Subj : National Anthem
To   : Mortar M.
From : Nil Alexandrov
Date : Wed Jan 15 2025 07:35:28

Hello, Mortar!

Sunday January 12 2025 21:51, from Mortar M. -> Nil Alexandrov:

 >> P.S. I lived in Quebec from 2009 to 2012 and picked up some
 >> Quebecois French. Native French speakers always laugh when I speak
 >> to them, though!

 MM> That would seem to jive with various things I've heard about Quebec
 MM> being intolerant to non-French speaking people, even when it's their
 MM> own countrymen.

That totally lines up with what I know about Quebec being pretty unfriendly to people who don't speak French - even if they're Canadian.

I've had a similar experience in France. A lot of people there can speak English, but they just won't. It's weird because when French people visit the US, they usually speak English just fine.

Quebec's got Bill 101 to protect the French language. When I was there on a work visa, my daughter went to a public English school in Montreal. But if we'd been immigrants, she would've had to go to a French school. Private English schools are crazy expensive, probably on purpose.

I had some friends whose kids were in French schools, and I noticed something strange - at parent-teacher conferences, the teachers never spoke English. Only the principal would or could. It still blows my mind. Are they hiring teachers who don't know any English at all, or are they just told not to speak it? No idea.

Best Regards, Nil
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