>During my recent trip, I stayed at a B&B in Nova Scotia. The proprieter had entertained a guest from France who had been travelling in Quebec. This person had told him: "The Quebeçois are playing a bad joke on you. They are making you all use French, but they don't even speak proper French." My own French is not good enough to confirm what he said.

My experience as an outsider: When I came to Montreal, I couldn't understand the spoken French (in school, I learned the French of France). Only after 2-4 weeks I could understand it at an acceptable level. Although, many people speak something in between and this was ok for me. I was amazed to find out that almost any French Quebeqer can speak the French as I learned it in school. Only that they don't do it in everyday life. In my opinion, the difference between the French language in Quebec and France is much bigger than the difference between English in Canada and England.

And there are also French "dialects" that don't sound at all like French. I listen once for about 10 minutes two subway workers. I could hardly understand the words, but I couldn't put them together. :)

And I would say that Sylvain is right about the French from France being snobs... :)

BTW, the written French is exactly the same. And, after all, who decides which is the proper French, English, etc?

Vlad

>What do Anglo-Canadians learn in school - the French of France or Quebec? I am guessing that Canadian French is not officially any different and that in, say, Quebec City it doesn't sound nearly as different as it would out in the woods.