I'll soon be moving to Québec to start graduate studies at McGill. I've spent the past year living in Germany and have gotten the language down quite well because people are very friendly and willing to help. I haven't taken any German lessons, just going out for a Stammtisch and having some liquid courage really washes away the trepidation of making a blunder and you learn from your mistakes.
I would like to learn French while in Québec. Are the Québec people just as inviting as the Germans when it comes to a foreigner trying to learn their language?
As an 'Anglo' (actually of German origin), I've only had issues when Quebecers thought I was an actual Anglo and didn't make an effort to speak French. Once you speak a bit a bit of French and it's obvious you're trying they're generally happy to help. Occasionally I get unsolicited French lessons, which feels odd (once at the baker I had a case of 'you pronounced seigle wrong, repeat after me'..).
Although people may be switching to English once they notice the accent and the difficulty in communicating (although that probably happened a lot in Germany as well).
You won't find people to be quite as accommodating (in fact, people can be quite rude) in the smaller towns or areas outside of the major centers.
just speak english
That's a completely different meaning of bilingualism. The article is about people's bilingualism (so canadian speaking both english and french) not about bilingual signage.
They really do mean all meanings of bilingualism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_demographics_of_Quebe...
There may be some merit to this theory, in view of the fate of Welsh or Gaelic in the British Isles, or of French in Louisiana or the Canadian Maritimes. It may well be that Québec's stubbornness against English is the only thing that is keeping the language alive. Even so, I wish that true bilinguals, of which there are many, especially in the Montréal area, would not become the collateral damage of this fight.