How French is Montréal? (📸: @boogie.chillen )
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The Québécois (like most French-speaking populations) are quite protective of their language. Store and road signs in Montréal are almost always in French. English and French menus both exist, but you are likely to receive the French one first, and be greeted in French as you enter. About 60% of Montréal is fully bilingual in French and English (at least), and most others can get around with some conversational French. Business communication is officially conducted in French.
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This makes #Montréal a popular city for immigrants from countries around the world that have French as either their primary or secondary language, and quite diverse in terms of population: many newer residents hail from France, Haiti, Morocco, Lebanon, Algeria. I found myself in a couple of discussions centered around the question of: “what passports (plural assumed) do you have?” This large immigrant population also makes Montréal Canada’s most trilingual city, with almost a quarter of its population fluent in three languages.
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Even though in terms of native speakers, Montreal is the second largest French-speaking city in the world after Paris, Quebec French is decidedly different from Metropolitan French in France in accent, slang, formality, and other details, mostly influenced by its North American location. It is more informal in everyday use, and several English words have been adopted as slang in Quebec French.
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So can you get around Montréal without French while visiting? Yes, with no problems. But if it’s a place you are considering moving to and working in, French fluency seems to be highly, highly recommended. Good news: Canada, in its usual polite, generous, Canadian way, does offer free French classes to immigrants. So for those Americans who always say they want to move to Canada, I guess there’s hope!
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