The Québécois Experience

By Catherine Andrew

I came to Quebec to teach conversational English to high school students for one year, after university, with the intention of going back home fully bilingual, to teach French to college or university level students. It  was a wonderful year getting to know the culture and language. Being from Europe we learned European French; oh boy was the Quebecois French pretty different but very interesting.

I thought that I was good at French before I came to Quebec and I remember that after I finished my day at school, I went home and fell asleep about 7:30pm absolutely exhausted because of all the listening, translating in my head and trying to find the words to be able to say something coherent. Everyone was very patient and helped me enormously to learn the language. I found the people in the villages where I lived and worked to be very welcoming. I liked it so much that I married a farmer almost 30 years ago now.

I recently followed a short college course in the history of Quebec and an interesting fact that I learned was that Québécois French can be considered closer to 17th and 18th century French due to Quebec’s isolation in North America. Personally I prefer the Québécois accent and the vocabulary that they have. I’m really proud when I speak French to other Francophones outside Quebec and they tell me that I have a wee Québécois accent; it’s quite amusing.

Growing old in Quebec does have its challenges, especially for people in rural Quebec, where I live, who have to rely on home and community care programs as we live quite far from the local hospitals. I’m not too worried about growing old in my wee village, as I’m sure we can all rally around to provide help to our aging population. Everyone in the village looks after everyone else; it’s a wonderful thing.