My interest in the French language at Expo

I was four years old when my parents too the family to Expo 67 in Montreal.  It was the worlds fair.  I can remember it like it was yesterday. We drove up in the family station wagon, which had wood on the side.  I was there with my two sisters and brother, my younger brother was not yet born. When we go there it was in the 90s, and my first impression of French Canada was it was hot. I did not know anything of north and south.

Crossing the boarder into Quebec, took a bit as there was a lot of traffic going to the world’s fair.

On that family vacation I was fascinated by the different culture of French Canada.

French language in Quebec – my second trip

My second childhood trip to Canada was a camping adventure. When I was seventeen years old with my childhood friend George Wheat, we took a camping trip to French Canada.  It was in the area of Sherbrooke Quebec. We went camping just all over the border. It was back then on this trip, I got my real first taste of native speaking French.

We stayed in some campsite in the middle of a forest, it’s right over the border.

At one point we got lost hiking new trails. However, once we found a road a friendly Quebec lumber jack gave us a ride in his truck. I tried some of the French language I learned in school but he knew in two seconds that we were from the States. We were English speaking Americans. He was still friendly but had a different attitude towards us. It wasn’t the same as if we were French and for me at eighteen to being it was all a very interesting experience and a good experience for me to practice my French.

On that trip we had subsequent interactions with other French language speaking Canadians on that trip including buying ice cream from two beautiful French girls at a roadside ice cream stand. But that is another  story.

These two trips, one to Montreal the other to Quebec, combined my childhood trip to Montreal, my amazing French lessons with Madame Lessard in Junior high school. Madame Lessard was a French teacher who made the French language come to life. Great positive memories as she was always encouraging.  I thought the French world was something at least curious.

To a modern reader this story does not sound like anything amazing. But remember I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and back then people did not travel like they did today and we did not have the Internet or any exposure to foreign countries.  We had three stations on TV and the world was very large and spread out. Our lives were very innocent.  Therefore, any limited exposure was something, like the trips above were amazing.  It is like little events had more significance.

After 18 and my interest in the French language

I studied French to the literature level at my University and even hitch hiked around France.  I have since moved to Europe and am an EU citizen.  My interest in the French language continues and I am writing French language programs.  I will have French language French cards.

I think my early experiences fueled this interest.  They were warm childhood memories and when you have something like that they can have an affect on your for your life. So these were my early experiences with the French language.

Which is better to visit Montreal or Quebec? I am very partial towards one of these cities. I love Montreal. I have often thought of living there. However, this is a very qualified answer. You need to read on to be able to make a more informed choice.

My experiences with Montreal

I lived in New England most of my life. When I lived in a beautiful city like Boston, I was going to Montreal at least once a month. I did not have a business purpose, rather I went to this city because there were so many things to do, and it was an adventure.  It was like a European city in the Americas. I would go to authentic French resturants in the Montreal old town, to Spas on St. Laurent street.

I got my first seaweed wrap on Sr. Laurent street (I am a guy, I just like to explore and try new things). I remember staying in a hotel drinking as much juice as I could because it came with the meal and then going to the spa for my treatment. When I was wrapped in seaweed, I really had to go to the men’s room. Well that was an adventure, I guess.

On St. Catharines steet, I use to take yoga classes. In fact, the pretty French girls in the class would ask where I was if I missed a few weeks. They assumed I lived downtown.

Also the bookstores ,  like Indigos and Chapters on St. Catharines steet was a great place to hang out.

I stayed usually on Saint-Denis in winter in the Quartier-Latin of Monteal. I stayed at a hotel called Du Manoir.  It was cheap and family run and if you step our your door you have all the nightlife of the Latin Quarter.

I went shopping in the North section of the Island of Montreal, which was the Italian section. I would buy authentic French Canadian produce and Italian imported goods.  The Canadian dollar was so weak compared to the US dollar that doing my groceary shopping there would pay for the expense of the trip.

I bought some really cool shirts that I have seven years latter in some of the store there. MEC or Mountain equiptment co-op.  Those same shirts I wore when I first meet my wife and she was impressed by my style.  So I guess it was worth it. MEC has a climbing wall inside also.  I went with my friend George and he did not buy anything there.  I do not know why to this day, they have great clothes.

I have also stayed in the gay hotel with my buddy George.  We are not gay, but we did not know that this hotel was for gays, until the guy in front of use winked at me.  It was a nice hotel by the way.

Do not forget the biosphere or the botanical; gardens. I love the Biosphere as  it is a self contrail ecosystem with four environments.

The have some great Gothic shops downtown. I always said if I won lotto I would buy some crazy Gothic attire and wear it downtown.

