Proportion of Francophones to Anglophones? (metro, accent, town)

[the_count]

I've been learning French and am planning a trip to Montreal to 1. visit some friends and 2. practice my French among native French speakers and experience a francophone environment. I neither want to hear English nor use it for the entirety of my trip. So my question is how often does one hear English on the streets of Montreal as opposed to French? My trip is going to probably be 3 or 4 days, would it be possible to avoid using English for its whole duration?

Merci d'avance

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by the_count

I've been learning French and am planning a trip to Montreal to 1. visit some friends and 2. practice my French among native French speakers and experience a francophone environment. I neither want to hear English nor use it for the entirety of my trip. So my question is how often does one hear English on the streets of Montreal as opposed to French? My trip is going to probably be 3 or 4 days, would it be possible to avoid using English for its whole duration?

Merci d'avance

How fluent is your French? You will be greeted in French most of the time but if your French is perceived as halting many people will switch to English to try and make it easier for you.

You will be able to use French a lot if you say to people who do this: C'est gentil de parler anglais mais je veux vraiment pratiquer mon français ici à Montréal.

[BIMBAM]

Originally Posted by the_count

I've been learning French and am planning a trip to Montreal to 1. visit some friends and 2. practice my French among native French speakers and experience a francophone environment. I neither want to hear English nor use it for the entirety of my trip. So my question is how often does one hear English on the streets of Montreal as opposed to French? My trip is going to probably be 3 or 4 days, would it be possible to avoid using English for its whole duration?

Merci d'avance

You'll probably hear some people speaking English riding the metro or walking around downtown. Hang out east of St. Denis and you'll hear the language much less.

[the_count]

Originally Posted by Acajack

How fluent is your French? You will be greeted in French most of the time but if your French is perceived as halting many people will switch to English to try and make it easier for you.

You will be able to use French a lot if you say to people who do this: C'est gentil de parler anglais mais je veux vraiment pratiquer mon français ici à Montréal.

Well I'm ALOT better with the written word. I've recently started journaling in French and I've written like 12 pages over the last few days but that might be because I have a lot on my mind lol. But as far as speaking goes I can hold a conversation and express myself fairly competently. All in all I think I'm just gonna refuse to speak English with people..say "I don't speak English " purposely with a horrible English accent haha

[weltschmerz]

So my question is how often does one hear English on the streets of Montreal as opposed to French? My trip is going to probably be 3 or 4 days, would it be possible to avoid using English for its whole duration?

Mais oui, it would be entirely possible. That being said, as soon as people hear your accent as not being "pure laine", many will switch to English. Most Francophones in Montreal do speak some English. Most allophones are trilingual.