permalink

  Quel propos détestable. Il vous faut aller en France pour gagner de la confiance? On entendait ça des expatriés rodhésiens de Westmount il y a 60 ans. La réalité est que vous êtes un monolingue complaisant et ignorant. Êtes-vous même allé en France? Pour dire quoi: ma chérie, c’est délicieeeesux, Oh la la! Beaujolaais nouveeeau. Take that on the chin, moron.

• Jack Frost 21:21 on 2019-02-18 Permalink

  Please accept my apologies. I am such a bore. My enunciation suffers from a deceitful disease: the inability to speak in a formal manner. I live in the East, and I am the son of forgetful fathers and mothers. I speak French as if my mother tongue was invaded every day by the miasms of bastardy, the sole pride of my race. When I am looking further up in the mountains where the rich and famous live in peace, I open my beggars’ bag, search uneasily through the last letters from my father. Finally, the dictionary, my only sacred book, is at my disposal.
  It says: Take it on the chin. Please accept my mistake.
  From your subordinate, servile, almost mute, ignorant, a long-standing pauper.

  Jack Frost, haunted by Ti-Jean (Jack Kerouac martyrized by le petit Canada de Lowell).

• david100 04:37 on 2019-02-19 Permalink

  ^ Tu rates complètement l’essentiel: si l’on entend le moindre indice d’un accent non-francophone, la tendance à Montréal est de répondre en anglais, c’est connu à 100% par tout le monde. Quand même. Donc, les anglophones qui s’intéressent à améliorer leur maîtrise du français trouvent souvent que sortir d’içi, soit ailleurs au Québec soit en France, a un effet positif en ce regarde. Rien de “détestable” là-dedans.

• JaneyB 09:26 on 2019-02-19 Permalink

  When I first moved here, I simply responded in French to their English and told them I needed to practise. Of course, if it’s a busy time or place, that’s not the time to practise but otherwise, this method works just fine. Also, some Francos are practising their English and some people are so bilingual, they forget what they’re speaking.

  And then there’s the great site http://www.offqc.com for getting a hold on Quebec French. That man should be knighted.

• simon harel 10:14 on 2019-02-19 Permalink

  Merci, chère Madame, pour votre sensibilité qui est l’espritr d’une vraie montréalaise.

• Bill Binns 17:05 on 2019-02-19 Permalink

  I really was not complaining. I do not think anyone here has a responsibility to teach me French while they are doing their job. I would do exactly the same. Montreal is just one of a handful of places on the planet where a large percentage of the population is perfectly bilingual.

  Going to France (especially the Brittany countryside where my mother in law lives) is the linguistic equivalent of learning to swim by being thrown in a lake. If you want that Egg McMuffin you better figure out how to say “Omelette au fromage”. Quebec is basically the same once you are out of site of the PVM tower.