[Magdalen] Quebec City.

[Molly Wolf]

Quebec is officially unilingual Francophone, and a good many Québécois(es) speak little or no English -- just as the majority of Anglo Canadians can't function in French.  True bilingualism exists in places where the two populations actually mix:  Western Quebec, parts of Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick -- Susan H. will know more.

Molly

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. -- Mark Twain

> On Jan 9, 2015, at 11:59 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I saw a travelogue this evening featuring Quebec City.  The City  was
> its usual charming and picturesque self.  This was expected.
> 
> What was not expected was the heavily accented, even broken English
> of the dozen or so locals who were interviewed during the course of
> the program.
> 
> I know of the tensions between Anglophones and Francophones in  Quebec,
> but it was obvious that English doesn't come easily to Quebec natives, if  
> these
> interviewees are typical.
> 
> I have always envisioned Quebec (and really all Canadians) as an
> ideal setting for the very early familiarity with both languages  producing
> a fluent, relatively unaccented French and English bilingual  population.
> 
> I appear to have been wrong in this assumption.
> 
> 
> David S.