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Yes, the majority of Canadians outside of Quebec (Quebec being the French-speaking province in Canada) would know basic words like merci, bonjour, au revoir.
Yes, the majority of Canadians outside of Quebec (Quebec being the French-speaking province in Canada) would know basic words like merci, bonjour, au revoir.
The very, very basics. As for anybody older than 30, forget about it.
Yes. To the best of my knowledge, French is a required subject in all Canadian schools - although the grade to which students must take it varies from province to province.
We all had to take it, but if you don't use it, you lose it. That, and I now know enough french to realize I don't know diddley. As a result I would be very self conscious about using it.
But....because all labels on cans, food, products are in french and english, I can actually still read french ok, and if listening, provided they are speaking slowly (which most Quebecois never do) I can pick up the basics of most conversations.
We all had to take it, but if you don't use it, you lose it. That, and I now know enough french to realize I don't know diddley. As a result I would be very self conscious about using it.
But....because all labels on cans, food, products are in french and english, I can actually still read french ok, and if listening, provided they are speaking slowly (which most Quebecois never do) I can pick up the basics of most conversations.
I would agree with that. I can read better than I can speak it and I can understand enough of it when it is spoken slowly enough. I find women more difficult to understand than men due to the pitch and the speed that they often speak at (but maybe that is just me).
I am 37 and had to take french through to high school, I believe I needed one or 2 credits to graduate.
I think most Canadians can read and understand more than they think they can.
I guess it depends on how you define "basic French". I realize the OP defined it with a fairly low threshold: common terms like yes, no, please, thank you, goodbye, etc., which has led to a resounding yes from posters that most Canadians know these terms in French. (And I would agree with them that most non-francophone Canadians would know these terms.)
But to me, basic knowledge of any language goes a little bit beyond that, and would involve being able to at least read most of a menu in a restaurant and order food, ask for basic directions on the street, etc.
If the criteria for "basic" knowledge is of the yes-no-please-thank you variety, then I could be said to know the basics of around 10 languages at least.
It is taught in school, I know french, can speak, read and write it. But I am not french born. I just learned how. We have two french Provinces, Quebec and New Brunswick. A lot of people tend to forget New Brunswick. But if you know Quebec french and go to Paris, it is a lot different. Sometimes you have a hard time understanding each other.
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