I posted this on the Educational Travel site (no response yet) and have found a similar thread on the Canadian site, but thought that I might find someone on the Europe site who had an answer....


I have spent a couple of weeks learning French in France and am considering, for reasons of economy primarily, looking into spending a week or two learning French in Montreal or elsewhere in Quebec. I feel like I have encountered some French schools-based in France-that have programs in Montreal. I would ideally like to have true French instructors (native French speakers.)
Any leads on good programs in Canada?
Thanks!

Make sure you get to learn French French. Quebecois is frankly not French at all.

Recently I witnessed a Quebecois trying to speak "French" to a French Caribbean, and after a few trial sentences and several exchanges of blank looks, they finished communicating in English.

French language instructors in Quebec speak (and teach) STANDARD French - although if you ask them nicely they may teach you a few uniquely Quebecois expressions.

Of course people in Quebec speak real french!

I would recommend Quebec City. Check out the University of Laval, they have a French for Non-Francophones program that is very good.

In QC you are immersed in french, in Montreal a large part of the populations speaks English as well (which may be why the above poster said its not real french, it becomeas Franglais...a mix of french and english). But its slang...no school would teach you that!

Quebec is a lovely city, very safe anbd beautiful. I spent a year at the universisy of Laval and studied french. It was a wonderful experience.

One more thing...like english, not all french speakers speak the same french. Quebecois french tends to have a lot more traditional french in it, where france french has different elements as it has evolved differently. Same can be said for Canadian English, British English, Aussie English. Its still English, and quebecois french is still french!

I speak some french and find the Montreal accent strange. Its more cajun like than what you hear in France.

I agree. Quebec city would be a better city to look for French speaking courses etc. Montreal has too many Englsih speaking areas. I think you would be disappointed. Check out the university of Laval as suggested. Good Luck...Ptm

I second jamikins comments on learning French in Canada. Québec is much preferable to Montréal, as the latter is far too bilingual a place for any sort of immersion in the language. Laval University (which dates back to 1663) has a good language school, and Québec is a wonderful milieu in which to study. http://www.elul.ulaval.ca/sgc/pid/6344

If you want a real immersion experience, the University of Western Ontario has for the past 75 years run a language school at Trois Pistoles, a small town on the St. Lawrence downriver from Québec City.

http://www.uwo.ca/cstudies/tp/

As others have remarked, instruction will be in international French, so you should have no worries on that account. You may have difficulties understanding two Québecois speaking to each other, as they will often speak in the local dialect known as "joual", but they will certainly speak to you in perfectly understandable French. But that's the same with dialects in all international languages.

Other than a few vocabulary words, the only difference between the French spoken in Canada and that spoken in France is the accent. It is also an absolute myth that a French Canadian and a French person cannot easily communicate. People who say so have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

I would also warn the OP that if she is looking to have "true French instructors," she should determine exactly what that means, because even within France there is the so called Parisian French accent and then there are all those regional accents. In other words, not even all those "native French speakers" will sound exactly alike. Its like comparing BBC English with the English that is actually spoken all over the UK.

There is only one French language, just as there is only one English language. There are plenty of variations in each, though.

The last time I visited Montréal, though, I could have sworn I'd taken the wrong flight and ended up in the Périgord.

I learnt my french in Quebec, am bilingual, and have not had any major problems in France. Yes, the accent is different, there are cultural twists to the language, but I find I can easily "clean up" my french to be more 'continental' than Quebecois.

Even within Quebec there are different flavours of french, just like someone from New Orleans sounds different than someone from NYC. I would say that the "purest" french in Quebec would be in the Quebec city area, home of the seat of government. I would take my courses there, and I believe that is the region where the Canadian govermnet sends its employees to learn the language.

Strange story, I'm buying a jambon/gruyere snadwich last november at Galeries Lafayette in Paris. The lady serving says "welcome, my quebec cousin", recognizing my accent. She then goes on to say that the Quebec accent resembles that from her area of France, Brittany. Interestingly enough, the discoverers and founders of Canada (Quebec) came from that region. So, in a really roundabout way, I have a link back to 16th century french/france...assuming she wasn't just trying to sell me a sandwich

Have traveled to europe several times with a client who is originally from Montreal and everyone in France - and even Belgium and Switzerland - knew immediately he was Canadian. They had no trobule communicating (except for an occasional idiom) but the accent is obviously different - and can be noted in even one or two sentences.

So - just be sure you're getting the standard French/French unless you don;t mind ending up sounding Canadian.

There is no such thing as 'British English'! It's just 'English'.