I often hear the complaint that Quebec French is difficult to understand because what you learned to speak in school was Parisian French instead.
In fact, I don’t believe that you learned to speak Parisian French in school either.
If you had successfully learned to speak and understand Parisian French, then Quebec French wouldn’t present much of an obstacle to overcome.
What you were learning in school was formal written French.
Then you were made to believe that that’s how people speak.
Written language and spoken language are two very different animals.
This is why it’s imperative that you spend time talking with native speakers and listening to them speak.
What can you do today to increase your time speaking with and listening to native speakers?
Eh, not entirely true, but I dig where you’re coming from and can respect that.
Grammar books are based on standard language. The French language standard is France-centric. France humours the rest of the ‘Francophonie’, but it considers itself to be the sun in this linguistic solar system. You gotta love em for that!
That being said, how language is written (graphemes) has a huge impact on how its perceived phonologically and how it is then produced phonetically. This is at the heart of basic literacy skills. You interpret what you see and form sound patters accordingly.
So taken together: when you consider that Canadian textbooks barely acknowledge its Quebec peeps let alone the rest of the Francophonie, you do, in fact, get a generation of students raised in a country using the standard language of France.
If you are deprived from hearing these Quebecois phonetic realizations or instructed against using them because your textbooks doesn’t support this variant, then you do not develop the aural skills to identify them in speech patterns nor the oral skills to produce them. Vowels are really the most tell-tale difference between European and Quebecois French.
The lack of Quebecois instruction in Canada is a huge pedagogical issue in FSL circles. One that is unfortunate given how rich it is and how useful it can be for learners.
Skim through this article and you can see what I mean: The Impact of L2 Dialect on Learning French Vowels: Native English Speakers Learning Quebecois and European French
Authors: Wendy Baker, Laura Catharine Smith
So many spelling mistakes! Ack!
I had a few aural exercises in high school French using Canadian-made language learning materials. The speakers when we did aural comprehension in class did not speak the Quebec variety, but did not speak Parisian French either. So I would say that both Félix and the poster above are both correct.
I try to listen to 98,5fm everyday
both felix and annonimus are right.for learners,it’s important to learn what the written french word means.but in a frech canadien/ france situation,in informal pronounciation, the spoken word is crucial.1 eg. revenir in both standard versions are the same. in informal f. c. talk, that same word can be pronounced ARVNIR. as for idioms, french french. attrapper quelq’un en flagrant delit vs f.c.pogner queq’un es culottes a terre. both meaning catching someone in the act.learning f.c. pronounciations ,contractions and idioms are the key. don’t have a french keyboard.
I live in Ontario, an adult learner of “Parisian” French (on my own), because I haven’t found educational material to learn the Quebec variation. Where do I find it? Is there a comprehensive list of Quebec idioms and Quebec French learning material somewhere?
You might like to check out “French Fun: The Real Spoken Language of Québec” by Steve Timmins.
Take a look also at this post on OffQc about “Le québécois en 10 leçons” by Alexandre Coutu:
http://offqc.com/2012/11/12/improve-your-understanding-of-quebec-french-le-quebecois-en-10-lecons-512
Watch films from Québec, both with and without subtitles.