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Comment by fungos | Hacker News Reader

As an immigrant that have chosen Québec, I can say that one of the various reasons why I've chose this province (and city for the matter) is this distancing from religion and as a bonus the catholic bad words.

I simple love it and I love the history of how this come to be. But tabarnak, even after some years here I'm not able to use it naturally. The english words always get out instinctively, even english being my third language!

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I'm also an immigrant in Québec (and Québec City), I've been here for 17 years though so I basically grew up a Québecois after having been a little German boy and being born in Bosnia. Where are you from originally?

I'm from Brazil. I'm about 3,5 years in Québec City now.

Even if it doesn't sound natural we like it when you try (especially the swear words) :)

Yeah true! Others reactions to when I succeed at using is amazing :)

I am an anglo who speaks french (like an anglo) and don't think I have amused my Quebecois friends more than when I used 'tabernouche' in a conversation.

It's a bit of a pro-tip for anglos - you can sound a bit crass going full-on tabernak calise etc., but droping the 'tabernouche' with anglo accent wins every time.

>I am an anglo who speaks french (like an anglo) and don't think I have amused my Quebecois friends more than when I used 'tabernouche' in a conversation

This makes sense to me. A summer job I once had featured a very clever Polish émigré who was still basically learning English. At one point, he was furiously angry (after having dropped a heavy and expensive yet eminently breakable object on his foot) and shouted "GULL DANGIT" in the manner of actually swearing.

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