I took five years of French in high school and college. I can conjugate the shit out of a subjunctive clause, but hearing people speak French still sounds like szhluhblepluh.
To be fair, most French speakers would say the same thing when talking to Quebecois.
But that’s because the French are assholes, loveable assholes but assholes nonetheless.
I’ve never met a friendlier group of people who are absolute snobs about proper pronunciation, except English majors who are super into Linux (arch, obv)
Now I’m just imagining that arch is pronounced unexpectedly. Please don’t correct me, I like my headcanon of “airtch.”
It differs even between Linux nerds, at least from my tiny anecdotal pool.
I say Arch like in archery, my best friend says it Arch like Arc or archangel.
¯\(ツ)/¯
Ok, but how do you pronounce GIF? And how often do you fight about that?
It’s pronounced “GIF”, obviously.
Worst shame I felt in my life was trying to check into a hotel in QC, QC in French and the rely being “ID and credit card please.” 😭
(But for Montreal when they say Bonjour/Hi they are trying to ask what language you want to be spoken to so it’s totally okay to say hi if you are Anglo don’t make it more confusing by replying bonjour lol)
Same with federal officials, like at customs, where they typically start with “hello, bonjour”. Reply “bonjour”, and you may quickly reveal yourself to be a francophony.
The bonjour/hi is mostly used where there are higher percentages of english speaking people, so mainly downtown and in the west island.
In neighbourhoods like Villeray or Plateau people will assume you speak french but will switch to english if they see you struggling with it.
Only in Quebec would a cashier use ‘tu’ with a customer so freely… It’s actually refreshing compared to the formality of everyday interactions in European francophone countries!
Things that never happened
They would immediately know you don’t speak French when you tried to say bonjour
Sacred Blue!
