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You know, most athletes who compete internationally have some international experience therefore are better in English.
But her accent is way perfect.
She probably has one anglophone parent or lived in a different province or something.
I can't picture her living in Quebec City her entire life and speaking like that.
Most Quebecois people, even the ones who have a mastery of the English language, talk with some accent when they speak English. It can go from heavy to almost flawless, but usually there will be a 'giveaway'.
On the other hand, a lot of anglophone Montrealers talk with a slight French inflection. I've only lived in Montreal for 4 years and I don't speak French that frequently here but I'm already developing this certain inflection in my speech that is certainly French-influenced.
She could definitely pass for an anglophone living in Montreal.
She definitely has a francophone accent in English even if fairly slight. Quite similar in English to that Miss Whatever constestant from Eastern Ontario. Though the Miss... contestant sounds a bit different in French.
I heard Audrey Robichaud speaking in French over the weekend during the Olympic coverage and she definitely sounds like a francophone from Quebec. (Which the other girl from Ontario did not - close, but not quite.)
As others have pointed out the international competition circuit for sports is a place where English is the lingua franca, but not sure that that's enough to produce that type of accent. (She's probably spent quite a bit of time outside Quebec, maybe gone to an anglophone college or something, or has an anglophone parent...)
Here is Mikaël Kingsbury. He just won a gold medal on the ski slopes a few hours ago. He's from the Laurentian mountains region just north of Montreal. He's been on the international circuit for at least 10 years. Still has a much thicker accent in English than Audrey Robichaud.
Accents are interesting creatures. For instance, my great aunts, and maternal grandparents all had varying Quebecois accents, which I could hear.
Growing up, I remember on friend saying when I was about 12, your mother has an accent. I was insistent that she didn't. Well, of course she did, but because it was the voice I had heard all my life, it wasn't interpreted by me as being an accent.
This actually had an effect on my own English. I didn't speak much French at all, still don't, but certain words I had trouble saying in English, probably because of my mother. Tiger, bag and iron are some that I remember.
I don't speak French at all, but I keep hearing from time to time that Canadian French is very different from French in France. The Canadian pronunciation is unique to Quebec. It is often referred to as "Quebecois" accent which a native French person might have difficulty to understand. Is that true?
My Belgian friend tells me that she was not able to understand what most Quebecois people were saying when she first got here in Montreal. But she quickly got the hang of it and now 3 years later, she is able to understand most people.
I would say it's comparable to a thick Southern accent with a heavy drawl as opposed to Southern California accent which is very enunciated. I am able to understand most people in the US, but Southern accent is where it gets more tricky. Maybe it's not really a Southern thing as much it is a country thing as I've met this guy from Kansas who I could not understand anything at all from him. I mean, dear lord, I couldn't understand a single word coming out of his mouth. He didn't enunciate his words at all.
Similarly, as someone who's learning French, standard French is easier on my ears while Quebecois French has different sounds that are harder to make out.
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