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I would say French is a language of daily life, not the language of daily life. Less than half of Montreal uses French as their first language. The anglo/allo population is larger than the francophone population. In addition, most allophones speak English as their first official language. I don't want this to turn into a debate, but if the OP is interested in living in Montreal, I wouldn't discourage him. Even if it isn't necessarily the number 1 place to learn English in Canada, there is still a very large English community and it's a fine place to learn English.
Most allophones do not use English as their first official language anymore, a majority use French.
What people might speak at the dinner table does not reflect the reality of what our OP will face when out and about at cafes, restaurants, night clubs, store shops. Do you not speak French in your daily life outside the house here in Montreal? I certainly speak French outside my house, despite my dinner table being English.
Don't let the language debate cloud your judgement here. Your continuous assertion that English is completely equal to French here in Montreal is leading you to give poor advice to someone who wants to come to Canada and study English.
Element, take all advice with a grain of salt. I'm a certified ESL teacher with a degree in education and I live here. If *I* were your teacher, I would advise you not to come here to learn English - the ESL programs in Montreal are designed for locals (and I mean that they are actually structured for that, the curriculum is based on the assumption that you are francophone).
Most businesses in central Montreal will greet you with "Bonjour hi". You will have no trouble finding places to speak English in Montreal. I agree with aliss2 that maybe if your goal is total exposure to nothing but English, a predominantly English city would be better, but you know, people move to Montreal to learn French. If they can do that, you can move to Montreal to learn English.
You can get service in Montreal in English practically everywhere, but it's not a learning environment conducive to learning the English language. Let's say the OP is walking down the road and sees a big building - for example, 'palais de justice'. Maybe he wants to immerse himself in an environment where he understands the term 'court house'. Sure, he could go into the court house (which can confuse ESL learners) and ask to be served in English, or, maybe he'll just walk by and not even consider why the term 'house' is used for a court building. This is just a tiny minor example of course, but an example of the issues that one would face when desiring an immersion environment.
I think Toronto would be a much better choice for learing English in Canada, compared to Montreal. If you want to learn French and English at the same time, sure, go to Montreal. But if learning English is your goal, Toronto has many great ESL schools and is a great city to live in. I would also recommend Vancouver, but Toronto gives you easier access to places like Montreal, New York, Boston, and the US Northeast. Of course, if you are coming from Asia, Vancuver might be a better choice because flights home would be cheaper.
Give it a rest, will you? You're the same troll that's been coming here for over 2 months. Give it up, we already know who you are and we've heard all of your ridiculous arguments.
Give it a rest, will you? You're the same troll that's been coming here for over 2 months. Give it up, we already know who you are and we've heard all of your ridiculous arguments.
I'm sorry, but you're the one who is trolling. Seriously. The statistics you quoted don't really mean anything. The argument that the "anglo/allo" population is as big/bigger than the franco population is totally bunk. First of wall, most immigrants who come here (so, now we're talking about the 30 percent allo population) learn French, go to school in French, etc. They don't somehow intrinsically align with an anglophone population. I'm teaching ESL to immigrants in Montreal, and they all know French and whatever language they came here with. It's a french speaking city. Just as Berlin is a German speaking city where tons of people know English, and speak other languages, too. But don't try and make it sound like because there's a bunch of immigrants that don't have English or French as a mother tongue that that somehow makes the city "more anglo". What's really a kicker is if you look at the percentage of Francophones in Montreal who are bilingual compared to Anglophones.
With that said, sure, I think the OP should be able to come to Montreal and study English as a second language, but I can't say it's the most logical decision (Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary would make more sense). People come here to study French as a second language because they can immerse themselves in French. It would be sort of difficult to "immerse" yourself in English here, unless you only stayed in certain neighborhoods. Most of the ESL training here is for immigrants who already learned French or for francophones learning English.
Logically, OP should come to Anglophone Canada but make plans to come visit Montreal for fun That's what I would recommend, as an ESL teacher here. You can learn English in Montreal (as so many bilingual francophones do), but that is from long-term exposure to the excellent ESL programs in schools here, and not from immersing themselves in an English environment.
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That's what I would recommend, as an ESL teacher here. You can learn English in Montreal (as so many bilingual francophones do), but that is from long-term exposure to the excellent ESL programs in schools here, and not from immersing themselves in an English environment.
