In Quebec, a French, forewarned is worth two

IIs think they know everything, are macho men, remain between them : Quebecers do not lack of ideas (received) on their cousins tricolor. It helps you to de-mine the field.

the common Language, obliges the French often believe that they can act in Quebec as to their homes. Error ! A minimum of "cultural accommodation" is required. Quebecers speak of course French, but they are first and foremost North-Americans : the codes of their daily lives differ from those of the Hexagon. If the French are not free of prejudices against Quebecers (in the style of "loggers drinkers of maple"), these last are not forgotten...

ATTACHE TA TUQUE >> The Canada beyond the clichés: get every week our free newsletter by signing up here

The good news is that things are changing. Unthinkable today to see the arrival of the television characters exaggerated, such as Momo and Granny, unbearable couple of French babblers, dirty and vulgar, which raged in the cult series La Petite vie, in the 1990s. And still less a sketch like the one released in 2006 by a string of primetime, where a safari organized in Paris was intended to capture a "damned French" in a thread to bring it to Montreal for the wash in front of the viewers...

Your support is essential. Subscribe for $ 1 support Us

The massive arrival of new immigrants, young and open, has dusted off the old clichés about the French. Those who settle today no longer seek to learn to Quebecers how to speak well or eat as have done so many representatives of the previous generations, burdened with the adjective "damned French". With A few exceptions, the term no longer has a reason to be in 2019.

"The eye of Quebec in respect of the French has changed, and vice-versa," observes Jean-Marc Léger, president and founder of the polling firm Léger and co-author of the Code of Québec (Éditions de l'homme, 2016). "It doesn't feel the condescending French to us, but more of an admiration." Nevertheless, certain prejudices remain, for the inhabitants of the Province of quebec. We have selected five of the most popular. To know absolutely decrypt its local counterparts... and avoid the blunders.

The French are arrogant...

... stuck-up, pretentious, "Ti-Joe "Knowing" (québec's equivalent of Mr. I-know-it-all) etc., This is the perception most prevalent among Quebecers. In their eyes, the French turn any conversation into verbal sparring, criticize everything, always comparing with the Hexagon, are prone to getting upset for nothing, quarrel in public... so many habits detestable in the eyes of Quebecers who prefer consensus to confrontation. "We répugnons to make a display of our general culture, or of our virtuosity in language, because this seems elitist," says Jean-Benoît Nadeau, co-author of several books on the French in which the last of all, And speak the French (Robert Laffont, Paris, 2018). We tend to book our disagreements to the private sphere." Result : many Quebecers end up avoiding the French for fear of finding themselves in a situation of confrontation.

They use too many anglicisms

This mania is without doubt the biggest "irritant" for the Québécois. "It's been three hundred years as it fights to maintain the French language, argues Jean-Marc Léger. Then when you see the anglicisms used by the French, it is a little insulting, especially as they are a source of pride !" Yet, Quebecers agree that the French speak better than them. "They are more released than the French on the vocabulary, the precision of the words, said Jean-Benoît Nadeau. But they allow a inventiveness of language that the French did not allow, preferring to make neologisms in English rather than in French."

They stay between them

... and celebrate with them, go to the restaurant between them, create joint tenancies between them, while complaining of not making any friends in quebec. "It is easy for a French to remain French in Quebec," says Jean-Benoît Nadeau. It is encouraged by a system : there are two consulates, one in Montreal, another in Quebec, which offer a host of services." A heavy trend and blatant in the famous district of Plateau Mont-Royal, which became the haunt of French in Montreal for almost twenty years. Recognizable among a thousand thanks to their accent and their uniforms winter coat Canada Goose brand new to the point of representing a subject of mockery ideal for their cousins in quebec.

They are macho men and dredgers

Attention : this perception is especially true for the elderly French, who hang out a reputation as a macho. Woe to those who hope to play French Lovers, they will make themselves rembarrer more often than in their turn. In Quebec, the equality between the sexes is (almost) granted. If progress remains to be made next to salaries, the sharing of household tasks has become commonplace, and the feminisation of titles and functions, on which Quebec has been a pioneer. "From this point of view, Quebecers have two generations ofadvance on the French, who are just beginning to finish in debate," says Jean-Benoît Nadeau.

Read our complete file

live Well in Canada

Canada : the triumph modest Dr. Bonnie Henry Of the blogs of expats to discover the Canada Trip in the soul of québec and francophone canada

They are effeminate

Because they are thin, "pearl" (a term mockingly to imitate the French accent) with the mouth into a cul-de-poule dress so refined and scented, men French may seem effeminate to the point of view of Quebecers. "The definition of manhood is very different : in North America, a male has to have big arms, says Jean-Benoît Nadeau. And while in France, a male can be grown, here it seems to be paradoxical", in any case, in some circles the less educated ones. As for the French, they are sometimes perceived as superficial because they pay too much attention to their physical and to their line, instead of assuming their bodies covered, such as Quebec.