Why is Quebec the only mainly “French” province?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Loco101

I work with two people who grew up in border towns in Northeastern Ontario. Both are francophone and spoke only French at home. One is from Kearns (part of Virginiatown or officially McGarry Township) and the other is from Belle Vallée (officially Casey Township). Both of them went to Quebec for many things and have family there in places such as Rouyn-Noranda, Guigues, Ville-Marie. But they both speak like Franco-Ontarians and actually speak better English than French even though they both went to French-language schools and lived in francophone majority small communities. If they were to move to Quebec they eventually would be okay but would probably find it difficult at first due to societal and provincial differences.

That would have been me had I moved to Quebec in my early 20s.

But by the time I moved here in my mid to late 20s I had been working in a francophone milieu (in Ontario but with interacting with lots of francophones in Quebec and elsewhere) and also spent time in francophone Europe, so things were very smooth linguistically.

Though the "societal and provincial differences" you refer to did take a bit of getting used to. Both for me and my (future) wife, who is from northern Ontario.

Which explains why I always laugh when people say Quebec is exactly the same as the rest of Canada, except for the language.

I spoke the language fluently, could "get" or crack jokes with the best of them. And it was still an adjustment.

Even over 20 years later there are still occasionally things that are jarring to me as someone who grew up with the ROC as the societal reference marker.

Though in my experience people who grew up in very francophone places like Caraquet, Edmundston and Hawkesbury have considerably less of a culture shock in Quebec when it comes to stuff like demeanour and cultural cues. I grew up in places with a predominantly anglo social culture, as did my wife. You see evidence of this in settlement patterns of francophones from outside Quebec in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. It's not 100% but francophone people from NE NB (Caraquet, Tracadie) and NW NB (Edmundston, St-Quentin) are very predominantly on the Gatineau side of the river, whereas Acadians from the SE (Moncton, Shediac) and also from Nova Scotia are more likely to settle in Ottawa and the Ontario suburbs.

Franco-Ontarians from far eastern Ontario (Hawkesbury, Casselman) and even Hearst-Kapuskasing seem more likely to be in Gatineau as well, whereas those from Timmins-Sudbury-North Bay and also groups like Franco-Manitobans, etc. congregate on the Ontario side.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Acajack

That would have been me had I moved to Quebec in my early 20s.

But by the time I moved here in my mid to late 20s I had been working in a francophone milieu (in Ontario but with interacting with lots of francophones in Quebec and elsewhere) and also spent time in francophone Europe, so things were very smooth linguistically.

Though the "societal and provincial differences" you refer to did take a bit of getting used to. Both for me and my (future) wife, who is from northern Ontario.

Which explains why I always laugh when people say Quebec is exactly the same as the rest of Canada, except for the language.

I spoke the language fluently, could "get" or crack jokes with the best of them. And it was still an adjustment.

Even over 20 years later there are still occasionally things that are jarring to me as someone who grew up with the ROC as the societal reference marker.

Though in my experience people who grew up in very francophone places like Caraquet, Edmundston and Hawkesbury have considerably less of a culture shock in Quebec when it comes to stuff like demeanour and cultural cues. I grew up in places with a predominantly anglo social culture, as did my wife. You see evidence of this in settlement patterns of francophones from outside Quebec in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. It's not 100% but francophone people from NE NB (Caraquet, Tracadie) and NW NB (Edmundston, St-Quentin) are very predominantly on the Gatineau side of the river, whereas Acadians from the SE (Moncton, Shediac) and also from Nova Scotia are more likely to settle in Ottawa and the Ontario suburbs.

Franco-Ontarians from far eastern Ontario (Hawkesbury, Casselman) and even Hearst-Kapuskasing seem more likely to be in Gatineau as well, whereas those from Timmins-Sudbury-North Bay and also groups like Franco-Manitobans, etc. congregate on the Ontario side.

Case in point. Right now on Facebook some of my Acadian friends and relatives from northern New Brunswick are sharing a video of a virtual Acadian choir singing on Salut Bonjour, the Montreal-based morning show on Quebec network TVA.

Franco-Ontarians in Sudbury would say: "WTF is Salut Bonjour???????????"

[Acajack]

Lio also made an interesting point about "mother tongue". When they speak in French, some Franco-Ontarians sound like French is their mother tongue, and some sound like their mother tongue is English.

In Sudbury-Timmins-North Bay-Cornwall and much of Ottawa now, most francophones under 40 will sound like their mother tongue is English. (Even if sometimes it isn't.) At least to anyone who doesn't have a trained ear.

When you get into parts of Prescott-Russell further away from Ottawa (Hawkesbury-Casselman, and even Embrun-Limoges), and also in the Hearst area, there may be slight accent differences but most anyone would easily pick up that people are mother tongue francophones.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I don't know why you'd make that assumption. Barring conquest of some type, I am not aware of many places on the planet where borders are in place and where they've completely switched over to their neighbours' language.

