It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age

Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by jperras on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @10:48AM (#19788396)

> An anecdote from a trip to Quebec city. My wife and I walked up to a hostess to inquire about getting a table for dinner. We greeted her in French. As soon as we started to ask about a table, she stopped us and said, "No no no no. This will be in English."

Native Québecois here. That's most definitely very odd.

The typical scenario is someone not fluent in French attempts to speak it, and the other person switches to English as a courtesy, not as a slight against you; many people forget or don't know that most Québecois in major cities are bilingual.

Simply mentioning that you would like to continue in French so that you can practice will elicit gratitude and wide smiles - we really, really, really like it when people speak French, no matter the quality, and most will happily help you learn a few extra words or expressions.

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Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by sokoloff on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @11:10AM (#19788621)

I had a similar experience in Paris. "No, no, no, monsieur; we make this easy for everyone and do it in English." Depending on your mood and charitable inclinations, that's either supremely helpful or amazingly condescending.

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Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by xena on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @04:44PM (#19791752)

It's gonna be interesting for me. I'm about to move to Montreal (flight is in 2 days). I want to learn French very well to idle-mine immigration points. I'm gonna make mistakes. That's just how it is. The surest path to success is failure.

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Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by jperras on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @05:05PM (#19791923)

It's sometimes difficult in Montreal due to how easy it is to get around in English; people will by default switch to English to help you out, and almost everyone is bilingual to some degree.

Just stick to your guns of speaking in French and let people know you want to practice, and you'll do great!

And congratulations on the move! It's a wonderful city. So wonderful that I'm moving back there in a month after being in the Toronto region for almost 10 years.

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Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by bpyne on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @10:25PM (#19793997)

We enjoyed Quebec and Montreal. The singular rude experience didn't diminish it. We're eager to introduce our daughter to both cities now that she's old enough to appreciate them.

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