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I'm often surprised how little French people seem to know about Canada and Quebec. It doesn't really feel the same as the Anglo-sphere, where an American for example will typically know quite a bit about smaller societies that speak English, like Australia and English Canada, especially if they plan to say, visit or immigrate to those places. The lack of familiarity with the accent seems especially surprising, considering how many French language entertainers, films, musical acts, and television programs come out of Canada in general and Quebec in particular. I spoke to French tourist once in my heavily accented (Anglo) French for 20 minutes and she didn't realize I wasn't a native French Quebecker until I told her because to her, we were all just people with funny accents she was barely familiar with! You wouldn't see the same with an English Canadian visiting Ireland, say, where they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an Irish English speaker and a Romanian immigrant speaking English. Is there a great lack of cultural contact between Quebec and France? What accounts for this surprisingly great divide?
Inasmuch as there can be a "good" or "bad" side to something like this, I'd say you've just been unlucky with the people you've run into.
And it also extends across the Francophonie and to anyone who's even been exposed to French (even if non-francophones). If I am speaking French I'll get people who recognize my accent all the time. It's happened all over the world. I am fond of saying that if I parachuted into the middle of the jungle in the Congo, within seconds people would know exactly where I am from - as soon as opened my mouth.
So the short answer is: I don't think there is a great divide. We're actually closer on a cultural/human level at the moment than the Anglo-Canadians and British are. This wasn't always the case BTW, and the change is fairly recent (20-30 years).
I don't actually find the article to be that bad, although the title is a bit off as it gives the impression all is negative. When you read the entire article you really don't get the impression that French immigration to Quebec is an overwhelming "failure", but rather that the are both good and bad experiences.
On this last one the accent and expressions are very bad. Ironically the actor is from Quebec but has lived in Paris for a number of years.
These things are really hard to find in the French mediasphere. And in order for them to "work", people have to get the reference.
They don't do this with Canadians or their accent in the UK. (If they do something similar, I suspect it's Australia that is the target.)
I don't think it was her intention, but Sophia Aram just gave the perfect display of how the Quebecois accent sounds so much better than the French one.
I don't think it was her intention, but Sophia Aram just gave the perfect display of how the Quebecois accent sounds so much better than the French one.
I'm often surprised how little French people seem to know about Canada and Quebec. It doesn't really feel the same as the Anglo-sphere, where an American for example will typically know quite a bit about smaller societies that speak English, like Australia and English Canada, especially if they plan to say, visit or immigrate to those places. The lack of familiarity with the accent seems especially surprising, considering how many French language entertainers, films, musical acts, and television programs come out of Canada in general and Quebec in particular. I spoke to French tourist once in my heavily accented (Anglo) French for 20 minutes and she didn't realize I wasn't a native French Quebecker until I told her because to her, we were all just people with funny accents she was barely familiar with! You wouldn't see the same with an English Canadian visiting Ireland, say, where they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an Irish English speaker and a Romanian immigrant speaking English. Is there a great lack of cultural contact between Quebec and France? What accounts for this surprisingly great divide?
In general, the French think of themselves as the center of the French-speaking universe, and since their country is by far the largest first-world French-speaking society, they're kind of right. For the average French person, every other French-speaking country or region is small and unimportant, so they just don't pay that much attention to it.
The Brits kind of would be the same way (and I think used to be), except for the fact that the US is approximately five times larger by population. Also, for decades the US has been much richer (I guess less so now) and the dominance of Hollywood movies and culture has meant the US is glamorous. So your average Brit has a cultural familiarity with the US that far exceeds any knowledge that French people have about the other French-speaking places in the world. The Brits have basically gotten used to the fact that THEY are now a minority society in the Anglosphere, rather than the primary reference point. The French haven't, because they remain the most important player in their linguistic space.
They don't do this with Canadians or their accent in the UK. (If they do something similar, I suspect it's Australia that is the target.)
Haha - that's because there are only like six people in all of the UK that can tell the difference between a Canadian accent and the Northern US. And the Brits do often make fun of how Americans speak - although, as I pointed out before, less so now than in the past because the Brits are now far more used to North American English.
One thing that I just realized - in the UK, they get SOOO much US programming in their standard cable packages. So pretty much everyone under the age of ... 40? ... is at least somewhat familiar now with not only the varieties of English spoken in the US but also the cultural references. They watch Family Guy, FFS...
Haha - that's because there are only like six people in all of the UK that can tell the difference between a Canadian accent and the Northern US. And the Brits do often make fun of how Americans speak - although, as I pointed out before, less so now than in the past because the Brits are now far more used to North American English.
One thing that I just realized - in the UK, they get SOOO much US programming in their standard cable packages. So pretty much everyone under the age of ... 40? ... is at least somewhat familiar now with not only the varieties of English spoken in the US but also the cultural references. They watch Family Guy, FFS...
And the consumption by Brits of low-brow American stuff (from Jerry Springer back in the day to Honey Boo-Boo more recently) means the average person in the UK can understand just about anything that comes out of an American's mouth.
For BIMBAM and the others: keep in mind the Francophonie has a bunch of accents: Parisian, southern France (Midi), Caribbean, African, Arab, etc. and variations within all of these. Out of all them, the Quebec accent is generally considered to be the most "out there", and as such is kind of the Francophonie's equivalent to the Southern American or Texas accent in the Anglosphere.
Is there a return sentiment from Quebecers? Do Quebecers want to immigrate to France?
I guess this is what I hear tourists to France suffer. I hear that tourists to France suffer the same things that the article describes about French immigrants. I even heard that some Japanese tourists committed suicide after they went to Paris and it did not turn out like they had hoped.
Also Canada is funny in that it has lot of land and resources, but not enough people. If you want to seek your fortune here, going into the hinterland may be the only option. So you will need to brave the harsh climates to do this.
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