Quote:
Originally Posted by kwoldtimer
Yes, I was referring to professional work. I always found it interesting that I was seldom corrected for grammar - the comments were usually along the lines of "in French, we'd say it this way...". That would send me to a second or even third person for their opinion, which would in each case be different in some way. Language, it seems, is as much an art as a science.
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Yeah, obviously your own experience was also tainted by your need to use French in a professional setting (where it's way more easy to get away with these slight imperfections in speech, which flies away, than in writing, which stays).
I have just recalled a perfect counter-example to myself and English, though. A Mexican guy who worked for me in Sherbrooke for a while. His spoken English was pretty good, but he couldn't write a word to save his life. He could write Spanish, though. He learned to write at school in Mexico as a kid, then later picked up English orally during his years of working in Texas. That was kind of a shock to see, because here we're used to people who can decipher written English, but have a harder time understanding it when spoken (especially quickly). He was the opposite of that.
So, YMMV. But for English and young Québécois, we're generally all in the same situation -- our exposure to the language has mostly been via the written word.
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