Living in Montreal without speaking French

rusto.

rusto.

New member
How doable is living in Montreal without speaking French? Seems like it would be a sick city to live and work in cause its a good size and has stuff going on but also gets winter and has some skiing. I would wanna learn some french as I go but wouldn't know much upon arrival (I took it in high school but have pretty much lost all of it). Would it be impossible socially? Professionally?

Also how hard is it to get a work visa lol
 
Plenty of people in Montreal don't speak french or speak very bad french. Definitely doable, just need to find a job where you can get away with not speaking french
 
The vibe as an English speaker sucks, everyone thinks they're hot shit and will be rude to you for not speaking French. You should visit and see for yourself.

**This post was edited on Apr 2nd 2024 at 9:59:59pm
 
You can do fine only speaking english in Montreal. Philipinos have no problem even with a broken english. The downtown area and Richmond are the most english speaking areas.

As an ex-quebec, I do recommend to immerse yourself in the language if you are moving out there. In a few weeks you will be able to have a functionnal french.
 
14602856:Static said:
The vibe as an English speaker sucks, everyone thinks they're hot shit and will be rude to you for not speaking French. You should visit and see for yourself.

**This post was edited on Apr 2nd 2024 at 9:59:59pm
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I made my obligatory 18 year old pilgrimage years ago and thought it was a cool city, but cultural immersion wasn't really the theme of the trip lol...

Still, I didn't really get this vibe too much tbh
 
14602769:fredyferl said:
Plenty of people in Montreal don't speak french or speak very bad french. Definitely doable, just need to find a job where you can get away with not speaking french
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14602938:freestyler540 said:
You can do fine only speaking english in Montreal. Philipinos have no problem even with a broken english. The downtown area and Richmond are the most english speaking areas.

As an ex-quebec, I do recommend to immerse yourself in the language if you are moving out there. In a few weeks you will be able to have a functionnal french.
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Is it pretty much all French in business/offices and all that? I work in data science/economics
 
14603008:rusto. said:
Is it pretty much all French in business/offices and all that? I work in data science/economics
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I don't think so. I have a friend that lived here for 5 years, him and his gf both had office jobs and he spoke a bit of french but pretty bad, and his gf didn't speak french at all. He worked for a recruiting company and she worked at Yellow Pages.

I've lived in the West Island of Montreal for 25 years, which is 20 minutes outside the city, and people are so bad at french. You will go to the restaurant and talk to the waiter in french and he will sometimes barely understand you and answer in english lol
 
14603008:rusto. said:
Is it pretty much all French in business/offices and all that? I work in data science/economics
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Its just as corporate as Toronto or Vancouver. All the HQ are placed there and is the Quebec hub of trade with the US.

Local businesses can enforce language laws, but multi national corporations are all english.
 
your skiing will improve 50% just by drinking the water

**This post was edited on Apr 4th 2024 at 10:21:03pm
 
I went to a McDonald’s when I was at tremblant and tried to order a mcchicken and the lady on drive through mic said “CHICKENBURGER?” in a heavy ass French accent.
 
14602769:fredyferl said:
Plenty of people in Montreal don't speak french or speak very bad french. Definitely doable, just need to find a job where you can get away with not speaking french
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Montreal may be the rudest Canadian city.
 
i go to MTL all the time, you really don’t need to know any french at all. but if you go there you better get your ass in the bell centre for some hockey or you’re doing montreal wrong!
 
living in french canada without knowing french, that sounds like one of those creative sentences that judges give out sometimes to prove a point
 
14604472:C.R.E.A.M said:
For a country with a reputation for being nice, I am curious what this actually means.
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canadians have a reputation of being nice, french canadians definitely don't lol. i'm not taking a position on it, i'm an equal opportunity hater, but just chiming in on that part
 
14604477:SofaKingSick said:
canadians have a reputation of being nice, french canadians definitely don't lol. i'm not taking a position on it, i'm an equal opportunity hater, but just chiming in on that part
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Worse then French people in Paris when they realize you are American and don't know a lick of French?
 
14604472:C.R.E.A.M said:
For a country with a reputation for being nice, I am curious what this actually means.
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it means if you have out of province plates on your car pray your windows remain intact
 
I always liked Montreal but honestly the rest of Canada where you don't have to speak fucking French is awesome. Ontario and BC are the best and people are cool AF and aren't speaking French.

No international company is going to have you answering emails in french but I'm sure all of the office chatter is.
 
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