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I grew up in NH where a fair number of people (half of my own family included) are fluent in Quebecois French and also took 4 years of French in high school. O

I grew up in NH where a fair number of people (half of my own family included) are fluent in Quebecois French and also took 4 years of French in high school. One summer between junior and senior years, I took a road trip to Montreal and tried out my French. I was thoroughly embarrassed and lived the OPs nightmare. The residents I spoke with seemed actively offended by my French and would smile condescendingly and speak to me in English. During senior year, I was able to spend a week in France. It was a totally different experience. I spoke nothing but French for the week and was able to feed and otherwise care for myself. The locals seemed to genuinely appreciate my efforts to speak the language. The capstone was later in the week when a 2am knock on my door woke me up. A younger member of our group was having serious homesickness and wanted to call home, but couldn't figure out how to make the call. I went to the lobby with her to ask the desk clerk how to make the call. I ended up having a great conversation with the desk clerk who was only a few years older than me and was in Paris for university. We chatted for about 30 minutes about life, things we liked, cool things to see in Paris, etc. It was awesome! For OP, give it a shot. The only way to get better is to do it!

_yawn 8y ago
People in Quebec are actively hostile to other languages in general, mostly for historical reasons. Probably not the best place to get started haha
- cydonian_monk 8y ago
  It also doesn't help that French and Quebecois French are different dialects to the point of almost being different languages. We "offended" our entire office in Montreal when we rolled their telephony system into our headquarter's PBX and added localization for IVRs, Voicemail and whatnot using prompts recorded by a Parisian. I could understand the French French, the Quebecois was..., well, honestly about as different as street Spanish in Mexico and the Columbian Spanish I learned early in life.
  - fatnoah 8y ago
    Definitely. Some of the idioms are different and the language sounds come from the back of the throat vs. Parisian French. I had the same experience in terms of understanding and being understood.
  - malpighien 8y ago
    French spoken in Quebec is the same French as in France, they use their idioms and slang at time with an accent but we can 100% understand each others. If you are not convinced you can find multiple interviews of Quebecois speakers done in France on youtube and see for yourself that it is without filters or subtitles. Here is an example for celine dion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x6ezHzWPDU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x6ezHzWPDU
  - coredog64 8y ago
    It goes the other way too. Most Parisians would rather speak English with a Québécois than listen to them “mangle” it.
  - gerbilly 8y ago
    > It also doesn't help that French and Quebecois French are different dialects to the point of almost being different languages. No, just no, they aren't and I can speak both. I don't know if you are a native speaker, but It's tiring to have your own language (or 'dialect') explained to you. For what it's worth, France has dozens of regional dialects as well.
    - cydonian_monk 8y ago
