Best and Worst Areas in Montreal to Learn French

Some parts of Montreal are less French than others. If you're going to Montreal to improve your French, you'll want to consider where exactly you live or stay to optimize the amount of exposure and practice that you get.
This video covers the best neighbourhoods in Montreal for French, and where you should avoid to escape the dreaded "anglo bubble".
The language map used in this video: censusmapper.ca/maps/2348 (based on the 2016 census, as presented by CensusMapper)
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#French #Montreal #Languages #Bilingualism #Canada

[@8181k]

That feeling of defeat when you start a conversation in French but the other person switches to English mid-way...

[@SPM947]

Used to happen to me all the time... the key is persistence. Keep responding in French and they will eventually go with it.

[@louisrobitaille9384]

@Sean Tout à fait!

[@Justin87878]

hahahahaha. Thankfully, I went to Québec City instead, rather than all the crap practicing in the western side of Montréal. I improve way-way faster there than in Montréal.

[@boink800]

In French, it's called 'switcher'. You can be blunt and ask the person to keep speaking French since you want to learn French (but wait! They want to learn English!).

[@stephenvandulken6948]

@@SPM947 Not always ! I am an Englishman. I was once in Capri, Italy, when a middle aged man and his teenage son approached me and asked me a question in French. I answered, correctly, in French that the famous house he was looking for was down by the water, behind him. The teenager said to his father in French "I told you so." Detecting my (slight) accent, the man started talking in English while I replied in French. This went on for two minutes, with me getting more and more agitated. Eventually he walked off.

[@FridgeOper8tor]

The Eastern part of Montreal also has the benefit of having preserved walkable urban planning. If you head West enough, the dreadful post-War car-centric zoning makes neighborly and casual conversations difficult - no neighborhood Cafes, no walkable businesses and so on. Lower Westmount and NDG are English-leaning neighborhoods with excellent urban life, however. Areas like the Plateau and Rosemont definitely benefitted from their working-class history. It is now quite gentrified, walkable and still french leaning.

[@alexseguin5245]

Yeah, you even get the benefit of having quite a few people who speak the France version of French there too

[@gstrdms]

Yeah the walkability scale ends at Verdun, but who wants to meander around Lasalle anyway? It's easily accessed by the bike paths in case you want to take a 20km round-trip to see the same sights you can see in Verdun.

[@chonglangtv]

hi do you have any recommended book or online site that covers the city planing of post-war franco suburbs? I've been interested in this topic

[@princevesperal]

Be aware that most Montrealers are bilingual, and their English proficiency is probably better than your French: out of politeness and respect for your struggle, many will have the reflex to switch to English to accommodate you. Don't let them! Tell them you want to practice your French! It will actually please them to learn that and they will sit through your uneasy accent and grammar construction as you improve your skill!

[@yodorob]

As well as being Anglo bubbles, Cote St. Luc (where I live) and Hampstead - and portions of Montreal West, Snowdon/Cote des Neiges, Ville St. Laurent, Dollard des Ormeaux, (formerly) Chomedey Laval, and so forth - are Jewish bubbles.

[@coconutnghtmr9931]

As a francophone, I can confirm that most of the East past Viau is pretty trashy (not in a cool way), lacking in services and unattractive, with a few exceptions here and there such as the neighbourhood along Promenade-Bellerive park in Mercier, the Garden City next to Maisonneuve park in Rosemont (gorgeous!) or the eastern tip of the island in RdP/Pointe-aux-Trembles. My top 3 would be: • Ahuntsic, which has this really homey feel to it. Gouin boulevard all the way to Île-de-la-Visitation nature park is hands down one of the most beautiful places on the entire island. • Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, which is kind of still rough around the edges, but filled with history, gorgeous buildings and streets (Adam, La Fontaine and Morgan), tons of cool businesses along Ontario street, and is probably the most progressive and laid-back neighbourhood on the island. • The west end of Rosemont (Mile-Ex, Little Italy and Petite-Patrie), which I feel is still rather underrated when compared to the Mile-End. Honestly, this is one of the coolest places in town, full of life, excellent food and great people, with a super interesting architectural medley of old shoeboxes, classic Montreal duplex/triplex, minimalist modern townhouses and imposing industrial structures like the Des Carrières incinerator.

