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Originally Posted by someone123
This was basically about Ontario. I wonder if the same phenomenon exists in Quebec to the same degree, and if it really is about the callers or if it's just something some recruiters imagine is needed. At times you see that the guy was talking to people in English and looking at English job ads.
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I think you are absolutely right, it's something recruiters imagine is needed. Based on the various accents I hear when I call any organisation's customer service, private or public, the accent doesn't seem to be important when someone is hired in a call centre in Quebec.
Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
I was in Europe recently and I encountered expat (Anglophone) Canadians there who regretted the fact that they couldn't speak French because they were taught Canadian French instead of standard European French. In reality they probably never learned much French at all, and it's not realistic to expect to learn a language over a few years in school and then live as a native speaker decades later using that knowledge.
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It's the same French anyway. In it's written form, Quebec French is 99% similar to French from France. And as Acajack has mentioned a few times, basically, Quebec French is to France French what Texas English is to British English. Some expressions are different, but it's still mutually intelligible.
When I travel with my family and we meet French families (happened a few times in Slovenia and Croatia this summer), my kids play with the French kids and it usually takes a long while before they even get a comment on their accent. And then it can be "are you from Belgium or Switzerland?". Or "C'est étrange, il est doux votre accent!" (by which they probably mean "I'm surprised that you are from Quebec and I can understand you just fine".
With Youtube (my kids watch lots of French Youtubers) and easy international communications, the differences in accents and vocabulary tends to flatten over time, I noticed.