nucklehead Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 On 5/14/2019 at 10:42 AM, riffraff said: Tabernac! "He tell me for a job, I ask him no". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewbieCanuckFan Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 On 5/14/2019 at 10:37 AM, The Game said: I probably should start off by saying that I’m a Swede living in Sweden, so my observations are done from afar. I was browsing Instagram when I came across the Luke Robitaille Stanley Cup video and it got me thinking; his English is really good, especially his pronunciation. I remember reading somewhere that Mario Lemieux basically didn’t speak any English at all until he was a teenager, so I started wondering why do French Canadians have such good English? In Sweden we’re taught English from elementary school, it (along with Swedish and math) is what’s known as a “core subject”, meaning you’re not allowed to fail it. Basically every Swede under the age of 70 is able to watch a movie in English without any issues. But (as I’m sure you’ve noticed with our hockey players) we can’t speak it nearly as well as we understand it. Apart from a few grammar issues (for example in Swedish we don’t differentiate between is and are) the main thing is that we’ve got a pretty wide (?) accent, you hear right away that it’s a Swede (or at least a Scandinavian) speaking when we do so (the only exceptions that I’ve come across are Nicklas Lidström and Gabriel Landeskog). I get that a lot of French Canadians probably are totally bilingual, but most aren’t, right? For example neither Roberto Luongo or Alain Vigneault seem to have English speaking parents, and they grew up in Quebec so they can’t have picked it up “naturally” either, and both their English are nearly flawless. Alex Burrows on the other hand has got a heavy accent, so this doesn’t apply to all French Canadians. My question is: is the “French Canadians have really good English”-thing something you guys agree with, and if so, why is that the case? Cheers! Edit: I get that they don’t get amazing English if they stay in Quebec, but if they move their English becomes much better then that of say a Swede’s. In many parts of Richmond, BC, one likely could get along reasonably in life without being literate in either official language. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewbieCanuckFan Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 On 5/14/2019 at 12:54 PM, RUPERTKBD said: My daughter went through French Immersion, right from kindergarten to graduation and you're correct.....they teach a Quebecois sort of French (mainly because most of the teachers are from Quebec). The one time my daughter had the opportunity to use her second language, was with a family of tourists from France and they had a hard time understanding each other. She did much better when visiting Montreal/Quebec City... Imagine trying to understand people with a fairly thick accent speaking “English” from various places like Scotland, Newfies, Cajuns, Bostonian, etc., 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift-4 Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I worked with a lady from Quebec She said she learned English from watching Friends lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofsurrey Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I find it odd how unilingual english canadians like to comment on Quebec french when.... they themselves only speech one language yet most Quebecs are can function in both English and French.... I have relatives in both Montreal and in Paris and they get together regularly.... not a big deal with the different accents...... Yes Quebec french is different than french from france..... but like someone said earlier.... English in Scotland is also a bit different than english in Ireland....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 (edited) Nothing to see here......move along Edited June 17, 2019 by Rob_Zepp duplicate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 On 5/14/2019 at 11:51 AM, -AJ- said: We also graduated 14 years apart so regulations may have changed in that time. Hopefully you both didn't start kindergarten at the same time...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucklehead Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 9 hours ago, Shift-4 said: I worked with a lady from Quebec She said she learned English from watching Friends lol hey, how you doin? eh, comment allez-vous? yeah new York sounds better lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofsurrey Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 Better topic would be English Canadians and their FRENCH . LOL ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarcore Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 (edited) 11 hours ago, kingofsurrey said: Better topic would be English Canadians and their FRENCH . LOL ..... I speak and read french fluently...not as well as I used to mind you but I can watch movies/tv, read books and still hold full conversations. I enjoy watching Habs games in french. My verb conjugation is fully off these days though...man french is right &^@#ed up there. I have spent time in Quebec living a whole summer with an ex there. I live in a place with a ton of Quebecois. I have spent months in France..twice. I have been to or met people from other french speaking areas....Tahitians speak flawless Parisian french fyi. The Quebecois very often mange to mangle both languages. The is a reason people from France look down on their use of french. Like with anyone in time it all evens out if you make the effort. Some of my friends from Quebec barely have an accent at this point and others have barely passable English after 5 years of being out west. Again it is all about making an effort. I've been told I don't have an accent when speaking French for the most part. Now that doesn't mean there aren't some English speaking areas that don't also mangle the language. Scousers (Liverpool), Glaswegians (and some other areas of Scotland) and full on Cockneys (they don't all sound like Michael Caine) are some fine examples of that. EDIT: I was reading a linguistics thesis that stated that the current eastern US accent is closer to what the British used to sound like than what England does now with all it's regional accents and slang dialects. Noam Chomsky's Nobel Prize winning study (universal grammar) on that we all learn language in our youth, regardless of which, in the same manner is rather interesting as well. 2nd EDIT: Of course most Canadians' french ability would be poor unless immersed in it or having made a point to study it. Somehow my buddy Shawn managed to live in Quebec City for two years and barely learn any with a Quebecois girlfriend. Always found that odd. Edited June 18, 2019 by Gnarcore 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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