Quebec French or Standard French taught in U.S. schools? (public schools, colleges)
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It's standard French--I've never personally heard of Quebecois being taught outside of Quebec or Eastern Canada.
Even when I lived in Canada, albeit in Edmonton, Alberta which is in Western Canada, we were mandated in public schools to take standard French, not Quebecois French. The difference between Quebecois French and the French spoken in France is proabably slightly greater than say the difference between American English and British English. I've heard that European French speakers can understand most of Quebecois French when spoken formally, however the accent and slang(a lot of Anglicisms have made their way into the language) can make it difficult to comprehend.
It's standard French--I've never personally heard of Quebecois being taught outside of Quebec or Eastern Canada.
Even when I lived in Canada, albeit in Edmonton, Alberta which is in Western Canada, we were mandated in public schools to take standard French, not Quebecois French. The difference between Quebecois French and the French spoken in France is proabably slightly greater than say the difference between American English and British English. I've heard that European French speakers can understand most of Quebecois French when spoken formally, however the accent and slang(a lot of Anglicisms have made their way into the language) can make it difficult to comprehend.
But for example, if I knew good Standard French, and maybe move to Quebec, would I be able to understand their french without problem? Or do I need to take quebec french classes?
One French woman I knew said she found Quebecois French hard to understand. Although I'd think if you know French it shouldn't be too hard to get Quebecois French.
Anyway yeah so far as I know schools teach France/French.
In my high school in Maine, the French that was taught was Standard French, but with many side lessons on Quebecois and "County" French (Many people in the St. John River Valley and elsewhere in Aroostook County, Maine speak a dialect of French that is not textbook French and sometimes not even Quebecois French!).
In my high school in Maine, the French that was taught was Standard French, but with many side lessons on Quebecois and "County" French (Many people in the St. John River Valley and elsewhere in Aroostook County, Maine speak a dialect of French that is not textbook French and sometimes not even Quebecois French!).
So true! I spent almost 20 years in the County and most of the French speaking people I knew that went over to Quebec City came back and said that they knew how I must have felt when I first moved there. "They were speaking the words and some I knew, some I didn't, I didn't know WTH they were saying over there!" was the general statement. Aroostook County French is a very odd mix of French, Quebecois, English, and "County" rolled into one dialect. Most people will have some English and some French in the same sentence. Get them excited and who knows what is going to come out for words. It could be all French, all English, even a compound word that is spoken half French half English. Whatever language has the word that best fits, is the one used for that word.
Most High Schools teach Standard French in the US though to answer the OP's question.
When talking about "standard French," you need to consider grammar and pronunciation separately. Every French teacher in the U.S. is going to teach standard French grammar (which is "standard" across the French-speaking world), but their pronunciation may vary depending on where they're from or where they learned French.
In my experience, the vast majority of French teachers in the U.S. were educated in standard European (Parisian) French and thus imitate Parisian pronunciation. However, there is always a chance that you may have a teacher from Canada or some other part of the French-speaking world with a noticeably different accent, but they usually try to "reduce" it to an extent. After all, the vast majority of the French learning materials used in U.S. curriculums are based on standard European French.
In Quebec, speech varies dramatically by register (i.e. the French spoken in news broadcasts vs. by working class people). If you have only heard European French before, you will struggle at first to understand Canadians and it will take time to adapt. Just imagine if you had only ever studied the Queen's English and then suddenly took a trip to Arkansas. It won't take that long to understand the accent as used on the news, in academic contexts, or by public figures; what's more difficult is learning all the expressions and contractions used by people in everyday life.
Regardless of whether you're taught French by a European or a Canadian, it's going to take a long time before you can travel to a French-speaking country and understand most of what's being said. Reading will come more quickly for most people, in which case it doesn't matter which accent you've been hearing. If you've only been studying French for several months or so, most of the basic expressions you'll know won't sound that different in France or Canada anyway.
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