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Comment by jordigh | Hacker News Reader

In Québec, a number of people believe that being bilingual is merely an excuse to not learn French, and thus they feel that bilingualism encroaches upon French. They reason that if you see a sign that is both in English and French, then you'll feel no need to learn French, and thus French would lose ground. Since there is English all around Québec, English is in no similar peril.

There may be some merit to this theory, in view of the fate of Welsh or Gaelic in the British Isles, or of French in Louisiana or the Canadian Maritimes. It may well be that Québec's stubbornness against English is the only thing that is keeping the language alive. Even so, I wish that true bilinguals, of which there are many, especially in the Montréal area, would not become the collateral damage of this fight.

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A question about learning French in Québec:

I'll soon be moving to Québec to start graduate studies at McGill. I've spent the past year living in Germany and have gotten the language down quite well because people are very friendly and willing to help. I haven't taken any German lessons, just going out for a Stammtisch and having some liquid courage really washes away the trepidation of making a blunder and you learn from your mistakes.

I would like to learn French while in Québec. Are the Québec people just as inviting as the Germans when it comes to a foreigner trying to learn their language?

Yes.

As an 'Anglo' (actually of German origin), I've only had issues when Quebecers thought I was an actual Anglo and didn't make an effort to speak French. Once you speak a bit a bit of French and it's obvious you're trying they're generally happy to help. Occasionally I get unsolicited French lessons, which feels odd (once at the baker I had a case of 'you pronounced seigle wrong, repeat after me'..).

Although people may be switching to English once they notice the accent and the difficulty in communicating (although that probably happened a lot in Germany as well).

This is entirely anecdotal, however in my experience you will find that people in Montreal quite accommodating, especially if you are making a legitimate effort to speak French.

You won't find people to be quite as accommodating (in fact, people can be quite rude) in the smaller towns or areas outside of the major centers.

you can easily live 100% english in montreal, no one will even try to make you feel different

just speak english

> In Québec, a number of people believe that being bilingual is merely an excuse to not learn French, and thus they feel that bilingualism encroaches upon French.

That's a completely different meaning of bilingualism. The article is about people's bilingualism (so canadian speaking both english and french) not about bilingual signage.

Quebeckers against bilingualism don't see a real difference. In their view, signage or services (such as schools) in both languages endanger the status of French. At least, that's how I understand their position.

Again that's a different meaning of bilingualism, the article is about people fluent in multiple languages. I assume most Quebeckers are bilingual as is.

No. Most Quebeckers are not bilingual, and many of them do not want to be bilingual, as they believe that if they became bilingual, French would lose status.

They really do mean all meanings of bilingualism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_demographics_of_Quebe...

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I find those people are often happy to speak English once I've spent a few minutes torturing them with my appalling French.

It's a terrible disservice to people to cultivate that feeling in them. A language is an extremely valuable tool, and it must evolve to remain valuable or it will die.

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