Montréal is a fun, vibrant, and diverse city with a great deal to offer young people. There are many reasons to move to the biggest city in la belle province, the chance to learn French amongst the majority francophone populace being one of the top.
Many Canadians from the ROC (rest-of-Canada), as well as a significant number of Americans, move to Montréal with bright optimistic sparkles in their eyes, saying to themselves, "I'm moving to Montréal so I'm going to learn French!" Or, as is often the case, they are complacent with their grade twelve French-language education obtained in Kenora, Kelowna, Kentville or wherever and have a strong belief that they are already fully in the know and will be able to speak with the best of them once established in the city. After spending a few years in Montréal, however, the majority of Anglophones have only marginally improved their capacities in the language of Molière. But why do some Anglophones succeed and others fail in this endeavour?
The problem stems from the fact that Montréal has a large Anglophone population and that most of its Francophones speak a pretty good English.
In Montréal, whether a conversation between an Anglophone and a Francophone takes place in English or French will depend on four things:
- the Anglophone's ability to speak French,
- the Francophone's ability to speak English,
- the stubbornness of the Anglophone in keeping the conversation going in French (or conversely, his or her shyness and lack of confidence in doing this),
- and finally, the stubbornness of the Francophone in keeping the conversation going in English (or conversely, his or her shyness and lack of confidence in doing this).
As an Anglophone learning French, you can control only two of these. The following tips aim to help Anglophones arriving in Montréal to maximize the amount of French "immersion" they get through optimizing these two variables, as well as ensuring communication in French becomes a day-to-day happening:
1. Speak in French as often as you can
This is the obvious one. Whether you are buying a ticket for the métro, ordering une pinte de rousse at a microbrasserie, or asking for directions, always start out in French. Formulate what you're going to say in your head and then blurt it out. Whether or not the person understands you right away and whether or not you understand his or her response is irrelevant. The point is to speak French as much as possible. And just adding a measly "merci" when ordering does not count!
2. Be selective when making friends
It sounds harsh and pretentious, but it is something everyone automatically does anyway, albeit different people to different extents. So, if you are really serious about learning French, why not do your best to surround yourself with French-speakers. Do this and you will invariably be hearing and speaking more French.
I am recommending that you maximize the amount of Francophone friends you have by pursuing the friendships you form with Francophones more actively than those you form with Anglophones. How you do this is up to you.
Of course, in following this rule, don't avoid becoming good friends with someone you really get along with because they are an Anglophone and, likewise, don't become friends with some wanker just because he's a francophone! The extent to which you should follow this rule is your choice.
Aside: Be warned that many young people from France - and there are a tonne of them on university exchanges and Working Holiday Visas in Montréal - are going to want to do the exact same thing (but with the languages reversed, of course) to help themselves learn English during their stay in Montréal. This can lead to some very aggressive and infuriating attempts on both sides to direct the conversation into the language of the other. To an external observer, these conversations can often be a source of great humour!
3. Integrate French-language media into your life as much as possible
This one is rather easy to do, but you have to make sure you use it. For the absolute beginner, this may be something you'll want to do a little down the road. For those who are initiated in the language, there is no reason you should not be doing this right now. When you read news online, try to read it in French (see SRC, Le Devoir, or RFI, for example). Use Facebook? Change your language settings to "Français (Canada)." Watch CBC? Watch Radio-Canada (with closed captioning, if desired) instead. Taking the métro? Read the free "Métro" or (the slightly trashier) "24H" publications being handed out at the entrances. Like books? Read French-language books. And so on and so on.
Sure it will take you longer to decipher and you will likely not understand 100% of the content, but you will be doing yourself a favour. Coupling written media with conversation is an excellent way to simultaneously improve your written and spoken French.
There are some tools I recommend you add to Firefox (there are surely equivalents for other browsers): "Wordreference en-->fr" and "Wordreference fr-->en" are great bilingual dictionary search bar plug-ins for quick definition look-ups. For news, adding RSS feeds of French news sources is a great idea.
4. Keep a list of words that you learn
Whether this is a digital or physical document is up to you, but keeping a list of your new French words is a great way to help your brain retain new information. If you are a student, or work in a job where you are often in front of a computer, one suggestion is to create a Google Document or continuously-editable e-mail draft with all your new words. Try to put in a few everyday. The simple act of looking up a definition - or asking someone what a certain word means - and then typing or writing it down will greatly aid you in expanding your vocabulary.
5. Drink and be social (en français, ôstie!)
This is most useful when you are at the point when you have a decent vocabulary, but are lacking in practise and confidence in using it. But it is recommended at all stages. Drinking, as most of us know and appreciate, lets us feel a little bit looser and slightly more daring, great things for someone trying to speak a new language! Many people learning a language will tell you that they speak better when they are drinking. And this is probably true, although part of it is a matter of altered perception.
There is one caveat. Over the course of a night, as you are consuming more and more La Fin du Monde and your French speaking abilities are rivaling those of native speakers, you will retaining fewer and fewer of the words you're learning. However, I am a staunch believer that alcohol presents a stronger benefit to the sociable French-learner than it does hindrance. Alors, buvez et jasez autant que possible!
6. Avoid Anglophone-dominated enclaves in the city
This one is a bit tricky if you are not yet familiar with the city of Montréal, so I will try to give some examples after outlining the rationale for this tip. In deciding where to live and what parts of the city to frequent, you can help yourself be exposed to more French. This ties in a lot with Tips #1, 2 and 7.
