Is Québécois French more difficult than other varieties of French?
Maybe no and maybe so.
By maybe no,
I mean that learning Québécois French is inherently probably just as easy or just as difficult as learning any other variety of French. I’m sure this point can be argued — maybe you’ll disagree by saying that spoken Québécois French has more colloquial contractions than other varieties of French. This may be true, but the good thing is that contractions can be learned.
You can learn that sur la often contracts informally to s’a in colloquial Québecois French in the same way that de le contracts to du in all varieties of French. The finer points of the pronunciation of Québécois French may also make it more difficult for some people than other varieties, but I don’t think I’d qualify the differences as exceptionally more difficult.
I can accept that Québécois French may be inherently somewhat more difficult, but not to the extremes people sometimes suggest. If you’re enthusiastic about learning the French of Québec, you’ll probably find the mechanics of it more or less equally challenging or equally breezy as any other variety of French.
By maybe so,
I mean that the Québécois make learning French more difficult than it has to be. What I write here may sting, but I believe it to be the truth. If Québécois French feels much more difficult to learn than other varieties of French, the Québécois themselves play a role in this.
A learner of French once asked me if the French (the ones from France) and their refusal to accept the validity of other varieties of French were to blame for the absence of good quality learning materials for Québécois French.
No, I’m afraid the French have nothing to do with it. It would be convenient to place the blame on the French, wouldn’t it? But the Québécois are free to publish whatever they like without having to consult with the French first.
I’m sure there are different reasons for the lack of good quality learning materials for colloquial Québécois French — publishers may not consider it lucrative, for example, to produce materials for a smaller variety of French (Québécois) than for a much larger variety (so-called international French).
Then there is the resistance to teaching what some Québécois themselves consider to be an inferior form of French. The colloquial register (or level) of Québécois French is what the Québécois use when they speak amongst themselves, but many Québécois are reluctant when it comes to explicitly teaching that register of French to non-francophones.
In French courses in Québec, the colloquial register of Québécois French is generally not taught to non-francophones. Students are taught the standard form of Québécois French (the register used in the media, for example). It is of course essential that students be taught this register of French, but equally essential — and probably much more immediately practical — would be to teach colloquial Québécois French, words like pogner and niaiser, and how the Québécois ask yes-no questions with tu, immediately come to mind.
As a learner of French and more specifically Québécois French, you are not a helpless bystander. When learning Québécois French, the best thing you can do for yourself is to cultivate persistence. Continue to speak French when the opportunities arise, work on improving your listening skills, model your spoken French on that of the Québécois, and refuse to let certain people convince you there’s something wrong with what you’re working towards.
You may have had to deal with a teacher who disapproves of Québécois French, a commenter online who’s “warned” you against learning Québécois French because it’s “too different,” a speaker of another variety of French who believes Québécois French to sound rural or, sadly, a Québécois person who believes foreigners should not speak like the Québécois. Listen to what they have to say, then move on. There are many Québécois who will support you in your choice to speak Québécois French. Don’t let the ones who try to stand in your way stand in your way. If I did that whenever I heard a negative comment, there’d be no OffQc.
Back to the original question — is Québécois French more difficult than other varieties of French? Probably. But I’ll end with this:
If you learn to understand and speak like the Québécois, you’ll have stood up to many challenges, such as a lack of learning materials, people who’ll try to steer you off course, and bilingual francophones who’ll switch to English on you. Someone who learns Québécois French has learned a lot more than “just” French along the way — patience, persistence and staying on course despite the challenges, to name a few.
Isn’t that impressive?
I am a resident of Pennsylvania. I am an anglophone, and I minored in Spanish at university. Because of friends in the Montreal tango community, I decided to learn French. It was difficult because the only opportunities to learn French are in an academic context. I began learning French in 2005 after I retired (then at age 60). In the intervening period of time, I had problems with differences in pronunciation. There is a different nasalité compared with French spoken in France.
I am not critical of pronunciation because of differences in pronunciation in Pays de la Loire, meridional French, and French from la Wallonie.
Most of my university studies have been in literature, but with little emphasis on conversation. I have taken the ACTFL OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview), and tested “Intermediate Advanced” — not really as fluent as I could be if I had immersion.
