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The western part of the island of Montreal tends to be where most Anglos live however its not by any means all Anglo,
While visiting Montreal Anglos can get by very well ,working is something else and can be difficult for the unilingual Anglophone as most jobs require French or bilingual applicants and any employer with 50 or more employees French in the work place is the law.
You might want to familiarize yourself with Quebecs Charter of the French Language Charter of the French language
And get your husband up to speed on learning French.
Good luck..
If your husband is English (as in from England), he will qualify for free quality French classes. I suggest taking advantage of it! What field does he work in? French is pretty essential for all jobs except some call centres (there are nicer jobs but those are generally transfers within corporations).
I would suggest planning for 1-3 years of him being unable to work (while he upgrades his French fluency) and going from there. Good luck.
My husband came here from Ontario in the early '80s and managed to find work despite the fact that he knew very little French. He worked at a snack food company (his second job in Quebec) for twenty-one years and then took an early retirement.
He now understands French and can speak "franglais" or "frenglish".
He worked as a general labourer and made quite a decent salary.
I know of a few anglos who have managed to find work, though it's true that it's best to learn French in Quebec.
My husband came here from Ontario in the early '80s and managed to find work despite the fact that he knew very little French. He worked at a snack food company (his second job in Quebec) for twenty-one years and then took an early retirement.
He now understands French and can speak "franglais" or "frenglish".
He worked as a general labourer and made quite a decent salary.
I know of a few anglos who have managed to find work, though it's true that it's best to learn French in Quebec.
Sounds like my scenario, i came to Quebec in the mid 70's knowing no French after a couple of years landed a job at the Elmhurst Dairy on Montreal West, 30+ years later i'm happily retired and can converse in French, however that was then,i doubt very much as a unilingual Anglo i would have that same opportunity today as much has changed over the last 30 years...
My husband came here from Ontario in the early '80s and managed to find work despite the fact that he knew very little French. He worked at a snack food company (his second job in Quebec) for twenty-one years and then took an early retirement.
He now understands French and can speak "franglais" or "frenglish".
He worked as a general labourer and made quite a decent salary.
I know of a few anglos who have managed to find work, though it's true that it's best to learn French in Quebec.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jambo101
Sounds like my scenario, i came to Quebec in the mid 70's knowing no French after a couple of years landed a job at the Elmhurst Dairy on Montreal West, 30+ years later i'm happily retired and can converse in French, however that was then,i doubt very much as a unilingual Anglo i would have that same opportunity today as much has changed over the last 30 years...
Times have changed a lot since the 80's, that's for sure.
I only know of one unilingual Anglophone here who is working outside a crappy call-centre, and that's because she teaches at one of the English colleges with a PhD. Truthfully, options are severely limited these days. There are certain fields which may permit it, but you are at a disadvantage, of course.
Times have changed a lot since the 80's, that's for sure.
I only know of one unilingual Anglophone here who is working outside a crappy call-centre, and that's because she teaches at one of the English colleges with a PhD. Truthfully, options are severely limited these days. There are certain fields which may permit it, but you are at a disadvantage, of course.
Sad when you see that unilingualism for francophones is essentially being encouraged by the provincial government.
Sad when you see that unilingualism for francophones is essentially being encouraged by the provincial government.
Unilingual?
No, not at all. Not sure if you are reading it much over there in Ontario, but many francophone children are in bilingual immersion by age 11 now here. The government would like to expand this to all of them. I don't know many unilingual French who can get jobs in Montreal. Nearly all job advertisements demand bilingualism or at least anglais fonctionnel.
I am an ESL teacher here and job demand for me has never been better!
No, not at all. Not sure if you are reading it much over there in Ontario, but many francophone children are in bilingual immersion by age 11 now here. The government would like to expand this to all of them. I don't know many unilingual French who can get jobs in Montreal. Nearly all job advertisements demand bilingualism or at least anglais fonctionnel.
I am an ESL teacher here and job demand for me has never been better!
True, about 2/3rds of Francophones say they're bilingual, and in my experience I've tended to meet more older unilingual Francohpones rather then younger ones. But, despite this being the case, with the job market demanding bilingualism and individuals choosing to learn English, it is the truth that the government itself does discourage the learning of English through various policies, even if people ignore them.
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