If Im gonna live in Montreal, can I get a job and everything just by speaking English? Do I NEED 2speak french

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Elise B

Seriously, if you want to work in MontrÃ©al you do have to speak French otherwise your options for jobs will be pretty much limited! Even if there are many English-speaking people, MontrÃ©al is the world's second French-speaking city. Learn, practice and people will respect you for it, will help you around. If not, you'll be missing on a great opportunity to open up on a wonderful city and its area!
French-speaking and living in MontrÃ©al.

kingstonsean

It would be almost impossible to find a job in Montreal without a very good grasp of the French language. Even if you were able to get a job that doesn't deal with the public, or some sort of customer contact job that only deals with people outside of Quebec, your supervisors will probably be French speaking. You might have a chance at a job in a call center that needs English speaking people or maybe in a small West Island area company. Many Montreal Francophones are bilingual, so your competition for any job is going to pretty stiff.

SteveN

It is certainly possible to find a job in Montreal without speaking French, but I would say your options will be severely limited.

For example, I work in a business that sells software and support to an international communiity. Our main customer base is in USA, so English is mandatory.

However, because we work in Quebec and provincial regulations (regulated and enforced by the Office de la Langue Francaise) state that any company over a set number of employees must have French signs in place, must be using French PC keyboards and a French version of Windows on their PCs.

What results is that I have to struggle with a French PC setup so I can write English messages and do my coding while dealing with a keyboard designed to insert letters with accents on them. My Excel does a SOMME() instead of a SUM(), I have to choose the "police" for my letters rather than my "font".

The point is, if you are coming to a French province like Quebec, you will be expected to understand at least a bit of French. If you are hired for a job that deals with the public, you should be able to speak and understand French.

Some companies may offer you courses to improve your French skills, such as "Beginner's French" or "French for Business Applications".

And outside of your job, when living in Montreal, you will want to understand the road signs, sales circulars, restaurant menus, and other things regarding daily life here.

What I can tell you is that most French people in Montreal appreciate it if you make an effort to speak French to them, and they will reciprocate by doing their best to speak English back if they can. BUT, I find that if you go in to a store with the idea that they should speak English to you, they may be a bit less friendly because you remind them of the snobbish English upper class that they have been trying to get away from since the 1970's.

hell_hound

I am an Anglophone (native English speaker) living in Montreal. Canada is techincally bilingual but Quebec is French. You really ought to make a serious effort to learn at least functional French.

You can get some jobs speaking just English-- there are a lot of call center/phone sales jobs (some are lame, some are ok), and manual labor jobs available to people who can't speak French. There are some more English areas- west of "the main" (St-laurent street) in neighborhoods like NDG, you will find an easier time finding jobs as an Anglo at a restaurant or something.

However, your options are limited and it is unreasonable to come to a predominantly French city and not learn any French. If you are here and you want to learn, you will pick up basics quickly, and that will be enough to help you get plenty of other jobs-- many jobs you need to be able to communicate (say at a coffee shop or a grocery store) but you don't need to be fluent.

bg b

to my acknowledge if your job is dealing with public you are required to speak French.

John

I would say that since Quebec is a French speaking province, you should definitely learn the language.

itssoeasy

well, you don't NEED to know french, but it would definately help you. you can still get a job and all, and you'll prob. pick up more french as you go along, taking baby steps, lol...
anyways, good luck cuz montreal is The best city.

its a bilingual city, and i know people who can't speak a word of french and still have jobs and are getting along well.

moglie

unfortunately you are going to have to, especially in Quebec. I live and work in Ottawa, Ontario,they say because it is the capital city and we border Quebec it is a bilingual city so to get any reasonable paying job you muts speak French. You can get jobs speaking only English, but all of the good paying jobs are usually Gov't jobs which require you to be bilingual.

maryse

yes, i am from montreal, and it would be better to speak french. customer have to be served in french in a restaurant or shop, it is a law. the store could have a fine. but you could probably find a job even if you don't speak french, try in westmont.

carmen m

If you speak perfect emglish you can speak perfect french, so start to study, I was there and people spoke french, but with a different accent as in France, difficult to understand, but I was happy i speak french. You should learn french is very important.....

KaPaul L

ask the french.

lilchevy406

Not all people in Montreal speak french i work in a motel in tennessee and have people from all over canada stay here and just about all of them speak pretty good english,though some of them can be hard to understand. I dont think you would have a problem getting a job speaking english.

Lolita

Don't kid yourself into thinking that you don't need to speak French to live & work in Montreal because it will help you tremendously, trust me!

I tell you what though...

You don't need to speak English to live & work here...

Word of advice?

Get off your lazy @$$ and learn some French damn it!

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