      Not a native French speaker, no. Apologies if that one-sentence broad generalization was tiring to you - I meant neither to explain nor be exhaustive. ;) Obviously they're not different languages - I was a bit exaggeratory in that regard. And I do understand both, in as much as I understand either. French is my third or fourth most proficient language after English, Spanish and maybe German, but I never get to use it (or German for that matter). The two are however different enough in some pronunciation and idioms that we ultimately had to do a second localization to support both. And the differences reported to us ran the spectrum from simple things, such as how to correctly pronounce the (cardinal) number 1 (a cleaner "un" compared to what sounds to my ear like "arn"), to the longer phrases one might expect to hear in a voicemail prompt. Ultimately our translation department got things ironed out, but it was a (somewhat amusing/bemusing) learning experience for us.
- evgen 8y ago
  Many Quebecois are also of a 'more French than the French' mindset when it comes to language purity, if only out of a feeling of self-preservation.
- intrasight 8y ago
  And they speak French as it was spoken in the 1600s
  - hnnmzh 8y ago
    Interesting, can you please elaborate more?
    - gerbilly 8y ago
      More like 18th century French. There were two accents in common use in 18th century France: the 'bel usage' and the 'grand usage'. The short explanation is that after the French revolution, Parisians adopted the 'grand usage'—a pronunciation which till then had been reserved for public speeches and church sermons—for everyday speech. The 'bel usage' was the usual French 'code' reserved for every day use. It more closely resembles the French spoken in Quebec. But the 'bel usage' wasn't just a plebeian accent for the unwashed masses, the King's court spoke in 'bel usage'. But after the revolution, people wanted to change things up: hence the new pencil head pronunciation they use there, which everyone says is the 'correct' one. lol In Québec, we retained the original 'bel usage' and never adopted the new accent from Paris. We are the keepers of the proper pronunciation of French, unless you want to give a sermon or make a political speech that is... I don't see a problem with either accent, as long as you enunciate, you will be understood across the entire Francophonie. (Well to be honest, I do prefer my 'accent' from Québec, because I don't have to lug around a dictionary to make sure I pronounce very si-ng-le sy-la-ble cleanly and correctly.) Source: http://legoutdufrancais.org/dou-vient-laccent-des-quebecois-et-celui-des-parisiens/ http://legoutdufrancais.org/dou-vient-laccent-des-quebecois-...
      - hnnmzh 8y ago
        Thanks!
      - intrasight 8y ago
        Thanks for that
- droussel 8y ago
  I am Québécois and am in no way hostile to other languages. What we are protective of is that the official language is French, for historical reasons yes. Meaning, if I encounter an English speaking person, there is a big probability that I'll switch to English just because I'm not an asshole and want to be nice. But, I also don't want my whole culture to disappear and be assimilated to at the same time I do care that I can be served in French when I go out to the restaurant, etc. If people made fun of OP's accent then they were dicks and I don't think the majority of people would do that. We do however switch to English quickly when we determine the other person is anglophone just because most people in Montreal are bilingual and hey, let's make it easier for everyone. If the other person asks me to continue in French, I'll gladly do so.
Afton 8y ago
The thing to remember is that in Montreal, roughly 1/2 the population are native English speakers, and most of the other half has serious ESL skills. When I lived there, it basically a faux pas to mangle your french, since the person you were speaking to inevitably spoke English vastly better than you/I spoke french. French classes (there) inevitably teach you phrases to use to try and stop people from "helpfully" switching back to English. OTOH, if you wandered out to Shawinigan or Trois-Rivières, or even just Laval/Anjou you'd find a lot more uni-lingual Quebecois speakers, who would be positively delighted to hear your(/my) mangled grammar and grotesque pronunciations.