I have problems at times with a difference in vocabulary between French French and Quebec French. I can work around that, with time.
I try to use French in Montreal, but I often feel discouraged such as when I was in a Second Cup coffee shop and started to order a coffee. I began “Je voudrais un café, s’il vous plaît.” The employee responded in English, “What size?” This was discouraging for me, a Pennsylvania yank who is really trying to learn French. I am sure some anglophone Quebeckers have had similar experiences. If you REALLY want us to be multi-lingual, please encourage us to use French. If I am dealing with something complicated, I may prefer to use English.
Ce n’est pas si difficile que ça, et ce n’est pas du tout un français inférieur. Or, if you wish…. “C’est pas si difficile que ça, pis c’est pas un français inférieur pantoute!” In English now, for those who are still busy learning the language:
We Québécois speakers have largely been brainwashed to think that formal language is always “better” than colloquial language, when actually, it is not. Because speakers of other varieties use words in normal conversation that we Québécois speakers reserve for formal occasions or (in some cases) for the written word, we often mistakenly assume that they speak BETTER than we do. They don’t, and our habit of insisting that they do is…. to use a good colloquial expression…. powder in your eyes! (C’est de la poudre aux yeux!) In other words, when we say our French is inferior to other varieties, we’re not helping ourselves at all. We speak DIFFERENTLY, not BADLY! There’s a difference.
Bravo! Merci beaucoup.
Over the years, I have been working hard on my French. In school, we learned standard text book French with some words that were unique to Quebec (such as magasiner). This was definitely helpful to learn as a foundation and has helped me in my business where I sometimes need to speak French. I was, however, tired of people switching to English when I would try my French on people, especially when in person. I wanted to speak like the natives and have met other anglophones who learned how to. I read this blog all the time and watch shows like La Galere over and over (have become addicted). I am a perfectionist, but decided to take risks and not worry if I mess up. I have used my Quebecois French a lot lately; most recently in Mexico with some vacationers who were from North-Eastern Quebec. They though I was actually a native until I told them I wasn’t! A few years ago, I tried with some younger people more my age and they laughed at me. I find some people look at their language as being so sacred and you had better not botch it, where as others are nice and actually pleasantly surprised you took the time to learn. I also had a student from France stay at my house recently, so I got a good feel for the way they speak French. I had to always think when I spoke to her as she didn’t understand a lot of the words used in Quebec. I let her watch La Galere and she couldn’t understand.
I’m not sure if you’ve been to France or not (I’ve never been outside of the US) but in my French class we watched a video comparing France and Quebec.
In the video it was said that in (Montreal) Quebec, French speakers are just happy by the attempts of English speakers to try speaking in French. If you’re not perfect, locals are more tolerant/accepting and they’re less likely to switch to English in Quebec.
In France, I constantly read how it’s critical to be 100% accurate. If not they will switch to English or become frustrated, essentially it won’t be a pleasant experience for someone there to *learn* French. So do you think it is true that as a beginner to the language, Quebec will be the better experience when it comes to practicing and utilizing French?
Obviously both are unique and amazing destinations for various other reasons however my goal is to socialize in French, without that I don’t think the rest of the experience would be as unique. Do you think these points made in the video are generally accurate?
I can’t comment on language-switching in France. I’ve been a few times to France, but I haven’t spent enough extended amounts of time there to be able to say.
I’ve written before about how bilingual francophones might switch to English if they sense that you don’t understand what they’re saying or if you’re having trouble finding your words. I also made suggestions on what you can do: https://offqc.com/2014/03/10/how-can-you-get-bilingual-francophones-to-stop-switching-to-english-741/
The Québécois will generally like that you speak in French, especially when you’re engaged in a real conversation. As you can imagine, paying for a bill at the cash is not the best place for this, so a cashier will probably be entirely indifferent to the fact that you’d like to practise French and may switch to English if it’s felt to be more convenient for both of you. Don’t stress about this. You can continue to speak in French if you like asserting yourself, or just let it go.
You don’t need to speak perfect French in Québec to have a conversation with a francophone. Needless to say, the better your listening and speaking skills are, the easier the conversation for both parties. Don’t neglect working on your listening skills. This is the most challenging part — spend LOTS of time listening to spoken French. I can’t stress this enough.
