How Much French Is Spoken in Quebec?

Tautau   Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:48 am GMT
So, I'm an American university student looking into studying abroad in Québec because I hope to improve my French. So from what anyone knows or heard, is French spoken often if not a majority of the time on the streets? Would I learn as much if I went to France?
Guest   Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:37 pm GMT
You would hear it less than in France because many people , native French speakers themselves, use English at work in Quebec, but still it's spoken enough for a student to learn French without any problems in an immersive environment. Furthermore , Quebec is the best country to learn French because if you you don't understand something in French then you'll be able to use English with everybody. In France you would be alone and surrounded by hostile Francophones who won't tell you a single word in English despite they may speak it(think about Greg but multiplied by 63 millions).
lec   Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:11 pm GMT
Canadian French sounds awful to me, sorry
Tautau   Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:23 pm GMT
Thanks guest for your feedback. I have already heard similar things to what you have said except for the more English used in Quebec than France part.
CH   Sun Feb 08, 2009 6:19 pm GMT
What Guest wrote above mostly only applies to Montreal. If you want to be immersed in French in Quebec, trying studying in Quebec City, or better yet in smaller cities / rural areas. In my experience, outside of Montreal, the average Quebecker speaks English about as well as the average English Canadian speaks French (i.e. terribly).

One caveat to Quebec City: in the old, historic quarter, 95% of the people on the streets will be American or English Canadian tourists, so you'll almost exclusively hear English. But it's a big city, and if you study at Université Laval you'll be far enough away from that area.

(Source: I lived and worked in Quebec City for two years).
Visitor   Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:22 am GMT
You would encounter monolingual in French in Quebec with English, Irish, Italian, German, and now Spanish surnames.

Hispanic are the most likely to get assimilated in French Canada just like in Louisiana next are the Italians.

In Anglo-Canada, the hispanics takes generations to get assimilated.
eastlander   Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:34 am GMT
It is naturally- French and Spanish are Romance languages.In Canada and USA people of Germanic origin (German, Dutch,Scandinavian) are assimilating more quickly than people of French,Italian or Spanish origin.
Guest   Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:19 pm GMT
In USA there are not people of Spanish origin, only of Mexican origin.
Montréal   Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:24 pm GMT
you will learn french in Quebec if you use it. In a city like montreal area about 70% of the population is native french speaking, about 20% english native speaking and the rest are neither. whatever almost all the people you meet are more or less able to speak a bit of each one.

If you speak english in the streets people will answer to you in english, if you speak to them in french they will answer in french. This is actually the greatest difference with France where only minority would answer to you in correct English.

French is the official language in Québec, you can expect everyone to speak it the same way you can expect every people to speak english in USA. But since Quebec is officially french-speaking, if you use English some people might consider you as a cultural "colonist".