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Anyway, on the inside front cover of the grammar book that every French kid had in school, it was written INTERDIT DE VENTE AU CANADA (not for sale in Canada).
The punch to the gag was: "So that's why they speak like they do!"
(Of course, the real reason it was not supposed to be sold in Canada was because another publisher had the rights to sell it here. But one should never let facts get in the way of a joke, good or bad.)
There are several videos on YouTube that discuss differences in pronunciation or vocabulary. Videos that show the lyrics to songs by contemporary Quebecois musicians can also be instructive (for example, "Toune d'Automne", by Les Cowboys Fringants).
Are there any apps or websites that teach Quebecois French? Too bad it's too niche for Duolingo for now.
It has been explained before : written French is the same on both sides of the Atlantic. The accents and a few words are different, but overall the difference is about the same as American English vs British English.
Also, learning the slangy variant of Quebec French (assuming such a formal program existed in class or online) is no the best approach. You generally need to learn the standard of any language in order to open up the doors of any colloquial variants.
Now, it is not uncommon to meet older anglophones in Montreal (and in Ottawa to some degree) who learned slangy French on the streets, hanging out or playing road hockey with francophones for example.
But what you will find is that these people cannot really use their French for any practical purpose other than swigging back some beers and watching the game with the boys.
For example, here is that song quoted above as an example. I have bolded the terms that I think might not be intuitive to someone from France (though I may have missed one or two and some might be known in France too). The song contains many pronunciation short cuts but the vast majority of it is still based in standard French.
There are several videos on YouTube that discuss differences in pronunciation or vocabulary. Videos that show the lyrics to songs by contemporary Quebecois musicians can also be instructive (for example, "Toune d'Automne", by Les Cowboys Fringants).
LOVE LOVE LOVE that song! It's so melancholy - makes me melt a little bit whenever I hear it.
LOVE LOVE LOVE that song! It's so melancholy - makes me melt a little bit whenever I hear it.
Yeah, I like it too. It's almost like an Irish song but in French. This band and several others in Quebec have very obvious Irish influences in their music.
"Quebec is described as a matriarchal society ("Feministan")"
Been wanting to move to Quebec but this quote from the article is important to me. Since I'm a male, feminism is useless to me. I don't want to live in a feminist society, so I think forgoing Quebec is a good idea. I've read a lot of talk about how feminist Quebec is and that's put me off more than the weather. I can deal with cold weather. I don't care for cold women.
Lise Theirault said she's not feminist but egalitarian last month and "WHAM!" it's been all over the English-speaking and French-speaking news! The outrage over this is so huge you'd think she'd have said some derogatory slur or said she admires Hitler! Just google her name and the number of articles about that will come into the dozens before you reach page 10.
In any case, there are so much talk about Quebec being Feministan that I've lost interest in moving there. Rather than calling Quebec French, I'd say it's Scandinavian.
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It's so melancholy - makes me melt a little bit whenever I hear it.