Mont Royal is a great Sunday afternoon hike before you go home. I have so many fond memories of Montreal. However, my most fondest was in the 1967 worlds fair, Expo 67.  I was four years old but I remember it in detail.  It was so hot that when my dad bought me ice cream he has to  ‘help’  me with it.  He had the lions share. It was a wonderful time in my life.

Quebec city

I have not been to Quebec city in years.  However, Quebec city is cleaner and prettier than Montreal. Its safer and more authentic. You do not feel like you are in Europe, rather you feel like you are in Europe 300 years ago.

You can sit on the hill overlooking the Saint Lawrence river or take pictures of the ice castle during the winter carnival.

Quebec city is culture is a lot of ohh and ahhs.  Montreal is just play.

Which to visit Montreal or Quebec

So Montreal or Quebec is a little like asking  Ginger or Mary Ann.  I think Ginger is like Montreal, just fun; while Mary Ann is charming and nice, like  Quebec.

If you have any questions about Montreal or Quebec just ask I do not think I am an expert but as a tourist, and a world traveler I think I can point you in the right direction.

Who am I to evaluate the question “is French hard to learn”? Well I studied French for seven years to a university level, and I am an American living in Europe teaching and learning languages. I also write software to help people study languages.

The French language is not that hard to learn if you are an English speaker. In fact, I think it is a very easy language.

Why?

• Free vocabulary
• Easy pronunciation
• No grammar
• French people make it hard to not speak their language

Is French hard to learn?

Free Vocabulary

The reason for an English speaker or any language learner in general especially from a European language is easy is it was so universal. For hundreds of years French was the language of England.  The French language was also spoken all over Europe by the educated.  Therefore, I would estimate about 40% of the words in English can be connected to French.  This is a lot of “free vocabulary”.

I study the Polish language.  There is very little, almost no free vocabulary in Polish.

Easy pronunciation

Compared to the tongue twisters of the Slavic languages or the tones of Chinese, Français is not hard.

You could almost speak many English words with a fake French accent and you will be understood. Speak with a lot of nasal sounds. Really what you have to do is watch French TV for about a day and that would be enough imitate the language. I am not saying that sarcastically but really. I teach and learning to imitate an accent is a very basic thing many people feel silly about.

Almost no grammar

People will be upset with this, but French has no cases and except for gender and fairly regular verb changes French has similar grammar to English.

This means the language of France is not hard.

French people refuse to speak other languages

Go to France and you will get immersion. Go to Poland and people are all trying to practice English and you will find it hard in many cases to even speak Polish. But in Paris or Montreal, the opposite is true and you will either sink or swim.

But you do not need to be in France because it is the official language in 29 counties in the world. It has 65 million native speakers and 250 million total speakers. That gives it a rank of 9th in the world for native speakers and 4th in the world over all for speakers. It is also a major language in the EU.

What do you have to do to learn French?

Learn about 200 verbs in different forms and about another 2000 common nouns and abstract words.  I do not recommend studying  nouns like horse and carrot which every language learners studies, but words like ‘but, ‘although, ‘seems’ which are abstract but very common.

My greatest improvements in speaking a language came when I was determined to learn large amounts of vocabulary. I used flashcards.  I am not talking about online flashcards but physical flashcards to learn. I do not like dictionaries.

The website you are on has nice word lists that you can print to start learning.

In summary, is French hard to learn? No! It is easy. It is one of the easiest languages in the world.  If you can not make progress with French then you do not know enough words and your method is wrong. Learn words with flashcards and word lists and I think you will agree with me that yes the language of the French people yes low stress and very easy.

This is my personal experience with learning French.  I studied French for seven years and I think the most productive learning was when I was in seventh grade.

Paris France how to learn French

Why was this the most productive time?  Was it that I was so young and language learning is easy people say when you are young? No. The reason was my French teacher Madame Lessard (truly a great woman), made us memorizes dialogues.  I still remember those dialogues to this day. She made us recite them.  I leaned so many words and phrases that this was much better than doing book work and she made it fun.

Memory French language learning

A language is largely based on memory.  You need to learn words or dialogues.  If you can remember passages from the Bible or common everyday dialogues or word lists you will not have a problem with grammar.

Think of the ancients who memorized entire stories, like the Iliad.  If people in ancient times could memorizes entire books, you can certainly memorizes lyrics to a song in French or part of your favorite book.

Some how you are going to have to know about 5,ooo words to start speaking French at a reasonable level. You need to test and retest yourself.

So how did I learn the French language? Honestly I am not that great in French, but I learned it not in Paris or France, but by memorizing passages and words.

How to learn French

If you are not overly motivated to learn passages or have someone like Madame Lessard to guide you (few teachers were like her), I recommend using French flashcards. Flashcard will get you up to speed faster than any other method I know. I learned Polish a much more difficult language this way.