What difficulties exist with a move from USA (New England) to Quebec City?

[lrfox]

^Hmm. Sounds like there could be some potential. Of course, if I did move, it would be a couple of years and things could change drastically. I would expect (and hope) most new development would take place outside of the historic core. If most operate regionally, it could mean trouble in slow times. For example, many developers and architectural firms in Boston have taken business over to China and Dubai while the market is slow. I'm guessing the language barriers may sort of stop many the local Quebec firms from doing the same.

However, if companies are looking for talent, it may be a bit easier to get involved up there. Thanks for the information.

[Verseau]

As a fellow New Englander who loves Quebec City, I just wanted to chime in on the language issue. You should definitely use all the resources you can find to start learning French, but you also really need to expose yourself to the Québécois accent. One possible idea is to get a French-Canadian film and then watch it with the French subtitles on, to see how they actually pronounce certain words. You can also watch Québécois TV and listen to radio on http://www.radio-canada.ca

Canadian French and European French (the kind typically tought to foreigners) are obviously the same language, but if you learn only European French and then move to Québec, you might have some comprehension difficulties. You would probably have the same kind of difficulties as someone who had studied British English and then moved to Arkansas or something.

Fortunately, the accent in Quebec City tends to be easier to understand than that in other parts of Québec. As a whole, French-Canadians tend to drop a lot of sounds when they speak casually, but that's something you would pick up on with enough exposure.

If you speak Spanish well, then you shouldn't find French grammar to be very difficult. The hardest part is the spelling and the pronunciation. The spelling follows some rather complicated rules (although it's not as confusing as English spelling), and the pronunciation just takes some practice, e.g. the nasal vowels (which are pronounced differently in Canada and France ).

[Robynator]

Totally random but an interesting read nonetheless... (an American friend of mine who has been studying in Montreal for 2 years had this blog posted to his own):

An American in Québec: Marie-Blanche’s Grandson Comes Back Home « AngryFrenchGuy (http://angryfrenchguy.com/2008/11/06/an-american-in-quebec-marie-blanches-grandson-comes-back-home/ - broken link)

[lrfox]

Thanks, Verseau, I had heard that there were significant differences in accents. Even friends of mine who can speak French well have trouble understanding it spoken in Montreal or Quebec. I will have to try and find some French-Canadian movies first, but that sounds like something worth trying.

Robynator, Thanks for the link! I'll check it out more when I get a few seconds, but it's always good to read some other people's experiences and moving from Minnesota to Quebec must have been quite a change.

[jceepf]

I live in Japan: lack of diversity = no culture? Japanese have a culture and so do Quebecers.

And one has to admit that low crime is often associated with racially homogeneous and egalitarian societies. Quebec city has the lowest crime of all major Canadian cities.

Etienne