If I plan on moving to British Columbia, should I learn French, even though my native language is English?

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freeside49

no, french is spoken by less than 3% of the population in BC. You will see it only in federal government offices where they need to be officially bilingual but outside of that no sign of it. There is a way higher percentage of people speaking mandarin, cantonese or punjabi here in Vancouver and areas than there is speaking french in BC. You'll do fine with english only out here.

Most people just call it "B C" but between the two you gave just "british columbia" will do.

Welcome to lotusland.

poke around at http://www.hellobc.com

Peachy Keen

I've lived in BC my whole life and I learned some french in school but I don't remember most of it and I've never been in a situation when I needed it yet.

I think you'll be fine. Good luck!

Karen L

It's nice to know French, but you won't hear it spoken from one year to the next in BC.

Melanie B

You have to go through the proper channels to move to Canada. Generally you don't need to learn french. To get into Canada you have to qualify. You have to be educated in a discipline that we need in Canada or have experience in a skilled trade.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

It's just British Columbia

Marina K

if you want to you can but you shouldn't have any problems with not speaking french in BC. Its only in Quebec that it would really be an asset. The rest of Canada primarily speaks mostly english. and it's just British Columbia or BC.

Jane Marple

Not is BC. It will probably take a few years before you even come across a French-Canadian. The French population is concentrated in

Quebec (French province)
New Brunswick (only official bilingual province)
Ontario (500,000 Francophones)
The other provinces have small French communities most of them way up north of their provinces.

old lady

People in British Columbia (you don't need 'the' in front of it) almost all speak English. You don't need French to communicate. Most people have a smattering of french - that means they studied it in school but have probably forgotten most of it by now. In BC, the second language is more apt to be Cantonese or Punjabi than French.

thinkingtime

You do not need to speak French in BC but a lot of better jobs need you to be bilingual in the official languages.

chy5398p

For the name of the province, you just say or write British Columbia.

Despite the fact that Canada has two official languages, which are English and French, it really depends on provinces as well as jobs in the usage of languages.

In federal government jobs (yes, Canada has a federal government like US, except the government follows the Westminster system like UK, so the head of government is the prime minister and the head of state is the Governor General representing the British monarch), regardless of which province you live, all federal employees must be proficient in both English and French. (Yes, even postal service employees are no exception.) In provincial government jobs, requirement in language proficiency varies; however, most provincial governments, particularly Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, also require employees to be bilingual like federal employees.

Other than federal and provincial government jobs, French is optional, except in Quebec province and other areas with French-speaking population, but it will definitely be helpful in finding jobs.

Since British Columbia has mostly English-speaking population, using English is less problematic. But I do need to warn you that the writing in Canadian English is similar to British English, which means spelling will be different in some words. For example, "colour" is the Canadian equivalent of "color", "aeroplane" is "airplane", "boot" (not boot as a kind of footwear) is "trunk" (of a car), and "bonnet" is "hood" (of a car).

Wanderer

Leafsfan29 is on the 1st tee

It's just British Columbia (or BC).

Canada is a bilingual country. While most provinces west of Quebec speak English as the dominant language, it would be a very good idea to have a basic understanding and comprehension of French.

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