In Montréal, there are several quartiers where you probably shouldn't live if you are really, really serious about immersing yourself. This is not to say that they are not interesting areas, just that in these areas, you will come across more Anglos than French-speakers. At some level, it is at least interesting to be have a basic idea of some of the linguistic regions of the city!
The McGill Ghetto (roughly defined as the area bounded by rue Sherbrooke on the S side, boulevard St-Laurent on the E side, ave. des Pins on the N, and rue University on the W), due to its proximity to McGill University, is dominated by English-speakers. You will learn very little French living in this part of the city.
Mile-End is a fun place with some great shops and bars, despite now being overrun with hipsters. Francophones here are plentiful, but are far from the majority.
"The West Island" refers, ostensibly, to the west of the island of Montréal, a very anglophone-dominated. Most of the communities here decided to secede from the forced unification of the City of Montréal
Westmount, is the traditional seat of Anglophone dominance of majority-Francophone Montréal. Many Québecois still hold this part of the city in contempt and it is probably not the best part of the city for learning French.
Other places deserve mention too. Downtown, especially the Concordia University area and towards the west, is very English and won't be your best bet for getting your français up to par. The Plateau is a very fun and diverse arrondisement that is, in my opinion, the most fun and interesting part of the city. It is worth knowing that from boul. St-Laurent west is very English (see Mile-End and the McGill Ghetto above) and from St-Denis east is very French.
All-in-all, the linguistic boundaries of the city are partly imaginary and you will likely figure out fairly quickly where there are more English or French speakers (and additionally, where there are lots of Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Arabic, etc. speakers). The point of this tip is just to say that that if you move to Montréal and, for example, live in Westmount and go to Concordia, or live in the McGill Ghetto and go to McGill, expect to find becoming bilingual rather tedious!
In Montréal, there are several quartiers where you probably shouldn't live if you are really, really serious about immersing yourself. This is not to say that they are not interesting areas, just that in these areas, you will come across more Anglos than French-speakers. At some level, it is at least interesting to be have a basic idea of some of the linguistic regions of the city!
The McGill Ghetto (roughly defined as the area bounded by rue Sherbrooke on the S side, boulevard St-Laurent on the E side, ave. des Pins on the N, and rue University on the W), due to its proximity to McGill University, is dominated by English-speakers. You will learn very little French living in this part of the city.
Mile-End is a fun place with some great shops and bars, despite now being overrun with hipsters. Francophones here are plentiful, but are far from the majority.
"The West Island" refers, ostensibly, to the west of the island of Montréal, a very anglophone-dominated. Most of the communities here decided to secede from the forced unification of the City of Montréal
Westmount, is the traditional seat of Anglophone dominance of majority-Francophone Montréal. Many Québecois still hold this part of the city in contempt and it is probably not the best part of the city for learning French.
Other places deserve mention too. Downtown, especially the Concordia University area and towards the west, is very English and won't be your best bet for getting your français up to par. The Plateau is a very fun and diverse arrondisement that is, in my opinion, the most fun and interesting part of the city. It is worth knowing that from boul. St-Laurent west is very English (see Mile-End and the McGill Ghetto above) and from St-Denis east is very French.
All-in-all, the linguistic boundaries of the city are partly imaginary and you will likely figure out fairly quickly where there are more English or French speakers (and additionally, where there are lots of Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Arabic, etc. speakers). The point of this tip is just to say that that if you move to Montréal and, for example, live in Westmount and go to Concordia, or live in the McGill Ghetto and go to McGill, expect to find becoming bilingual rather tedious!
7. Live with Francophones
Living with des colocs francophones will definitely help you learn the language. Even if they are perfectly bilingual and mostly speak to you in English, they will be happy to help you out now and then with words and constructs you don't understand. Furthermore, through them you will likely make more Francophone friends, maybe even the magic one who only speaks to you in French.
8. Get out of town
Once you leave Montréal, you will find that the relatively high amount of English-speakers in the city is a bit of an anomaly in the province of Québec. Outside of Montréal, with exception of the eastern townships, there are very few Anglopones in the province. Trips out of the city can be a great chance to immerse yourself into the language and to expose yourself to a larger variety of accents (some arguably more pleasant to the ear than others!).
9. Meet that special someone
This could be your silver bullet. Doing this right might turn you fully fluent in a few months flat. Mix a bit of tips #1, 2, 5 and 6 together, add some charm and a dash of instinct, and you may find yourself with une baise, or better yet, une blonde or un chum.
There is no understating how much a francophone girlfriend or boyfriend who speaks with you in French (even if it's just part of the time) can improve your French. Sharing pillows, as the euphemistic adage goes, is the best way to learn to speak a language. In what other situation can you have multiple hours per day of interaction in the language you are trying to learn, as well as many other benefits? This is, in my opinion, the most enjoyable and most effective method for learning any language. And who knows, you might just find le grand amour...
Whew. So there they are, my 9 tips. They are mostly directed at 20-something-year-old Anglophones moving to Montréal, but I think they can be of use to a variety of people striving to learn French through real "immersion." I hope they help someone out.
And if you have any other tips that you find have helped you learn French in Montréal (or elsewhere), let me know in the comments. Bonne chance à tous!