[@sammexp]

Montréal-Est, Post apocalyptic feelings 😆

[@coconutnghtmr9931]

@@sammexp Yup, it's ugly and it stinks. It's a shame when your "city"'s barely got anything to offer besides refineries.

[@lifestain]

I may be wrong, but Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is probably the nicest place in Montreal where you'll find unilingual francophones if you are up to the challenge, especially the older residents. And yeah, it's a beautiful but rough neighbourhood. There is a lot sex work, homelessness, drug consumption and gentrification is quite divisive (between the anarchists groups, the older residents, the young middle-class families, students, etc.). But even with these issues, people are nice and friendly. I've been living here for 3 years and I'm loving it.

[@lifestain]

@@coconutnghtmr9931 well, there is a nice park to look at the Saint-Lawrence and the bike lane is still in good shape ;) But yeah, the rest is horrible, probably as bad as Sorel-Tracy's factories.

[@pidgelord9445]

Love how even with this map the "la ville est séparé par le boulvard st-laurent" is accurate with language too. XD PS: j'adore vos vidéo!

[@EJW2003]

super helpful thank you!

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Glad you found it useful!

[@bancdeplastik]

un peu en retard, mais je viens de découvrir votre chaine. très intéressant et vraiment pertinent. Je suis né au Québec et francophone, mais j'ai vraiment aimé votre portrait de Montréal. et je suis absolument d'accord avec le principe de vivre du "coté franco" pour un "anglo" qui veut apprendre le français.

[@bengt_axle]

As a result of Bill 101 introduced decades ago (making French the official language of Quebec), the fracture of Anglophones and Francophones shown along the map is not so present anymore. The children of Bill 101, even if Anglophone, are expected to be fluently bilingual, and some will attend university in French, after attending English secondary school. You can go to a grocery store in Westmount, Beaconsfield and NDG and be served entirely in French. Where English-only has recently seen a resurgence is in areas of high international university student population (e.g. Guy-Concordia). English has also been bolstered by the fact that many Francophones watch a lot of English language KZbin and other media, as well as more and more attending university where English is necessary to read graduate level materials etc. If you want to learn French in Montreal, the advice is simple: just speak French, regardless of where you are and don't worry about making a mistake, even at a business meeting or a restaurant. Briefly switching to English, when you don't know the word in French, is not disrespectful or rude but quite common. Also, it is not at all uncommon for two Anglophones to be speaking French in a commercial setting, even though English might be easier for them. In Montreal, you can also hear many different accents of French, be it Parisian, "Québécois" or that spoken by different immigrant groups from the Maghreb, Haiti, Belgium, Vietnam or others. Montrealers fluent in French do not consider one to be more grammatically correct than the other, when spoken correctly. If you want to be proficient in both spoken and written French, you really have to practice writing in French without making mistakes. Once you write well, you will speak like you write, and that will be correct, regardless of whether you are from Paris or the Plateau. This is what you'll hear on Radio-Canada and other TV stations.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

I agree that it's possible to use/learn French in a more English area (in the video we cited the census showing that 80% of Westmount residents can speak French, even if for most it isn't their first language). However, we still wouldn't recommend those areas for language learning when more French areas exist in the city too. Nothing against the neighbourhoods themselves, but practicing your second language can often be awkward and difficult (at least for people who didn't grow up in a bilingual environment and who've really only used French in school) and if everyone else is speaking English around you it's easier and more natural to just go with the flow instead of doing the hard thing and trying French. A context where most people are speaking French makes it easier for a second language learner to default to French themselves.

[@bengt_axle]

@@OhTheUrbanity Oui, absolument. Ayant fait mon secondaire et Cégep en anglais, j’ai fait mon baccalauréat dans une université francophone, justement pour cette raison.

