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There are a lot of quebeckers here. Are you going to immigrate from Magog to Matane ?
Get a job guys ! Oh... yeah... You live in Quebec...
Anyway.
Here, an article about the illiteracy in Quebec. Another troll probably wrote it...
But please, don't realize the extent of your own ignorance and keep thinking you speak french. In France, as you know we have a lot of fun because of you...
Well, my French grammar is every bit as good (actually it's better) than that of the average Jean-Pierre in France.
And it's certainly good enough to know the meaning of the word "acharnement".
Or the proverb "Qui veut noyer son chien l'accuse de la rage".
I'll have to check, because as far as I knew Jacques Cartier didn't even try to establish a settlement colony in Canada. He just explored the place, and it took more than 60 years after his last voyage, during which the French were mired in wars of religion, before they actually started sending settlers.
I guess it's possible that Cartier had the goal of establishing a settlement colony, but failed at it. So it didn't leave any trace in Canada's population history.
I don't often link Wikipedia to this forum as some of the information is questionable but I did come across some interesting information here:
Sure enough, Cartier did try to settle present day Quebec and among the people brought over were convicts as the Wikipedia article states. The settlement was called Charlsbourg-Royal. You and Acajack were absolutely right in that the settlement utterly failed however and the few survivors were supposedly repatriated to France. That's the part I forgot about. It has been awhile since I studied this history I admit.
Like it was already written, French have a problem understanding some accents from Quebec because they were never exposed to them. Some people saw Quebec movies and have a small understanding of the differences between the grammar in the two places, but most just heard humorist imitating the quebec accent (humorists love to joke on accents in France), and those are quite bad. Still, a French will easily understand most of the population of Montreal. Further he would go north, more he would struggle. Moreover French and French-Canadians use different anglicism and expressions. A good one is the word "foufoune" which mean vagina in France. And I honestly admit I smiled when I read on the door of a Burger King something like :
"Poussez
Si vous avez les mains pleines,
essayez avec votre foufoune."
And quebecers are nor worse nor better in grammar than French, nowadays it's hard to meet a young adult who doesn't write like a 12 years old from decades ago. I think we may just see more errors in Quebec because the foreign born population is bigger and many anglophones also live here.
This is really not different than Yanks who go to the UK and get culture shock.
As George Bernard Shaw said, America and Britain are countries divided by a common language.
So perhaps in the same manner, some of these French immigrants to Quebec were fooling themselves that they could drop into a different country with a similar if not same language, without realizing that there would still be a cultural adjustment. Quebec may be francophone, but it is Canada, a country with a distinct culture or cultures.
It appears to me that it is those French people who are not prepared to live in a completely different country across the Atlantic, more than anything else. They decided to move back because they can't handle the discomfort of not being familiar with everything, including language issues. The thought the transition should be seamless, or very short, but guess what, 500 years later, people live differently on a different continent.
As an immigrant, I and all my friends knew what to expect before moving to an English speaking country - we might not understand some of the things people speak, we may have trouble ordering food (I still need to ask silly questions in Canadian restaurants), we may have to accept lower level jobs than we used to hold, we may make stupid mistakes in daily lives - all the awkwardness associated with being an immigrant. So what? Most of us survived it and adjusted. It is just part of life, and as a first generation immigrant such awkwardness will always exist. Most of us still don't speak completely fluent English, and may still hold jobs one or two levels below our qualifications.
But these French people found it unacceptable, despite the fact such issues are way smaller compared with for example, an immigrant from Asia. A friend of mine moved to Montreal many years ago, and in order to find a good job, she did a second bachelor's degree from scratch. She still doesn't speak good French today but she didn't say "I am sick of it. I am out of here". Another friend who didn't speak any French move to Montreal 4 years ago and lived there ever since. I don't think his life is perfect but he never complains about how weird Quebec is - because it is supposed to be weird.
After all, it is these French who are spoiled, entitlement and fragile. They are not ready to live in a different culture, albeit a highly similar language environment, and are unwilling to accept the fact they are a culturally awkward immigrant. Instead, they think just because they are from France, everything should be smooth sailing and they would blend in the mainstream Quebec society seamlessly within days. This is really a first world mentality rarely seen among immigrants from poorer countries, who usually come with a much better mentality.
It appears to me that it is those French people who are not prepared to live in a completely different country across the Atlantic, more than anything else. They decided to move back because they can't handle the discomfort of not being familiar with everything, including language issues. The thought the transition should be seamless, or very short, but guess what, 500 years later, people live differently on a different continent.
As an immigrant, I and all my friends knew what to expect before moving to an English speaking country - we might not understand some of the things people speak, we may have trouble ordering food (I still need to ask silly questions in Canadian restaurants), we may have to accept lower level jobs than we used to hold, we may make stupid mistakes in daily lives - all the awkwardness associated with being an immigrant. So what? Most of us survived it and adjusted. It is just part of life, and as a first generation immigrant such awkwardness will always exist. Most of us still don't speak completely fluent English, and may still hold jobs one or two levels below our qualifications.
But these French people found it unacceptable, despite the fact such issues are way smaller compared with for example, an immigrant from Asia. A friend of mine moved to Montreal many years ago, and in order to find a good job, she did a second bachelor's degree from scratch. She still doesn't speak good French today but she didn't say "I am sick of it. I am out of here". Another friend who didn't speak any French move to Montreal 4 years ago and lived there ever since. I don't think his life is perfect but he never complains about how weird Quebec is - because it is supposed to be weird.
After all, it is these French who are spoiled, entitlement and fragile. They are not ready to live in a different culture, albeit a highly similar language environment, and are unwilling to accept the fact they are a culturally awkward immigrant. Instead, they think just because they are from France, everything should be smooth sailing and they would blend in the mainstream Quebec society seamlessly within days. This is really a first world mentality rarely seen among immigrants from poorer countries, who usually come with a much better mentality.
This is a good post.
In fairness, most French immigrants to Quebec are not like this. I know a bunch of them (friends, neighbours, spouses of relatives, colleagues, parents of my kids' friends, businessowners I patronize, etc.) and they're all pretty cool and definitely an asset to our society. I'd take as many as want to come TBQH.
They don't really speak french. And I don't say that because of their accent. In France, there a lot of accents and we understand each others. In Morocco, Belgium or Senegal their french is perfect. They have an accent and their french is pretty good.
But quebecois have their own language using their own grammar, vocabulary and syntax.
For exemple, in France when we ask a question, we say :
That means absolutly nothing in french. If I try to translate it in english it's like :
"You know you where are my keys"
You can catch the meaning but it sounds really weird when you are a french native speaker. And nobody in a french school will teach you that, no matter where you learn french.
They make a lot of mistakes when they speak french and when they write it. The french level here is awful.
And what is bizarre, their english is perfect. When they speak english, you think their mother tongue is english. Their pronunciation of letter as "h","r","th" is perfect. Ask to anyone in France to pronunce "th" and they will suffocate on their own vomit before to be able to tell you "thursday".
But if you ask to a quebecois how to pronounce the french words "toi","ici" or "maman" (you, here , mother), you would ask yourself where they learnt french.
I'm ok with the fact you can make mistakes if you speak a second language as I do when I speak or write english. But why do they pretend to speak french when every times they talk, they kill it ? They should say they speak quebecois and not french.
Also I could be more tolerant with their way of speaking french. But they think they are "The French". They think they are the only ones to speak french in the good way, and the others who come from France or a french country, it's them who don't know how to speak it well.
It's so damn irritating...
That sounds like Cajun French, which is derived from Canadian French (Acadia).
But of course, that logic is lost on most of you bigots.
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