Chuanmei Lin
I came to Montreal at the end of August and has been living here for a month. Before that I’ve never been to the French-speaking province of Quebec. Not sure if it’s the one-month “honey moon phase” in the culture shock model but it hasn’t faded away, I have been liking it here since I arrived. When I decided to come to McGill, I joked to my friend that I plan to speak English and Chinese in Montreal, and he joked that I will probably be speaking French and Chinese in Quebec, or at least need to have an A1/A2 level of French to live there. I didn’t understand what he meant, because I heard that in Montreal “everyone is bilingual”. I figured, if I speak English I can easily navigate my everyday life. After I arrived, I realized maybe he was right. In a grocery store downtown, an older staff didn’t understand me when I was looking for “noodles”, I was thinking “did I pronounce it wrong?”. Then a younger staff said something in French to the older staff so that he could show me the location of noodles. Another time I walked to an ice cream shop and realized that the menu was in French, so I had to point to the picture to get an ice cream because I couldn’t read it. Like the elderly women participants described their illiteracy in English under the increasingly globalized Korea, “illiteracy in English is the new illiteracy” (Lee, 2016, p.333). In Quebec, illiteracy in French is the new illiteracy, even though I’m living in Montreal where about 80% of Anglophones in Quebec live (Gérin- Lajoie, 2011, 2016, 2019). Although I learnt French at Alliance francaise Calgary https://www.afcalgary.ca for half a year (1-2 classes per week), I didn’t really take in much. It was supposed to be an immersion program but I was trying to get the teacher to explain the grammar in English. Using English (my L2) to learn French confuses me all the time and I wonder if the teacher explained French in Mandarin Chinese (my L1), might I learn better?
References
Gérin-Lajoie, D. (2011). Youth, language and identity: Portraits of students from English-language high schools in the Montreal area. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Gérin-Lajoie, D. (2016). Negotiating identities: Anglophones teaching and living in Quebec. University of Toronto Press.
Gérin-Lajoie, D. (2019). Le rapport à l’identité des jeunes des écoles de langue anglaise au Québec. Presses de l’Université Laval, Collection Langues officielles et sociétés.
Lee, J. S. (2016). “Everywhere you go, you see English!”: Elderly women’s perspectives on globalization and English. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 13(4), 319-350.
Hi Chuanmei,
Yes, for people who come to Montreal for the first time, ubiquity of French can be quite a culture shock. Sometimes it’s even desired! I know some of my anglophone friends from other provinces in Canada and from the States came here seeking a new cultural experience because they considered French culture something “exotic” and even as they say, “romantic.” Sooner or later their honeymoon phase fades away and they come to face the reality that learning French takes quite a bit more than hanging out in French-speaking bars. Financially, they begin to feel stretched thin, but finding a job that doesn’t require solid knowledge of French proves to be tougher than they think. As a result, most of them end up leaving the city.
Sam Lyn
Hi Chuanmei,
Your linguistic experiences seem interesting! I have some friends who came here without any French language knowledge and end up leaving Quebec, as well as other friends who take the government-sponsored French classes continuously to integrate into the society here. I think Montreal is still a bilingual city, so life is not so tough here for anglophones and allophones; however, if you plan to settle down in other cities outside Montreal in Quebec, it’s better to learn French systematically because solid knowledge of French is essential!
Elisa
Hi Chuanmei!
Very interesting post! I understand you, because before moving to Montreal I was told that I could carry on my life in the city without necessarily understanding and speaking French…well, it was lie! I feel like French has a huge weight in Quebec, but it is also true that its presence changes depending on where you are, especially in Montreal. I’ve noticed this while casually listening to conversations during my metro trips. When traveling from one part of the city to another it is possible to hear almost French only when approaching Montreal North, to English only when passing by Concordia and McGill; when you order a cappuccino or pay at the cash desk of any shop downtown you can happily conduct a conversation in English with the clerk; however, this becomes more complicated in some neighborhoods where the French-speaking presence is more evident – in Verdun, for instance, although you are welcomed with the formula “bonjour-hi” and you choose to continue the conversation in English, sometimes it might happen that the person in front of you chooses not to give up and rejects your language choice, continuing to use French. Montreal is such an interesting city!!
– Martina B.
Hi Chuanmei，
Thank you for sharing your own experience of your linguistic life in Montreal and I actually have the very similar stories with yours. Before I came to Montreal, I basically had no idea of French, but I’m still excited about coming here as I believed I could experience an English-French mixed lifestyle and culture. But things weren’t as simple as I thought they would be and I soon realized how important French is here. When I go to shopping malls, pharmacies and restaurants, all the slogans, menus and product names are in French and some even don’t have English translation below. Thus, if one wants to improve his/her life quality and be more inclusive, then he/she needs to learn French. Speaking of the government supported French course here, it’s French-immersion and teachers are only allowed to use French even if you are a beginner.
Heng Ding
Hi Chuanmei,
Thanks for sharing your experience in Montreal! French is, indeed, a hard language to learn. Studies in French as a Second Language Acquisition say that it takes an average of 7 years to be able to use this language fluently. Thus, it is possible that the time you spent at the immersion school is a bit short. Also, I like how you brought up the idea of integrating Mandarin in learning an additional language. When I teach, I would also use my students’ first language to improve their understanding of a topic and facilitate knowledge transfers. However, many teachers still have a fear of using another language in their classroom. I hope that despite your experience, you will continue to learn French because it will help with your integration in Quebec! If you need any help, you can let me know 🙂
Catherine Shieh