your blog is so refreshing! i live in central ontario & am of scottish/english & french-canadian ancestry, with acadian roots on my father's side as well as a bit of kanien'kehá:ka. i love seeing a family story like mine!
unfortunately, my grandfather didn't teach his children french, & therefore i wasn't taught anything but what the ontario govt. mandates. i'm unsure if you've spoken about this before because you grew up speaking french, but do you know of any decent sources for learning québécois french? my grandfather is fluent and someday i'd at least like to have one conversation with him in his first language. :-(
merci beaucoup for all you do for people like us, & highlighting the struggles of the indigenous people here in canada as well!
Hello!! Salut!
For starters in your immersion to Quebec French, try watching shows and movies on Tout.TV’s platform :) it’s all Quebec content, much of it with turns of phrases, some with French from France sometimes.
To learn it, you can try https://mauril.ca/en/. You can watch CBC and Radio Canada programming and learn that way with local Quebec programs.
Ready to take your French and English language skills to the next level? Add the free Mauril app to your language learning toolbox and test
@wanderingfrench on youtube has whole segments on Quebec slang, turns of phrases and expressions.
Otherwise, your biggest key is exposure!
The whole Ricardo Trogi film series (1981, 1987, 1991, 1995) are excellent for hearing Côte-Nord Quebec French, from the main character’s mother. And they’re hilarious films! Bon Cop Bad Cop is another good one, a good poke at Ontario vs Quebec linguistic differences. Other movies and shows like La Grande Séduction, Les Pays d’en Haut, Infoman, all have their variations of Quebecois french. Quebecois French accents vary subtly by region: Montreal vs Saguenay vs Côte-Nord, everything is so regional.
Ex: a book I want to get is ‘la langue de Charlevoix et du Saguenay Lac Saint Jean: un français qui a du caractère” by Claude Verreault and Claude Simard. It’s a ethnographic study of Saguenay dialects. I’ve noticed there’s also lots of dictionaries for Acadian French. Believe me, I have to slow down to understand it myself.
For a quick Quebec French dictionary, try Usito.usherbrooke.ca. Whenever you see a word you’re not familar with while watching Radio Canada with subtitles in French, look it up there. They accept slang!
Of course, talking with your family and even other Franco-Ontarians can get you closer to getting comfy with French conversations. Even just a coffee conversation helps.
If you’re in central Ontario, are you close to Sudbury? They also have the Franco Ontarian Folklore Centre.