[@wiiiz3]

@@bengt_axle good info but i hope you realized the french accent from france and belgium are the same.

[@thedarkestcloud]

So would you say that Montreal is getting more francophone ?

[@thedarkestcloud]

@@wiiiz3 “the” French accent from France and “the” French accent from Belgium? I live in NYC but was born and raised in France. There’s a huge variety of accents within France and they’re very distinct from one another. You can tell right away who is from where. Same for Belgium, though very small, the French speaking areas of Belgium have very distinctive accents. Just like English in the UK and in the US (and in the rest of Canada I’m sure).

[@Dan-pd9ys]

As an anglophone Montrealer, this was actually such a great video. Super impressed with your stats and nuanced presentation of our different neighbourhoods and language enclaves, that most people from outside of Montreal don't know or care to learn. One of the biggest piss offs I have is meeting people from other parts of the province, country or world and them thinking Montreal is entirely francophone, essentially erasing 33% of the island's linguistic identity (Thanks to the province's narrative often times so i don't blame anyone personally lol). However, I can also tell you as someone who takes pride in Montreal's existence of francophone heritage, character and culture, that literally the ONLY reason my confidence level in French has improved is because I've actively tried leaving the anglo bubble to explore different neighbourhoods east of downtown, and now working with a majority french team at the office. All to say, incredible video!

[@qcpresto]

Well, at least you don't have to justify why you speak french as a canadian for ANYONE outside of Canada ... anglo-montrealers are the most spoiled ethnicity on this planet. It has to change

[@radztransdoggo]

I think most people don't know about the English community because it largely lives as a bubble with little to no interaction with the rest of the city.

[@Dan-pd9ys]

​@@qcpresto I think this is a greatly oversimplified take on it, but I do understand why you think that. I take issue with a lot of anglo-montrealer opinions and the often arrogant and insular take some of them may have on living here as well. However, having lived here my whole life and also having lived elsewhere, I don't think its fair to say they are the most spoiled minority on the planet. The history or english in Quebec and especially in Montreal is complex and definitely nuanced. Dialogue and understanding between each other should always come first.

[@MirejeLenoir4670]

Awesome channel

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Appreciated!

[@CBMaster2]

By the way, you don't pronounce the A in Ahuntsic, it sounds like "on sic"

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Good to know, thanks!

[@lebrackofranco5785]

Only in English, in French you pronounce the A

[@CBMaster2]

@@lebrackofranco5785 eeee non j'habite dans Ahuntsic depuis 30 ans j'ai jamais entendu personne dire A*hun*sic

[@krisppynugget]

@@lebrackofranco5785 I'm an anglo from Montreal and I've only ever heard English speakers pronounce it as Ahunsic 😅

[@MirejeLenoir4670]

@@lebrackofranco5785 One must not confound the "à/to" in "à Ahuntsic" with the "A" you see in the word "Ahuntsic.

[@sandrawall3531]

My parents and grandparents and I are brought up Bilingual.We are know as multicultural.I appreciate where I live in Montreal Quebec.

[@jeanlafrance8746]

Québec City would be better for a full french immersion. Less than 1.5% of the population has english as their mother tongue.

[@fernbedek6302]

Hmm, more central anglo areas than I thought. I'd like to practice my French more, but English is already my girlfriend's second language, so we'd probably want to stick to orange or red if we moved. Don't want to pressure her into having to learn another new language.

[@FloodPower]

Awesome

[@CinCee-]

Wow Montreal has a really tiny subway system

[@coachnate5747]

Um ... Ive lived in Verdun a long time and my parents are from Verdun and it has always been English dominant

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Verdun was English-dominant in the first half of the 1900s, but more recently 61% of people speak French as their mother tongue and 17% of people speak English as their mother tongue. 2016 census: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdun,_Quebec#Demographics

[@coachnate5747]

@@OhTheUrbanity Whatever the stats are , i go by what I hear with my own ears . Yes new young families moved there because it was cheaper then let's say the Plateau ,but it's always been more English for me

[@OhTheUrbanity]

@@coachnate5747 The census collects data from virtually every single person who lives there. It's very reliable.