_yawn 8y ago

People in Quebec are actively hostile to other languages in general, mostly for historical reasons. Probably not the best place to get started haha

cydonian_monk 8y ago
It also doesn't help that French and Quebecois French are different dialects to the point of almost being different languages. We "offended" our entire office in Montreal when we rolled their telephony system into our headquarter's PBX and added localization for IVRs, Voicemail and whatnot using prompts recorded by a Parisian. I could understand the French French, the Quebecois was..., well, honestly about as different as street Spanish in Mexico and the Columbian Spanish I learned early in life.
- fatnoah 8y ago
  Definitely. Some of the idioms are different and the language sounds come from the back of the throat vs. Parisian French. I had the same experience in terms of understanding and being understood.
- malpighien 8y ago
  French spoken in Quebec is the same French as in France, they use their idioms and slang at time with an accent but we can 100% understand each others. If you are not convinced you can find multiple interviews of Quebecois speakers done in France on youtube and see for yourself that it is without filters or subtitles. Here is an example for celine dion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x6ezHzWPDU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x6ezHzWPDU
- coredog64 8y ago
  It goes the other way too. Most Parisians would rather speak English with a Québécois than listen to them “mangle” it.
- gerbilly 8y ago
  > It also doesn't help that French and Quebecois French are different dialects to the point of almost being different languages. No, just no, they aren't and I can speak both. I don't know if you are a native speaker, but It's tiring to have your own language (or 'dialect') explained to you. For what it's worth, France has dozens of regional dialects as well.
  - cydonian_monk 8y ago
    Not a native French speaker, no. Apologies if that one-sentence broad generalization was tiring to you - I meant neither to explain nor be exhaustive. ;) Obviously they're not different languages - I was a bit exaggeratory in that regard. And I do understand both, in as much as I understand either. French is my third or fourth most proficient language after English, Spanish and maybe German, but I never get to use it (or German for that matter). The two are however different enough in some pronunciation and idioms that we ultimately had to do a second localization to support both. And the differences reported to us ran the spectrum from simple things, such as how to correctly pronounce the (cardinal) number 1 (a cleaner "un" compared to what sounds to my ear like "arn"), to the longer phrases one might expect to hear in a voicemail prompt. Ultimately our translation department got things ironed out, but it was a (somewhat amusing/bemusing) learning experience for us.
evgen 8y ago
Many Quebecois are also of a 'more French than the French' mindset when it comes to language purity, if only out of a feeling of self-preservation.
intrasight 8y ago
And they speak French as it was spoken in the 1600s
- hnnmzh 8y ago
  Interesting, can you please elaborate more?
  - gerbilly 8y ago
    More like 18th century French. There were two accents in common use in 18th century France: the 'bel usage' and the 'grand usage'. The short explanation is that after the French revolution, Parisians adopted the 'grand usage'—a pronunciation which till then had been reserved for public speeches and church sermons—for everyday speech. The 'bel usage' was the usual French 'code' reserved for every day use. It more closely resembles the French spoken in Quebec. But the 'bel usage' wasn't just a plebeian accent for the unwashed masses, the King's court spoke in 'bel usage'. But after the revolution, people wanted to change things up: hence the new pencil head pronunciation they use there, which everyone says is the 'correct' one. lol In Québec, we retained the original 'bel usage' and never adopted the new accent from Paris. We are the keepers of the proper pronunciation of French, unless you want to give a sermon or make a political speech that is... I don't see a problem with either accent, as long as you enunciate, you will be understood across the entire Francophonie. (Well to be honest, I do prefer my 'accent' from Québec, because I don't have to lug around a dictionary to make sure I pronounce very si-ng-le sy-la-ble cleanly and correctly.) Source: http://legoutdufrancais.org/dou-vient-laccent-des-quebecois-et-celui-des-parisiens/ http://legoutdufrancais.org/dou-vient-laccent-des-quebecois-...
    - hnnmzh 8y ago
      Thanks!
    - intrasight 8y ago
      Thanks for that
droussel 8y ago
I am Québécois and am in no way hostile to other languages. What we are protective of is that the official language is French, for historical reasons yes. Meaning, if I encounter an English speaking person, there is a big probability that I'll switch to English just because I'm not an asshole and want to be nice. But, I also don't want my whole culture to disappear and be assimilated to at the same time I do care that I can be served in French when I go out to the restaurant, etc. If people made fun of OP's accent then they were dicks and I don't think the majority of people would do that. We do however switch to English quickly when we determine the other person is anglophone just because most people in Montreal are bilingual and hey, let's make it easier for everyone. If the other person asks me to continue in French, I'll gladly do so.

Afton 8y ago

The thing to remember is that in Montreal, roughly 1/2 the population are native English speakers, and most of the other half has serious ESL skills. When I lived there, it basically a faux pas to mangle your french, since the person you were speaking to inevitably spoke English vastly better than you/I spoke french. French classes (there) inevitably teach you phrases to use to try and stop people from "helpfully" switching back to English. OTOH, if you wandered out to Shawinigan or Trois-Rivières, or even just Laval/Anjou you'd find a lot more uni-lingual Quebecois speakers, who would be positively delighted to hear your(/my) mangled grammar and grotesque pronunciations.