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French speakers


Folgers111
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On our recent cruise, I did not hear anyone speaking French on the ship. I did hear a family speaking Hebrew. (I was not familiar with their language so I asked) In Quebec and Montreal, the signs and menus were in French. Also in the Montreal airport and Air Canada plane announcements were in French and English.

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You can practise all you like - but in any urban area of Quebec they'll almost certainly answer back in English unless you are already good at French (and NB: that French-French /= Quebecois-French). New Brunswick is the officially Bilingual province, and speaks Acadian French which is perhaps a little closer to modern French-French than Quebecois, but again unless you're good at French they're likely to answer in English as most folks are primarily Anglophone. Nova Scotia has quite a lot of Francophones around Cape Breton - if you see Acadian flags flying, try out your French! - along with the world's biggest population of Scots Gaelic speakers (you can also practise your Mi'kMaq!)

 

Some of these folks have even been 'reimported' from Louisiana (Acadia is where the Cajun folks came from originally, and there has been a long-standing preferential immigration policy to get them 'back home') so it's not even quite the same Acadian as in New Brunswick next-door, but we found the folks around the Cheticamp area the most willing to let us practise our French (especially in the unfortunately-now-closed restaurant attached to the local Co-op).

 

Edit - whoops, I see it was fellow passengers you were asking about... can't help you there as I've only taken road trips, not cruised in the region, but I'd guess overwhelmingly Anglophone US, and what small % of Canadian or other Francophones will be comfortable in English or they'd have booked a niche coastal cruise rather than a mainstream 'English is usually the only language announcements are made in' line.

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If you visit Montreal or Quebec City, we heard a lot of French speaking locals. Most greeted us in French and I replied back in English, so I would definitely try it!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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