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Old 06-07-2009, 10:35 AM
 
983 posts, read 3,587,402 times
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Bonjour!

Do the great majority of Canadians know some basic French words or phrases like merci, bonjour, au revoir, etc.?

Merci!
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Old 06-07-2009, 12:41 PM
 
Location: St. John's, NL
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French is compulsory up until high school, so I would say the majority do know the basics.
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Old 06-07-2009, 02:28 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, BC
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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.
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Old 06-10-2009, 01:48 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robynator View Post
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.
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Old 06-10-2009, 07:17 AM
 
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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.
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Old 06-10-2009, 09:42 AM
 
Location: Hougary, Texberta
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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.
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Old 06-10-2009, 10:32 AM
 
409 posts, read 1,456,597 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeyyc View Post
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).
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Old 06-10-2009, 10:58 AM
 
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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.
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Old 06-10-2009, 11:45 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
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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.

I would never claim that.
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Old 06-11-2009, 07:49 PM
 
Location: Nova Scotia
458 posts, read 1,350,779 times
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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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