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As sunshineleith said, there is nothing like pushing the little birdy out of the nest at the top of the tree in order to teach it how to fly.
Still, about 70 to 80% of the people who are NOT native French speakers in Montreal do know how to speak French, and almost all of them would have learned it in Montreal and virtually none of these Montrealers would have spent an immersion period in Quebec City.
Of course - over years of being exposed to any language, one would (hopefully!) learn the language. I am recommending full immersion as the OP is looking at a "few months" course.
Of course - over years of being exposed to any language, one would (hopefully!) learn the language. I am recommending full immersion as the OP is looking at a "few months" course.
McGill is NOT the university you'd want to go to if you wanted to learn and practice French - it's an English-speaking university. All staff, faculty, students, are English speaking there. Go to McGill to continue to speak in English. It's a great university otherwise, however, but it's not a place you go to learn French. All your classes, assignments and fellow students will be speaking English - you'll become immersed in Montreal's English-speaking community by attending McGill. And actually, I think more Americans attend McGill than any other university in Canada. So be aware of that.
If you want to practice or learn French in Quebec, go into the communities where English speakers are less prevalent, like Quebec City or Trois-Rivieres.
Just to clarify - McGill has a "Learn French As a Second Language" program. I assume they have French-speaking instructors for this program.
Thanks to everyone for the comments on Montreal vs. Quebec City for learning French. I'm leaning toward Quebec City or maybe Trois-Rivieres.
I'm really excited about the possibility of doing this. I might have the opportunity this summer, assuming that I can finalize plans and get my applications sent out in time. If this summer doesn't work out, I'll just keep taking classes at the local Alliance Francaise and plan for next summer.
Definitely choose Quebec City or Trois Rivieres -- Montreal is bilingual in that most people there speak both English and French, though oftentimes they speak one of them better than the other. Having been around ESL learners and having learned foreign languages myself, I've found that it is much better to NOT have speakers of your own language around. This is because it is too tempting to form your own group of English-speaking friends to feel relaxed around without the stress of having to learn a new language. It's kind of like smoking: you know it's bad for you but you do it anyway because it takes the edge off a stressful day.
I came to Montreal from western Canada for a job in 2001 with nothing but high-school french, thinking that I could get by rather easily. I was in for a big surprise... it was NOT that easy to pick up a conversation in French without systematically translating every word in my head first. By the time you figured out what was said, the conversation had moved well on to something else, and you were lost. I worked in a bilingual environment and had people switch to english regularly, much to my dismay.
To help myself learn the language faster, I chose to live in the more French areas - Quartier Latin, Rosemont, Villeray to name a few (yeah I moved around a lot!). It definitely helped out. Later on, I lived in the more anglo neighbourhood of NDG where, as another poster pointed out, you may as well be living in Ottawa as you could conduct your life in English if you really wanted.
I've read with interest the comments here but it appears to me these classes are for adults? I have a 16 year old (junior) who is in 4th year of French and is considering it as a college major. She is not ready to go overseas to France for an immersion program. I just wondered if there was something in Quebec that would be suitable for a teen, maybe a two-week camp? I know you will not learn a lot but being more in the culture and hearing it might help her discern just how much she loves (or doesn't) love the language and want to pursue it. Thank you very much!
Quebec city is the place to go to learn French. It is a beautiful city and if you're staying for a couple of months, you can easily drive down to Montreal or take the train for the weekend. In Quebec city people will give you more of a chance to speak french, because their english isn't that great. In Montreal, people immediately switch to English. I recommend, Quebec city for the weekdays and for studying, and then if you want to let loose, go to Montreal.. it is a party town.. amazing for a weekend.
Will you learn "textbook" French in Quebec or a dialect? God bless.
There are no official courses or textbooks to teach Quebec French slang or dialect. All of them teach a Quebec variation on standard international French, which would be 98% identical to French in any other country in the world.
I found it hard to speak French in Montreal. Everyone wanted to speak English. In France, I rarely have that problem. I think French-Canadians are much more proficient (and comfortable) in English than the typical Frenchman.
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