The best way to practise your French is to create genuine bonds of friendship with people. Friends care about you, and they’ll support you in your efforts to learn French. Don’t count on strangers in the street for this because they don’t have a vested interest in you, and most cashiers and waiters aren’t going to be too interested in making a lot of chit-chat when they’ve got other customers to attend to.
Both Québec and France are great places to learn French. Which one do you feel more drawn towards? That might be a better way to pick if you’re trying to decide between the two.
Sorry for the delay, I was buried in books for mid terms. Thank you very much. I think I’m really attracted to Montreal, I’ve never been but from your blog it seems like a place I would really enjoy. By time I graduate I hope my listening skills are decent, I also listen to CBC in french to train my ear. 🙂 I hope I’m able to make some friends, I’m going to read more on your articles this is an awesome blog!
I was born in the USA to Canadian parents (anglophones). Growing up, I visited Canada fairly often and heard Canadian French spoken from time to time. It didn’t make any impression on me at that age. At university, when I was learning French (international French, of course), my prof told me that my spoken French sounded very much like one of the other professors. I went to visit the other prof and discovered that he was Québécois. My accent wasn’t very strong, it was just the way I pronounced certain words … must’ve picked it up subconsciously. After university, I would hear Canadian French here and there and at that point, I remarked on how it sounded different and yet … almost familiar to me. Subsequently, I became well-versed enough in French to have passed the DELF level B2 exam and now I can basically hold nonstop conversations in French quite comfortably. My wife majored in French so having another anglophone who speaks French to practice with has made a huge difference in my progress (she also passed DELF B2).
Later in life, I did some genealogical research and discovered that my mother’s family were Québécois francophones about 4 generations back. I was quite excited by this discovery and started visiting Québec as often as possible. I also started to consciously try to modify my speech to imitate Québécois French, using words and pronunciations that are used there. I did it slowly, adding words and pronunciations as I became comfortable with them. I found that I absolutely loved the sound and feel of Québécois French. The rhythms, the different vocabulary, even the slang is, for me, fascinating, melodious, and downright sexy. The other members of my local French club have remarked how much my speech has changed over the past few years, and I am gratified. I have had extensive conversations in Québec with native francophones, and although it is definitely obvious that I am an anglophone, many have complimented me on embracing Québécois French — they are definitely proud of their language and their culture, and Québécois French is something they can call their own. It is a beautiful language.
On top of all this, I completely fell in love with Montréal. Every time I visit, I dread having to leave. There is so much to see and do, the people are so friendly — it’s just a fantastic place. I’m not able to move there right now, but I have plans to retire there (I have dual citizenship, which makes it easier). My goal is to be able to be reasonably well-versed in Québécois French so I can have a better time living there and to immerse myself as much as possible in the culture of my ancestors. To that end, I read every entry of OffQC that comes out. It’s really the BEST site on the Internet to learn about Québécois French. We all owe Felix a huge debt of gratitude.
I’m living in Denver now and I want to immigrate to Québec. Right now, I am taking French classes at the Alliance Française de Denver and I wonder, is it easier to learn the idiosyncrasies of Québecois French if I already know French French?
When you say French French, do you mean French as spoken in France?
Learning any kind of French is good, but, no, I wouldn’t recommend learning French French as a way to understand Québécois French.
There’s nothing wrong with learning French French. What I mean though is that you probably wouldn’t learn British English as a way to further your understanding of American English. 😉
Any French you learn will help you along the way, but if your goal is to understand the Québécois, learn French from Québécois sources (television, radio, books, real conversations, etc.).
I’m taking a full-time French class through the MICC at UQAM and I’m happy to report that they are making an effort to present colloquial expressions to us. In general, yes, we are learning the more standard register of speaking and writing. But the instructors have been really good about introducing us to some colloquial expressions (“pogner” and “niaiser” and questions with tu, for example). And our main instructor does a really good job of pointing out where certain words and phrases fall in the continuum of speech (e.g., “Don’t use this phrase with your boss” or “You’d sound weird if you said this when you were out to drinks with friends.”)
(Love the blog, by the way. It’s fantastic and extremely helpful that you take the time to do this.)
That is excellent news, Daniel! Thanks for letting me know.