English Speaking Jobs In Montreal? (student loans, find a job, living in)
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Your main problem as an Anglo with limited French skills in Montreal is why would any one hire you when they could just as easily hire some one who is already bi-lingual?.
I don't believe that all employees have to be bilingual.
What has to be ensured is that a) members of the public can be served in French and b) that employees who wish to work in French must not be prevented from doing so.
No, I meant all job applications have to ask for bilingualism even if they "really" could cope with someone in the job who was just Anglo?
Even from French Montrealers, I hear that that's not quite how it operates in the workplace. They could request it but usually people will default to English if necessary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jambo101
Your main problem as an Anglo with limited French skills in Montreal is why would any one hire you when they could just as easily hire some one who is already bi-lingual?.
Isn't some fluency of French required for staying in Montreal? Don't they require that of you in order to be there? Which is weird because Canada also has English as the official language. So, is that something that only Montreal all requires? I just remember reading online that in order to stay there as a foreigner, you had to have a legal grasp of French. Correct me and enlighten me on that please.
Isn't some fluency of French required for staying in Montreal? Don't they require that of you in order to be there? Which is weird because Canada also has English as the official language. So, is that something that only Montreal all requires? I just remember reading online that in order to stay there as a foreigner, you had to have a legal grasp of French. Correct me and enlighten me on that please.
No, there is no requirement to know French in order to "stay" in Montreal, regardless of whether you define staying as visiting or even living. Quite a few people live in Montreal and don't speak French, just like lots of people live in lots of places in the world without speaking the main local language.
Isn't some fluency of French required for staying in Montreal? Don't they require that of you in order to be there? Which is weird because Canada also has English as the official language. So, is that something that only Montreal all requires? I just remember reading online that in order to stay there as a foreigner, you had to have a legal grasp of French. Correct me and enlighten me on that please.
Some of the immigration criteria to Quebec require passing of a French proficiency test,
Actually, you don't need to know French in order to immigrate to Quebec. Although you will get more points on your immigration score if you do. Lots of people immigrate to Quebec every year who don't know French.
If there was ONE lesson I took from here in Quebec, it's that people who live here don't always give realistic accounts of what job-hunting is like for people who come in from out-of-province and low French skills. I was told that as a qualified ESL teacher, I didn't need a word of French. This was totally untrue, and a minimum of an intermediate understanding was required. Fortunately, I have that, but some others would be very disappointed.
I know quite a few unilingual anglophones working for multinational companies, and one thing they all have in common? They are highly skilled/trained/ranked within the company and transferred here - they are not local hires. Many of them also had Quebecois wives and pushed for a transfer here based on family ties, rather than company hiring needs.
Another observation is that people also underestimate language capabilities (and overestimate). I remember back in Vancouver, students telling me they "couldn't speak English", but I could rank them on a 5-6 out of 10 on a ratings scale we use here in Canada. In other words, they "can't speak XYZ" but can certainly function better than they believe. I still don't think I can speak French at all, but I can. It's a bit of an identity issue
If there was ONE lesson I took from here in Quebec, it's that people who live here don't always give realistic accounts of what job-hunting is like for people who come in from out-of-province and low French skills. I was told that as a qualified ESL teacher, I didn't need a word of French. This was totally untrue, and a minimum of an intermediate understanding was required. Fortunately, I have that, but some others would be very disappointed.
I know quite a few unilingual anglophones working for multinational companies, and one thing they all have in common? They are highly skilled/trained/ranked within the company and transferred here - they are not local hires. Many of them also had Quebecois wives and pushed for a transfer here based on family ties, rather than company hiring needs.
Another observation is that people also underestimate language capabilities (and overestimate). I remember back in Vancouver, students telling me they "couldn't speak English", but I could rank them on a 5-6 out of 10 on a ratings scale we use here in Canada. In other words, they "can't speak XYZ" but can certainly function better than they believe. I still don't think I can speak French at all, but I can. It's a bit of an identity issue
I agree with this post. It will be much easier to get a job if you speak French. As I mentioned somewhere else, once you get the basics, go for professional courses (not language courses, but training in your field in French) at a French University. It won't be easy at the beginning but you will get a working knowledge of the language which will make a difference.
Actually, you don't need to know French in order to immigrate to Quebec. Although you will get more points on your immigration score if you do. Lots of people immigrate to Quebec every year who don't know French.
You are right about not needing French to immigrate to Quebec but if you are a skilled worker that 8 points you can acquire by passing the hour and a half French test could make all the difference in whether you get enough points or not, personally if i were a skilled worker thinking of immigrating to Canada and i knew no French i'd bypass the whole issue and just move to some other area of Canada. https://www.canadianimmigration.net/...quirement.html.
But I am really interested in learning French, and in order to so, I feel I need to live somewhere in which everyone speaks French. I've been taking classes all year. I think it would be interesting to move to Montreal.
But realistically speaking, I will never achieve fluency in French unless I live and converse in French, in a french speaking city. I know people say "learn french" before going to Montreal, but knowing basic french is probably not enough to get a job in Montreal.
Am I wrong about this? Can anyone speak about this?
Are there many English speaking jobs in Montreal?
You're absolutely right. That and, it's not "real French" they speak there. Quebecois is broken, slang-French along the lines of Louisiana's Cajun. (I kid you not; it sounded identical when I heard both at the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal.) If you were to learn proper French, i.e. what you'd learn in college or in a Francophone country, you'd forever be treated by Quebec as "not French speaking." And, very rudely, right to your face. And being born in Canada (and thus a Canadian citizen) (in my case) doesn't help matters one bit. I was born in Canada; when I went to Montreal I got treated like a "foreigner."
Even teaching English requires that it be done IN French. Quebec has Canada's highest illiteracy rate; only about 50% of them can read or write in either language. Even French. I'd had people there tell me they were "French" speaking, but when I handed them the French-language newspaper they couldn't read it. And when I turned on the French-language news station broadcast from Ottawa, they couldn't understand it.
Quebec French is -- well, think "hillbilly English" like the US South and you'll understand.
You'd learn French better in a small town in rural Switzerland or Belgium than in Quebec. For another thing they don't have the attitude towards the English-speaking world that Quebec does.
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