Can you live in Montreal and Quebec City if you don't know French?

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Jane Marple

Montreal:
You can live all your life in Montreal and never need to speak a word of French.

QuÃ©bec City:
You need to speak French to live and work in our capital. QuÃ©bec is a city of functionaries and bureaucrats, you will only be hired if you have a good fluent French.

Ottawa:
Belong in the province of Ontario not QuÃ©bec

Other parts of QuÃ©bec:
Beauce: Entirely French
Saguenay: Entirely French
GaspÃ©sie: Some English but you need basic French to get by
CÃ´te-Nord: Entirely French
Estrie: Some English but you need basic French to get by
Gatineau: You're ok only speaking English it's on the border of Ontario

snowpatrol321

Montreal: you could get by without French.

Quebec City: You'll need French

Other parts of Quebec: You will never use English.

Ottawa: You'll rarely use French unless you're in eastern neighbourhoods.

If you're even considering QC, learn French, you have nothing to lose.

:)

meelio@rocketmail.com

You could definitely get by in Montreal with English only, but I would say that Quebec City is out of the question. If you wanted to live there, and I would assume you wanted to work there, you would need to be fluent in French. Ottawa would be fine with English as well, although some jobs may require bilingualism.

SteveN

I work in Montreal and at my company there are plenty of people who do not speak much or any French. Our company does computer support for companies in USA, and so French is not really required. I would say in Montreal, you could get by without knowing the French language.

However, if you hope to get any job that has to interact with the public in Quebec (the province), you will be expected to be able to understand and speak at least rudimentary French.

As for Ottawa, that is in Ontario, and although the city of Ottawa does have a high percentage of bilingual people who work there, it is not required that you know French. Of course, it would not hurt...knowing other languages only opens more doors, never closes them.

Sheila K

Yes you definitely can. In smaller towns you may face arrogance when you meet people, some of them pretend they cannot speak English when they do. However in the larger cities most people speak English as well and you will pick up on the French when you live there.

animo

Yes, you can live in Quebec without knowing French -- it probably wouldn't be as much fun. It would be a good idea to eventually learn French if you plan on living there.

As for Ottawa, you probably would not miss out on anything if you don't speak French -- just my opinion.

Dani G

You can easily live in Montreal without speaking French, not so in QuÃ©bec City. Other areas where you can get by with only English are the Eastern Townships (aka Estrie) and some villages in the GaspÃ© Peninsula.

Living in Ottawa is a problem for people who speak only French, it is not a problem for those who speak only English.

Justin

yes you CAN but i dont think i would. even though most quebecians do speak english too jobs there (and in ottawa) require bilingualism

tiger of the pacific

yes you can, big majority of quebecois speaks english they are bi-lingual now will they accept you then that would be the issue you have to consider.

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