A francophone friend of mine from New Brunswick (Quebec's neighbor - sizable Francophone and Franglais population) had a frustrating recent visit to Paris. Many locals switched to English after hearing her speak, and refused to move back to French even after she explained that it is her first language.
I'm not surprised. I'm from Quebec. I am more comfortable speaking English with anyone than I am speaking French around French people. They just can't get over the accent, like I'm some sort of curiosity at the zoo. There are so many YouTube videos of French people mocking us. It's not curiosity but a distinctly French superiority complex.
My friends who learned French had similar struggles in France versus elsewhere.
I'm Canadian (from the western part of the country) who grew up speaking pretty decent French, but lost everything but some traces of my accent when my Grandma passed away. I consider losing that language one of the great failures of my life.
I understand that that would be annoying. In your shoes, I'd be annoyed if they didn't even try to learn French.
I find that when I meet French speakers and want to practice, their first instinct is to switch to English. That's very kind, but it doesn't help me. If I was in a workplace in France, I would want people to speak French first, but slow down a little and tell me when I mess something up.
How would that go over in a workplace? Or is it the kind of situation where you speak English because it's the least annoying choice? :)
I'm fluent in French. Quebecois French. In France they're just rude about it, even when they speak terrible english. I would absolutely do the same thing.
Perhaps this can be generalized? Language entitlement seems to be a thing among French speaking regions. Whether it's French Canada, French Belgium or France?
I’m actually from Belgium, which is in a very similar situation as Quebec: (a) heavy accent which the French love to make fun of and (b) where language wars have been raging forever and taken to ridiculous levels. This mentality of wanting to keep a culture ‘pure’ by trying to control how and where language is used, is a losing battle. Some Quebecers, just like purist francophone Belgians have taken this language obsession to irrational levels, and it has knock-on effects in other aspects of daily-life. I wish Quebecers would just lighten-up about it..
I think quite a lot of people can speak French, but have a similar stance against the French people, why would we speak French if you can't bother speaking differently language like English.
France isn't quebec. I have no problem talking with people in France if they and I are making good faith attempts to communicate, nor will anyone doing as you suggest. This is about a public servant intentionally refusing to speak a language they understand because of the institutional prejudice of the province.
Ironically, in most situations Quebeckers will refuse to speak French to you if there's any hint you're an anglophone.
> An anecdote from a trip to Quebec city. My wife and I walked up to a hostess to inquire about getting a table for dinner. We greeted her in French. As soon as we started to ask about a table, she stopped us and said, "No no no no. This will be in English."
Native Québecois here. That's most definitely very odd.
The typical scenario is someone not fluent in French attempts to speak it, and the other person switches to English as a courtesy, not as a slight against you; many people forget or don't know that most Québecois in major cities are bilingual.
Simply mentioning that you would like to continue in French so that you can practice will elicit gratitude and wide smiles - we really, really, really like it when people speak French, no matter the quality, and most will happily help you learn a few extra words or expressions.
About the french refusing to speak english, I think there's also some kind of language superiority complex (and I say that as a native french speaker).
Even online in english spaces (big subreddits for example), I see french people switching back to french in the middle of a thread if they recognize each other, really rude IMO.
>That's fascinating, so they pick up that it's Québécois French and then decide to do that? Is there something in particular that makes them look down on people from Quebec or Québécois French?
In Ontario, we are taught france french. I'm a dummy when it comes to french, I genuinely try and wish I could speak any french
Ottawa french, tends to work both in quebec and france. This isn't so much the different in french but rather who is speaking it.
>I lived in France for a while, and didn't experience very many people wanting to speak English with me since my French was pretty good, though I have a very thick anglophone accent (I'm American, but they always assumed I was British for some reason).
Doesnt surprise me at all. Of course the intention is to continue speaking french.
>The fact they would do the opposite with people that speak a slightly different variant of French is really surprising.
It's not the french syntax or something, in fact in a way france respects quebec's ability to keep french going despite being surrounded by english.
>I don't know anything about the Canadian constitution, but I would find it surprising if this passed judicial review, forcing doctors to communicate with patients in a language they don't know is asking for terrible medical outcomes.
I have no ability to prove what high school I went to. I love going to montreal, northsec is awesome. F1 is awesome. I cant go there now that doctors have been ordered to not speak english to me.
>Potentially having a dead patient because they couldn't effectively communicate with them (like a drug allergy for example) to preserve cultural purity does not seem "reasonable" nor "can be justified in a free and democratic society", according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, with how much other democratic norms and rights are backsliding all over the place it also wouldn't be surprising if this was upheld somehow.
This isn't the only place there are problems with charter rights violations in canada.
There is something to be said about how proud the French are about their culture and language. What would be seen as exaggerated nationalism in other country, seems perfectly acceptable for the French.
I'm wondering if that glowering pride pushes more people to learn French.
The French are a proud people, especially concerning their language. If you try (and fail) to talk to people in French first, they'll generally be happy to switch to English. Just don't start out in English.
I'm roughly a quarter French-Canadien and grew up in North-Eastern Ontario near the border. My french education has been a blend of Parisian and Québecois. I remember taking a very enlightening french class at UWaterloo: FR373 History of French-English Bilingualism. My favourite anecdote was of French tourists visiting Québec after it was "rediscovered" by France, and being surprised when their sex-based swears didn't phase the Canadians and similarly the church-based swears didn't bother the French.
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