When I was going to Montréal I told myself that what I would want from this trip was to learn French. I’ve been here for two months already and I can tell you...it’s not happening.
There are two reasons for this. (Three if I count that I am perhaps not trying hard enough.) They are all bilingual. Well, not all of them. Lower classes and perhaps older people speak little English. But younger generation and business people and people in restaurants and cafés, they all speak perfect English. To the point that when I carefully structure in my head - well in advance - what I want to say it takes exactly three sentences for me to switch to English.
Français québecois
Secondly, what they speak is not really French but français québecois. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, it’s just not what I learnt. With my level of French this seems like Russian to a native Slovak or Czech. You get the topic of the conversation and catch a few words here and there but no way you understand what they are talking about. I just nod, believe me.
This reminds me of a saying my Danish colleague once said about his language: ‘It’s true what they say about Danish - It’s not a language, it’s a sound.’ Works for Québecois as well.
My typical conversation usually looks like this:
—Avez-vous choisi?
—Oui, je prendrai XYZ.
—[Aurgh, vprefaeirgh lpecis ou žvplfaeirgh angran lraoul dzayn?] ... At which point I tell myself ‘Why even bother’ and I ask in English.
English only?
One could therefore assume that one can get by with English only, leaving Québecois to the locals as their secret little language. Unfortunately most companies require you to be bilingual anyway. Alors, with respect to the locals I will have to find a way to learn their language. Not to survive but perhaps to avoid being left out of conversations.
This blog will require a follow up, not only to report on methods how to learn the local language, but also to elaborate on its nature. As yesterday I heard this guy speak of Québecois French and Canadian French, which needs some extra research.
In the meantime, I have been looking for some representative videos to prove my point. Here are three:
An interview with Xavier Dolan - this is still quite ok.
