Eva
When I was growing up, I would visit my mom’s family in Montreal and les Cantons de l’Est. I have lived most of my life in California, where the prevalence of English quickly overshadowed my first language, French, and I became English dominant. Every year or so, I would visit my grandma in Montreal and be so excited to use my French in the city. Sometimes I would venture off on my own to get a haircut and proudly state “Êtes-vous disponible pour une coupe de cheveux?” My heart would sink as the hairdresser responded, “Yes, of course, have a seat right here.” The switch to English felt so discouraging. It seemed evidence that despite my heritage, I did not belong here and could not even keep up a simple dialogue in French. Back in the coziness of my grand-maman’s kitchen I would keep practicing as she prepared potage, tourtière or croustade aux pommes.
Today, I’ve made Montreal my home and thankfully my French has improved enough so I can work for extra cash as a waitress in a restaurant. There are many customers who come in and order in accented, hesitant French, but I always give them the time and a chance to practice. Groups of twenty-somethings on a long weekend from Toronto come in so excited to impress their friends with a few phrases and are eager to learn les oeufs brouillés or bacon bien cuit. After a lively brunch giggling over mistakes and clarifications, they say I was the only Montrealer who didn’t immediately switch to English on them. When someone does not want to or cannot speak in French, it is abundantly clear and I quickly switch to English when they respond in English. The point is not to force French upon anyone, but also not to discourage anyone’s efforts to learn French in Montreal. Those customers who do want to practice are so grateful and enthusiastic about it and have directly told me so. Granted this may be the language teacher in me waking up, nevertheless, anyone can slow down for a second, like holding the heavy metro door for an elderly lady.
I have discussed “the switch” with many francophones and described how, for me, it can feel disheartening and frustrating. Their idea is to be accommodating and polite, which is generous and well-intentioned. Occasionally a less-proficient English speaker just wants to practice too. Of course, not everyone switches to English right away and there are many franco-Quebeckers who are more patient and tolerant of interlanguage French. But quickly switching to English does represent the overall tendency of French-English bilinguals in Montreal.
However, if francophones want to keep French alive and strong in Quebec, and there is ample evidence they do, then why are they so quick to abandon French and switch to English?
The monolingual bias or native-speakerism continues to be the reality we live in. The benchmark for language use is the monolingual, native speaker and we subconsciously judge anything less as insufficient. Speaking with an accent does not make someone incapable of communicating in a language. “Broken” French should be appreciated as openness to Francophone culture. Few Montrealers are truly monolingual, so we should be past using the monolingual, “native” speaker as a frame of reference.
If the monolingual bias didn’t underlie so much of our mindset, then maybe people would be more patient and accepting of learners trying to use another language. This means switching to English when requested or responded to in English. This may require a bit of patience, but then Montreal would be more inclusive while remaining proud of its French language and all of its beautiful diversity.
What has been your experience with “the switch” in Montreal (or possibly other contexts)?
Hi Eva! Thank you for your post. I really like it that you kindly encouraged people’s effort in practicing French at your workplace. This is very comforting for me, for I’m a beginner in French learning, and am experiencing the anxiety of people’s (possible) impatience to my full-of-mistake French. And I like it that you recognise the reality that few Montreals are monolinguals, and code-switching happens in a natural course. Code-switching will not likely diminish people’s passion on learning French, nor does it diminish the importance of French and French culture in any way. From my perspective as a beginner, I will be much more confident in trying to engage myself into French communication, when switches to English as a “back-up” are to be accepted by French-speaking interlocutors, and vice versa.
Tianyi Long
Hi Eva!
Thank you for sharing with us your experience with the “Switch”. I could relate to your frustration when confronted with this switch because I constantly experience it with my mother tongue. I struggle with my mother tongue, but I am really trying to become more fluent. I try to practice it as much as I can when I am at home. However, whenever I try to practice it with my extended family members they always switch to English. This hurts me, for it makes me feel like an outsider in my own family; especially when most of my cousins don’t face a similar problem. Like you mentioned, I wish people were a bit more patient when they see someone putting in an effort to speak in another language.
-MunPat
Hello Eva,
I really did enjoy reading your post, and I like the perspective you bring, from having French-Canadian origins, yet moving to California fom a young age. I feel like this certainly isn’t the case for many people.
If I may, please allow me to bring a different perspective to light. As an anglophone, and speaking from the perspective of many others anglos that I know here in Montreal, we ourselves also much prefer speaking English. During my cegep years while working at Canadian Tire in downtown Montreal, we got a variety of customers from all over the world, and I’d say my customer service tended to be done half in English, and half in French (throw in some Spanish and Italian). Many customers would just go in and speak English, however some, clearly anglophones, would come in and ask their questions in French. My instinct was, of course, to immediately switch to English to better assist them, but this was not only done to better accommodate them, but also to better accommodate me. I knew that I could offer better service if we were both speaking the language that we were more fluent in. Perhaps some of them were disappointed, but for the most part quite appreciative to be given clear and direct assistance in what they were looking for.
I remember one customer who spoke with a heavy anglo accent, and he was refusing to speak in English, claiming that he simply wanted to practice his French. I remember being so frustrated, because it was a rather broken conversation that could have been so much simpler. In the video you showed us at the bottom of your post, we had Byron asking people on the street for directions. While some people are quick to criticize these individuals for switching to English, sometimes, as an anglo, we are more likely to naturally switch as well. Downtown Montreal is indeed quite bilingual, but I bet that if Byron had gone towards the East End, where less people actually speak English, he would have had a different experience.
Great post, I really liked the anecdote!
-Daniele Iannarone
I think Daniele is right that customer service complicates things. I certainly get discouraged when the clerk switches on me, but I feel like it’s a combination of factors, one of which is just the concerns of time. When there are 3 people in line behind you, the cashier is trying to serve everyone as quickly as possible. Additionally, customer service norms tell us that workers should be accommodating to their clients, and one of the ways we signal that we are trying to be friendly to our interlocutors is by trying to use the language forms that we think they will find to be the most comfortable.
Hi Eva!
I really enjoyed your post! I can defintely relate to feeling discouraged by the “Switch”. Although I totally get that French-speakers working in customer service are just trying to be accomodating.
I think some Anglophone Montrealers might have come to expect it or even demand it? One time, Ben tried to order a cookie from a cafe in French, the cashier responded in French, but Ben got confused and ended up switching back to English. After this interaction an Anglophone woman said something like: “You know you can just order in English. This is Montreal, a lot of speak English!” She seemed to have a pretty negative attitude about trying to learn or practice French.
So maybe some Francophones working in customer service are trying to avoid upsetting people like this?
Michelle
Hi Eva!
I enjoyed reading your blog post, I know exactly what are you talking about. As you mention, it is ironic how Montrealers want to preserve French, but at the same time, they discourage new comers to practice their language skills in the real daily life. I think that the patience you showed to your clients made a difference in their lives, and this event should inspire others to be show more empathy for the new speakers of the French language. It might be that customers are just trying to make clients feel more comfortable by just switching the English (a more widespread language), but instead of providing comfort, they are becoming the source of frustration related to their intentions of practicing their oral French skills.
On the other side, I was wondering, what would happen if the person trying to speak French doesn’t understand English? Would the customer start speaking in French again or which would be the protocol to follow?
Silvia Nunez