[@AnhTuPhucDerrickHoangCanada]

What's good or bad?

[@OhTheUrbanity]

In the context of learning French? Having a bunch of people who can speak French around, particularly if French is their main or preferred language, makes it a lot easier to learn and practice the language.

[@DrunkAndPissedOff]

People in Quebec: CA VA!!!! Me: Si 🤔

[@neofils]

It is not a bubble but a ghetto ( ghetto anglais/ english ghetto). Not a place worst a mindset .

[@jeffreykaufmann2867]

Not really.A ghetto is an area where poor people from one ethnicity reside. Anglophones are made up of many different ethnic and racial groups.

[@neofils]

@@jeffreykaufmann2867 Ghetto Anglais is not a place but a mindset. Read carefully please!!!!!

[@jeffreykaufmann2867]

@@neofils No such thing

[@neofils]

@@jeffreykaufmann2867 . Time to get out of your bubbles . I have met a lot of Anglo who are unable to communication in french and know nothing about Quebec's music , history , litterature , culture etc . We call it Ghetto Anglais !

[@jeffreykaufmann2867]

@@neofils 94.6% of Quebecers are bilingual. Most French Quebecers know little about Quebec Culture. Most of them listen to British or American Rock music, rap, Jazz etc.. and European or American literature. The one thing I learned from The Charbonneau Commission is that 99% of the biggest crooks in Quebec are French Canadian and Francophone Italian. They are screwing their own people.

[@robburgess4556]

I grew up in NDG on the border of Montreal West. When people ask me why I don't speak French my answer usually starts with "Well, there WERE 2 French families in the neighbourhood..."

[@qcpresto]

You should be ashamed

[@boink800]

The Anglo living in Quebec who refuses to get his/her French up to a very fluent level. That is so sad.

[@cristianfuentes2597]

Live in Toronto and almost no English families around still learned English.

[@boink800]

The only way to learn French is by using it.

[@gstrdms]

The "worst" places to learn French (CDN/NDG/MoWest/Southwest) are the best areas of the city to live in.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We had a great experience living in the Plateau and spending time in nearby boroughs like Outremont and Rosemont. Of course, there are many nice neighborhoods in the west end too.

You can learn french, but learning true trash Québecois is much more practical in the everyday montrealer's life.

[@abrahamsalamah5773]

except when you get so used to it you apply it in french class and get a nice 59% -_-

[@boink800]

No, I do not want to speak 'trash'.

[@alborzdmavandi8190]

