Good morning world!
Edit: I won't delete this but I want to say most people in Montreal aren't like this. Just some people and I wrote this directly after one of those experiences.
I just wanted to write about a little pet peve I have in Montreal.
First let me say I love the French language, that's one of the reasons I moved to Quebec. It's so interesting for me to explore a whole different language, culture, and history in my day to day life.
I really fell in love with this language when I was visiting Quebec City. An amazingly beautiful town, and incredibly unique. The demographics of Quebec city and Montreal are completely different. I don't have statistics but Quebec City appears to be 95%+ Euro-American.
I have a horrible accent in French and often I lose track of whats happening in a conversation, but I'm pretty good at letting the other person know when I don't understand and I can ask questions in French to figure out most simple topics.
In Quebec City every conversation was a pleasure. People helped me and they were interested that a quarky anglo-guy wants to learn French.
It's not the same in Montreal and I feel like the attitude is ruining my enjoyment of speaking French. The points I'll make here are especially true for immigrants who speak French in Montreal, never had this problem with Quebecois from the rural areas.
If you order in French they will make a big point of them not understanding, (yes, I'm bad at speaking French but like I said Quebec people seem to know what I'm saying and they help me get better). These people just try to make you feel bad.
Due to the above fact I have switched to almost always speaking English when at a store or restaurant in Montreal. When you speak English, they also seem annoyed as if I'm trying to make some big political statement by using English.
Then on top of that you have all these ads paid by the government telling you to speak French.
I was 10x more interested in French before I started feeling bullied by people.
I'm not sure why it always seems to be immigrants who are the worst about making a stink about language. Maybe they have an increased desire to prove they are "Quebecois" as "etrangers" (foreigners)?
I really have no idea why they treat me like that.
I miss the beautiful and friendly European culture of Quebec City. I'm not going to let a few rude people ruin my enjoyment of the French language and culture.