mercredi 17 septembre 2008

English and french in montreal

I was born in Montreal, in a french speaking family & as I grew older I realised that if I wanted to work somewhere else or let alone Live somewhere else, I would have to speak english. Now all my friends are anglophones and I spend most of my time speaking english unless Im home. This is just to say that I know some francophones can be rude when they hear anglophones talking but that is just a minority in Montreal. I mean if you move to Quebec city, then you'll know how it feels to be surrounded by people who just hate you because you are not french. Here in Montreal, (most of the time) as long as you just put a little effort in trying to speak french people are happy. It pisses me off too when I hear : "Hey on est au Québec ici, parle français Osti!" but that usually comes from ignorant douche bags who have no idea we can switch from french to english depending on who we are speaking to.
Although, I agree that it is a little rude when anglophones purposely DON'T try to speak french AT ALL when they are in a store or a restaurant, especially when they see the people struggling to understand & answer. I mean, if you went to Italy, wouldnt you TRY to speak italian because you are in their country? And if you went to mexico, wouldnt you TRY to speak spanish, just out of respect?
If you come from another province or country and can't speak french at all, you'll eventually pick up a few phrases you can use in your everyday life & that's fine but I got to be the devil's advocate here and say that the francophones are not the only ones being bluntly rude. It goes both ways.

Aucun commentaire: