Will I have language difficulties in Montreal?
 

I am going to visit Montreal this autumn and I heard that French is often used as a daily language of Montrealers. I can speak English but I can't speak French. Will I have any difficulties communicating with the people?

On the whole, no. A large majority (65-70%) of the population of Montreal is bilingual French/English. In tourist-popular areas and downtown, people in the service industry are uniformly used to many tourists/businessmen from the US and English Canada and will be able to communicate with you. In the west of Montreal Island, you will run into many who speak English as their mother tongue. Only in residential neighborhoods in the east of Montreal island, all but the west of Laval and the South Shore will you run into sizeable numbers of unilingual francophones.

Hi Adi,<BR>I was in Montreal in January and I don't speak a word of French. I never had any problem using English. The only time I wasn't understood was when I asked a taxi driver to take me to a lake with a French name and he didn't understand my pronunciation. I cleared that up by pointing to it on my map. You'll be fine with English only.

Adi,<BR>If you stay in the tourist areas of Montreal, you should expect that people speak English. People switch from French vs English readily, sometimes in the same sentence. I think this is unique to Canada.

Adi, everywhere you will be greated with "bonjour". Just reply "hello" and they will switch to english. There are more english then french channels on TV. The only place where english was not spoken was a small shop where I was buying a sweater for my husband. The salesperson was from Peru (i think). But I doubt she spoke french. Just in case - have your hotel address written on a piece of paper or get a business card if you can't pronounce it. I couldn't so I just showed my confirmation with the hotel name on it to the taxi driver :) John, it's nice to know I was not the only one :)

The rule of thumb is: East of Blvd St.Laurent is more French than west of St.Laurent. Not to worry as most speak English.

Canadians like to say (as a way to differentiate themselves from Americans) that Canada is a bilingual country, In reality, the only place in Canada that is truly bilingual is Montreal.