Rumours suggest that residents of La Tuque, Québec may be warming up to the idea of biting anglophone tourists when requested.
If you’re worried about your English accent when speaking French in Québec, don’t be.
Every so often, I receive an email from a reader concerned about how his or her accent isn’t “good enough.” My answer is always the same: it’s more than good enough, and don’t let your accent stop you.
Here are four reasons why.
1. Nobody’s going to bite you
Maybe you feel the need to hide your accent because you worry (needlessly) about an anti-English sentiment in Québec. If that’s the case, don’t waste another second harbouring this thought. You’ll be very well-received in Québec.
Some people will be interested in you because of your English accent, others will simply be indifferent. More importantly, nobody’s going to bite you because of your accent or because you’re anglophone.
If you ask nicely to be bitten however, somebody might oblige, especially in Montréal. Not sure about La Tuque.
2. Conversations will be easier
If you had no accent, other people wouldn’t bother to slow down a little when they speak. That’s fine if you already manage well in French, but less so when you’re still learning. Your accent can sometimes help signal to other people to not break out the pompoms in French just yet and to slow down a little, making the conversation easier.
You don’t need to worry about bilingual francophones switching to English because of your accent. It’s not usually the accent that causes a bilingual to switch, but the impression that you don’t understand what’s being said (work on your listening) or that you’re having trouble expressing yourself (work on your speaking).
If you do ultimately get the switch, remember that it’s not a Linguistic Blue Screen of Death (a fatal-error message in your head telling you that it’s game over). Rather, it’s an opportunity to try again, or to start a conversation, or to get feedback on your French, or something you simply brush off and carry on.
3. You’ll build confidence
If you’re worried about your accent, you’ll avoid speaking and begin to stagnate. Acknowledge your accent for what it currently is, then forget about it. Go find people to speak with and let your accent hang all out.
When you discover that nothing bad happens, you’ll feel confident about speaking more often. And the more often you speak with people, the more you may just find that your accent starts sounding québécois.
4. Everybody’s got an accent
And that’s especially true in Montréal, where people are used to hearing every accent imaginable in French. You’re not going to shock anybody with your accent.
When people hear your accent, they’ll know it means that you had to learn the language. That’s always impressive to people. Let your accent win you a few compliments from time to time. You’ve earned it.
It’s perfectly understandable to want to make your accent resemble the native speakers’ as closely as possible. For many learners, it’s an enjoyable and challenging goal to work towards. But don’t ever let your current accent prevent you from pursuing what you want from your efforts to learn French.
Photo credit: bouchecl/Wikipedia
In the beginning, I was really obsessed with acquiring a good accent, but over time that has really changed. Especially upon the realisation that regardless of how it sounds, my pronounciation has greatly improved from the days back in highschool when I was last learning French.
Just the idea that the words that I put together as I am speaking actually form comprehensible sentences and I have no trouble being understood by most natives francophones throughout the French speaking world is enough to compel me to leave that for later and speak as I do at the moment. All the while, I am constantly practicing speaking to sound more natural in French, I realise that my accent is quite unusual as I am a native to two mother tongues and both leave some sort of imprint on my French. I had my boyfriend tell me that he finds that I sound Russian when speaking French, but according to other people that’s not quite the case.
Another really important idea is that your accent improves the more you speak with native francophones of a particular region. If you do this early enough in your language learning, you end up adopting some of the nuances in their speech. I had a friend who spoke my other native language with an American tinge and after a year of speaking the language with native speakers, that American tinge has all but disappeared. Great post.
If you spend enough time with one person or group of people with a certain accent, it’s inevitable that you’ll adopt some of the features of their speech as you learn the language.
A friend of mine, whose native language is French, learned English in her late teens. She then learned Turkish in her late 20s. She speaks Turkish with an English accent though, not a French one. I find this intriguing.
Thanks for your comment, Eva.
I find these kind of encouragements generally helpful….at least I feel like I’m not alone in this world as a anglophone trying to do better in a francophone milieu.
Also, the chicks dig the english accent.
Thanks. Appreciate the common sense and encouragement. It’s true — you can’t get better if you’re so hung up on your accent you don’t try!
I used to have a huge accent in French and a lot of difficulty speaking it. I had more difficulty with Qc French then with Magreb French. I think it is the way the Qcois jump a few letters or join some together (ex. y’en a, shpas, pantoute, etc.). We learned French one way at school and then it was completely different when speaking it in this society!
So, this is what I did: I started speaking French the way I read it, or the way it should be written. I make a point of making full sentences. I practiced with a friend from Magreb at the time. The more I got used to pronouncing the words, the more comfortable I got using Qcois expressions. I also have made many Qcois de souche friends lately (like, from Beauce!) and I am much more at ease saying “pantoute” and “ben tabernak esti calisse de st-siboire” lol
My accent is changing, yet again, by hanging out with these friends.
I felt bad, at first, not speaking like the rest of the Qcois but I realized that everyone learns a language differently. For me, it was much easier pronouncing every word before trying to speak in a more colloquial manner. It made my accent sound Parisian/Moroccan/Greek/English/Qcois lol Now, my accent sounds Montréal-Qcois with a pinch of Greek and English.
Good advice! J’adore ton blog 🙂
In the province of Quebec and, most definitely, in Montreal, if you speak English in there, nobody will give a damn, because it is Canada – most Canadians speak English. In Montreal, a lot of families who live there full-time cannot even speak French, properly. That being said, if you are having hard time with French, Quebecers will switch to English. I noticed that Quebecers will even be willing to switch to English, if they speak English well enough. In rural areas of Quebec that attitude will be different, as locals may not understand English that well. Most likely the level of English comprehension among locals in rural areas is low, on average, but they understand enough to make up ideas. Bottom line is – as long as the person from Quebec you are talking to understand English, you are fine – they will make sure communication is accessible.
Whoever is going to Quebec should not lose their sleep afraid of not being able to communicate well, as long as you speak English. Now, if you don’t speak any English, and have a poor French, and you are there for meeting local francophones, who only speak the official languages of Canada, then you should reconsider travelling to Canada – and should consider sending somebody else, in you place (oh wait, if you don’t speak English you cannot read my message!). You are fine!
Think this way, you are going to the Netherlands, where people, officially speak Dutch, but will jump to speak English, even if you try to speak in Dutch to them.