How French is Canada?

Always interested in bilingualism I did some research on bilingualism in Canada and thought I might share it

with you. Enjoy :)

So I always knew that Canada had a french speaking population but I never really knew what this was all about. Is  it an official language? Are those a lot of people? Is french their mother tongue? Or did they just learn it in school as and that's what remained of “New France”? And most of all is it used in every day life?

Those were the things I had been wondering about so I did not hesitate to ask all these questions when I met a girl from Montreal. Speaking with her I soon noticed that although she spoke fluently and without mistakes she wasn't an English native. So I asked if English was her mother tongue and she said no.

She told me that French was along with English the official language of Canada and the sole official language of the province of Quebec. Quebec is the largest province of Canada and the second most populous. The province's capital is Quebec-City and the largest city Montreal.

So what about French now?

Well since Montreal is a big and multicultural city with people from all over the world English is wide spread there. It is established in services and everything, but she also said that this is something many French Canadians look sceptically towards. She made clear that French is the official language of the province and that if she didn't feel comfortable enough in English she would insist on being served in French.

79% of Quebecois listed French as their mother tongue, like the girl I have the information on all this from. They are raised completely in French, speak it at home and in everyday life and then learn English in school. This was something that really surprised me. I always thought those people were raised bilingual. She even said a lot of her friends don't speak good English at all and hers was just so good because she attended an English school. Also there are still tensions between the French and English speaking population, and Quebec even passed several laws that shall guarantee the importance and preservation of the French language. Also she said that Quebec City was completely French speaking and that some people might get unfriendly towards English speakers.

Also Canadian French is said to be different from European. One thing is that European French is more likely to use or borrow words from English which Canadians don't in order to protect their language. Here are some differences between Quebec and European French:

Quebec French	Metropolitan French	English gloss
abrier	couvrir	to cover
astheure (à c't'heure)	maintenant	now
chum (m)	copain (m)	boyfriend
magasiner	faire des courses	to go shopping/do errands
placoter	papoter	to chat/chatter

Here is a very interesting video on the differences:

I was really surprised by what I learned about Canada and in the End it turned out to be much more French than I thought. But I'm really glad my confusion about this was cleared up as I'm always interested in bilingualism in several countries, but most of the time also confused about it.

Montreal