I'm so sorry for Canada. Most things about a good Canada are not true, Including clean cities - beaches, and forests. It's a big lie. The first time I arrived in Vancouver in 2018, I was shocked. As soon as I left the airport door, I saw tissue, disposable glasses, and other garbage left in the city. The further I went, the more I saw them. Before I moved to Canada, I lived in Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Serbia, The United States, and for a short time in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Germany, and England, but I have never seen the amount of garbage that people leave in different Canadian cities. Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec are no less than Vancouver. Canadian and Canada Governments don't care about this tragedy. I think everything that says about Canada as a clean and powerful culture is not true. You don't need to travel to Canada to see this. Just watch some videos about walking in downtown Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec. You will find the truth. Impossible for you to walk in a Canadian city and you don't see the dark side of that. Everywhere you will see garbage. You will never see this in Europe, Australia, the United States, Japan, and Korea. This amount of waste is not even seen in Malaysian, Indonesian, or Thailand cities. It is impossible for you to use public transport and not see a lot of garbage at stations or on the route. You will be surprised to find a lot of garbage even in the woods - by the rivers and on the beaches in Canada. I wish the Canadians woke up and had no enmity with their country. To be fair, I randomly looked at videos from downtown Manchester and Concord in New Hampshire - Philadelphia - Detroit - Chicago - New York - Baltimore - Denver - Nashville, and Knoxville in the United States, and Toronto - Quebec - Montreal - Winnipeg - Calgary - Vancouver - Victoria - Ottawa and Thunder Bay in Canada. we should be fair. The bitter truth must be accepted. Without any exaggeration. Completely impartial. I have to say that I didn't see a single piece of garbage in any of the US videos to convince myself. Without exaggeration, in all Canadian cities, there must have been a piece of garbage on the ground less than every hundred meters. It must have an important reason. I do not know. But this is a bitter truth. You can try. This country should be brought closer to its exaggerated claim. the truth is bitter. Certainly, some Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and even Malaysia are much cleaner compared to Canada. Of course, we should not forget that Canada claims to be one of the 10 cleanest countries in the world. And Vancouver claims to be one of the 5 cleanest cities in the world. Please go to East Hastings or Victoria Drive or Commercial Drive or West Georgia or Broadway or Main Street and judge for yourself. I am 50 years old and have traveled to 26 countries. Canada is far from its claims. I saw, homeless people, pooping and peeing everywhere and it's so common. nobody cares. I was shocked again. I endured for 3 years but every day going worst. late in 2022, I decided to move to the east because I thought that place has a stronger culture. I chose Montreal. I had heard it is the capital of art and civilization in Canada. it was absolutely wrong. Canada is Canada. I was shocked again, again, and again. the wave of homelessness, graffiti, vandalism, bad smell, terrible infrastructure especially roads in or out of the city, and above all, you can see trash everywhere. plastic bags, tissues, water bottles, and disposable cups. You cannot see any street or park or public place without these. This is impossible. surprisingly nobody cares. neither the people nor the government!!!!!!! please, don't be fooled by the advertisement about a good Canada. please, be careful. most of the things about a good Canada are deception This country is disappointing. Please, Please, Please, don't immigrate to Canada you would regret it absolutely. this is not a developed country, Canada is a developing country with huge serious problems.

[@jeffreykaufmann2867]

The best place to learn French is in France.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Depends what kind of French you want to learn. For an English Canadian who wants to use French in their country, going to France to learn, while useful, will probably be less useful (and more expensive) than going to Quebec.

[@neofils]

As such the best place to learn English is England ?

[@shaungordon9737]

@@neofils Not at all. Most of these European countries don't even speak the same as they did when the colonies were founded. None of them are really 'pure' anymore. Quebec French is much more similar to how French was spoken in the 1600s than the French spoken in modern day France.

[@neofils]

@@shaungordon9737 Nope Quebec has retained some archaïsms but has involved too. Same as for Anglo- American to r.p english It works both ways !

[@neofils]

@@shaungordon9737 Sorry I am not the one who said the best place to learn french is in France . So why do you reply to me???

[@Bob-yl9pm]

Good Grief! Will you kindly stop with the language thing? YOU'RE FRENCH!..... IT'S OFFICIAL It's now time to encourage American tourism! It's great for your local/provincial economy! You have a beautiful city! (Well, AH? at least in the summer you do! ;) )

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We're not francophones, we moved to Montreal in large part to get better at French, and we used this census data ourselves to pick a better language learning environment. We thought that other people would find it useful too.

[@Bob-yl9pm]

@@OhTheUrbanity You mean "Francophiles" Yes I know! I was born in Montreal! I actually love Canadians, but also America (for which I am now a citizen since 1963) I can't speak a word of French!

[@Bob-yl9pm]

But I admire the language! And all my relatives!

[@hdufort]

Who are you talking to, Bob? Is your passionate tirade against the promotion of the French language targeting the whole of Quebec, or the author of the video?

[@Bob-yl9pm]

@@hdufort I am a Montreal born French Canadian who moved to USA at age 5. I'm simply referring to the "tirade against the promotion" of the English language, especially back in the 70's while visiting my relatives, where I sometimes felt linguistically handicapped and even publicly disrespected, for not knowing a language that I wish I did! (A beautiful Romance language)

[@lonccoccala6861]

Learn french in Montreal is like learn english in Montreal, bad spoken and its useless at work. In this kind of bilingual cities nobody have a good level in both languages.

[@qcpresto]

Complètement faux