Language Learning – Moving from English Speaking Canada to French speaking Canada admin2023-01-31T16:14:18+00:00 Mike Bird, 13-11-1988, Canada The familiar rumbling of a freight train passing through town could be heard, but better yet, it was felt through the vibration of my twin IKEA bed. Like a massage that helped me relax and doze off to sleep, I knew it must have been just after midnight in Trois-Rivières. It had been a few months since I’d started living in the town five-and-a-half days a week. The remaining 36 hours - usually spread over Sunday and Monday morning - were spent in Montréal: then and still my home base. Growing up in English-speaking Canada, you could say I was an outlier - dare I say outsider - in the town of just under 114 000. Just over 95% of residents identify as francophones. But Trois-Rivières was playing host to me while I carried out two concurrent missions. Mission One: coach the local college football team. Mission Two: learn French. Although I had attended university in Montréal, an officially French metropolis, I’d neglected to see just how important the language was to the culture of the province of Québec. Coming out of my studies, I found myself grasping for some sort of meaningful employment and feeling incredibly unconfident about doing so.... Read more...
