Non-French Speaker To Live in Quebec, Montreal or Quebec City (school, college)

[Kristan]

Originally Posted by NYSinger

This post is insulting. French is the only official language of the province of Quebec. If you have no intention of learning it, then don't move there because you'll never find a job.

Try living in Gatineau and working in Ottawa instead, it is a bit less bilingual there than Montreal.

Actually... you make a very good point.

If a person were to live in Gatineau, then they'd be in Quebec... but Ottawa is fairly close-by (just one or two rivers to cross), and an easy commute to work in Ottawa where one could find work in English (while one took a few years to learn French).

[isabellebachand]

People have to understand that 85 % of Quebecers speak French and that outside of Montreal, most people DON'T speak English.

If you wanth to operate a psychotherapist office, there's no way you'll make a living outside of Montreal without speaking French.

I grew up only 30 minutes from Montreal in a town of 50,000 and I can tell you that probably 9 out of 10 can hold a conversation in English.

Daily life in Quebec is done in French.

[ethanre]

Thanks guys, this was very helpful. You're great

[nycricanpapi]

Well there are people that speaks English in those cities. You just have to look for where they speak English. In Canada French and English is spoken.

[Acajack]

I would recommend checking out this thread from a while ago that might provide some answers with respect to language:
//www.city-data.com/forum/canad...-montreal.html

Montreal has a large enough anglo community with an extensive institutional network that can provide jobs to English only speakers. But even there your possibilities will be limited somewhat because many anglo network jobs require some French as well.

You chances are better in the IT sector where much if not most of the work is done in English in Montreal. Psychotherapy is a provincially-regulated area I believe and all professional certifications in Quebec require a decent knowledge of French.

As for Gatineau, for the most part you can live in Gatineau in Quebec and work in Ottawa in Ontario in most sectors (though once again professional stuff like psychotherapy is provincially-regulated and may require you to be an Ontario resident to practise in Ottawa).

Bottom line is that it is not completely impossible to live and even work in Quebec without knowing or learning French, but you will be much, much happier and successful if you do.

[adventuregurl]

In some places in Quebec it's not even that much fun visiting if you don't speak french! Some of the people who can speak english prefer french and won't speak to you in english. This happened to us in a few places.

Originally Posted by ethanre

Hi,
My wife speaks French fluently and would like to move to Quebec. The problem is I don't speak French and dont intend to learn it.

Can I, a non-french speaking person, live in Quebec and find it easy to work in good jobs:

I will be looking at work in these areas: IT project management (have US work experience in this) or in Psychotherapy / counseling (have an MA degree from the US in psychotherapy).

Also I may go to grad school for a PhD program in Quebec.

2 Questions:

1- If you've lived there, what is the attitude people have towards non-french speakers?

2- Are there cities that I should live in and ones I should avoid due to the language thing (relating to work and going to grad school)?

Thanks a million !!!

[canuckchemist]

Don't listen to them, it's no problem, you may get a little attitude in some places but you can get by fine. If you live on the West Island in Montreal, then it's all English. The trick to win them over is just try to speak a little French, they'll love you for making the effort, and talk back to you in English, works every time.

[Tyryztoll]

My take on this thread is the same as many that come with the endless Spanish/English debate in the U.S. As a U.S. citizen, I expect a Spanish speaking immigrant to learn the official language of my country, which is English. That doesn't mean I am opposed to people speaking Spanish......in fact, I wish more Americans were open to learning a 2nd language, and I have recently decided to broaden my horizons by attempting this.

My point is that if I ever moved to Quebec, I would absolutely dedicate myself to learning French ASAP, because that is the official language of that province, and if my sights are set on becoming a contributing citizen of that province then I am severely restricting myself if I refuse to learn its official language. I don't like it when an immigrant comes to the U.S. and expects its residents to cater to them, and so I would never expect another country's residents to cater to me.

I look at it from this angle as well: I think moving to a French speaking area and learning the language would be a wonderfully new and invigorating experience for someone. To immerse ones self in a totally new culture and speak a totally new language......that would be awesome, and I don't understand why so many people that want to settle in Quebec are so apathetic about it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Northman

My take on this thread is the same as many that come with the endless Spanish/English debate in the U.S. As a U.S. citizen, I expect a Spanish speaking immigrant to learn the official language of my country, which is English. That doesn't mean I am opposed to people speaking Spanish......in fact, I wish more Americans were open to learning a 2nd language, and I have recently decided to broaden my horizons by attempting this.

My point is that if I ever moved to Quebec, I would absolutely dedicate myself to learning French ASAP, because that is the official language of that province, and if my sights are set on becoming a contributing citizen of that province then I am severely restricting myself if I refuse to learn its official language. I don't like it when an immigrant comes to the U.S. and expects its residents to cater to them, and so I would never expect another country's residents to cater to me.

I look at it from this angle as well: I think moving to a French speaking area and learning the language would be a wonderfully new and invigorating experience for someone. To immerse ones self in a totally new culture and speak a totally new language......that would be awesome, and I don't understand why so many people that want to settle in Quebec are so apathetic about it.

I guess the issue is that quite a few people who move to Quebec don't see the fact that French is its official language as legitimate, and don't really view it as a "French-speaking area".

I guess they just see it as some kind of gigantic ethnic neighbourhood. You don't necessarily learn Italian if you buy a condo in your American/Canadian city's Little Italy, so why would you learn French to live in Quebec?

Granted, French-speaking Quebec would be one heckuva big ethnic neighbourhood (it's a 1800-km or 1000-mile drive from the Abitibi to the Gaspé), but what can I say. Some people still view things in those terms.

[ethanre]

Good responses, thank you.