If Canada had remained a French colony the most likely scenario would be for it to be totally French linguistically at the moment.

Even really small places next to very large neighbours always retain their own language for internal affairs, provided there is some type of border between them and their neighbours.

I mean even the Canada of 2020, with very large and robust French-speaking areas within it in spite of having no international borders between them and "Anglo-Canada", is a pretty good example that people don't switch languages in the absence of some type of coercion (usually not-so-nice). There are even areas outside Quebec such as NW and NE New Brunswick that reinforce the point.)

What about the netherlands?


They aren't even attached to england etc.

For all intents and purposes Canada is too spread out to do internal businnes over interborder bussiness/

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by LakeLocker

What about the netherlands?


They aren't even attached to england etc.
/

The Netherlands is very English-functional but it's very much a second-language thing and they certainly haven't switched over their internal affairs to English.

Government, politics, the media, education and even most business activities are still run in Dutch.

They have a high degree of capacity in English when it is required and so you could say in that sense that it's not really treated like a foreign language.

Still, the waybill used by the milk delivery guy arriving at a supermarket in Amersfoort will still be in Dutch, and that's the language he will use to speak to the dude at the receiving dock.

[kool maudit]

Yeah, these ultra-English-skill countries are not what they might seem. If you visit Denmark, Sweden, or the Netherlands from an English-speaking country, it can blow you away and really make you feel more part of things, but if you live here, you quickly realize: real life happens in Swedish/Danish/Dutch.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Yeah, these ultra-English-skill countries are not what they might seem. If you visit Denmark, Sweden, or the Netherlands from an English-speaking country, it can blow you away and really make you feel more part of things, but if you live here, you quickly realize: real life happens in Swedish/Danish/Dutch.

It's a popular notion that (all) business operates in English in places like Amsterdam (or Stockholm and Copenhagen).

While it is true you can find workplaces where all written, spoken and social communications are in English much like they would be in London on New York, in practice even in international companies there is a lot of variability in between the two extremes.

A lot of places will use the national language for most verbal communications, but English for when any action item or official stuff is written down.

Others will use English for all business meetings and written communications but as soon as anything is more informal it reverts back to the national language.

A significant portion of Canada's federal public service works this way, with French or a mix of French and English used for discussion purposes, but documentation produced and worked on originally in English, and then translated into French.

[mousquet]

Les Québecois, ils sont dures et rudes, hein.
Du style hardcore ; les mecs ils y vont pas de main morte.
Personne à part l'extrême gauche ne sonne aussi anti-américain ici.
Et pourtant, je ne suis surement pas le dernier à me foutre de la gueule des 'ricains quand c'est nécessaire.
On vient de voir ce truc ce soir...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYRp8oP0yiw

Whoa, tel que je l'entends, ceci fait littéralement le portrait d'une Amérique désespérée adepte du vieil adage qui suit:

Après moi, le déluge

Make no mistake, in this case, the flood refers to the Bible and to the subsequent story of Noah's Ark.

This old French saying is actually to name and shame those evil who think they are entitled to ruin the world before they die, as they think everything is granted to them for their lifetime.
They are the worst, the most evil. They're like - who gives a damn what happens once I'm dead?
Well, a whole lot of kids will... And I think even America will die after all. Everyone dies.

They are the same kind of people we've guillotined on public squares for the (Fr) Revolution.
Mais bon, I kinda know the US. I know there are good benevolent people over there, though.
Not all of them are that crappy.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by mousquet

This old French saying is actually to name and shame those evil who think they are entitled to ruin the world before they die, as they think everything is granted to them for their lifetime.
They are the worst, the most evil. They're like - who gives a damn what happens once I'm dead?
Well, a whole lot of kids will... And I think even America will die after all. Everyone dies.

They are the same kind of people we've guillotined on public squares for the (Fr) Revolution.
Mais bon, I kinda know the US. I know there are good benevolent people over there, though.
Not all of them are that crappy.

That's one of my reservations against the increasing age of their political leaders. It's not like Donald Trump has much stake in the country for the decades beyond and doesn't act that way. He's going to cash out while he's still kicking.

Leaders with long vision or a stake in being alive long after their term is done have more to lose. Barack Obama's kids will still be young adults in a few decades. Who wants to leave a mess for their kids to clean up?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Les Québecois, ils sont dures et rudes, hein.
Du style hardcore ; les mecs ils y vont pas de main morte.
Personne à part l'extrême gauche ne sonne aussi anti-américain ici.
Et pourtant, je ne suis surement pas le dernier à me foutre de la gueule des 'ricains quand c'est nécessaire.
On vient de voir ce truc ce soir...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYRp8oP0yiw

Whoa, tel que je l'entends, ceci fait littéralement le portrait d'une Amérique désespérée adepte du vieil adage qui suit:
.

Qui aime bien châtie bien.

Cette chanson me rend surtout mélancolique, car je les aime bien nos voisins.