# Montreal i.t jobs and french...



## DingDangDoo (May 30, 2010)

Anyone here living in Montreal? I work in I.T, is knowing french a must for geting an i.t job there does anyone know? Looking to go next year.

Thanks


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## Liam(at)Large (Sep 2, 2012)

Working in IT myself and having worked with teams out of Montreal on several different projects over the years I would say not speaking French would put you at a serious disadvantage unless you have very specific, specialized skills.


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## Maple Sugar (May 5, 2012)

Oui, generally, French is a must for Québec, in getting a job, keeping a job and having the ability to deal with provincial administration issues and daily life issues. If you have specific skills that will gain you a job without having French, like Liam said, you still have to deal with the other issues so I would advise either looking at another area of Canada or beginning French courses ASAP. Cheers! MS


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## WestCoastCanadianGirl (Mar 17, 2012)

I would agree with Liam and Maple Sugar... you should have some foundation in French if you want to try to live in Québec. I grew up in Canada and feel that I am able to speak passable French i.e. I could carry on a conversation, in French, with my Husband (he is bilingual) but I find it difficult to think in French fractionally as fast as I do in English... I've also had to speak French in the workplace (again, with some difficulty but I did it)... however, based on these experiences, I would tend to want to shy away from working in Québec, not because it's not a nice place (I absolutely adore Montréal), but because even there (in Montréal, a city in Québec where English is more openly accepted than in say Québec City) I feel that I would struggle to survive in day-to-day life and even possibly on the job (workplace may be an English language environment but callers on the phone may be Francophone and you'd be expected to deal with them in French)... yes, you'd pick it up as time goes by if you lived there, but it would still be a struggle... not an impossible undertaking but definitely a challenge (and this is coming from someone who studied it from Year 8-11 in school and for a couple if semesters at uni and practices from time to time at home by speaking to Husband and reading books).

Good luck to you!


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## Maple Sugar (May 5, 2012)

WestCoastCanadianGirl said:


> I would agree with Liam and Maple Sugar... you should have some foundation in French if you want to try to live in Québec. I grew up in Canada and feel that I am able to speak passable French i.e. I could carry on a conversation, in French, with my Husband (he is bilingual) but I find it difficult to think in French fractionally as fast as I do in English... I've also had to speak French in the workplace (again, with some difficulty but I did it)... however, based on these experiences, I would tend to want to shy away from working in Québec, not because it's not a nice place (I absolutely adore Montréal), but because even there (in Montréal, a city in Québec where English is more openly accepted than in say Québec City) I feel that I would struggle to survive in day-to-day life and even possibly on the job (workplace may be an English language environment but callers on the phone may be Francophone and you'd be expected to deal with them in French)... yes, you'd pick it up as time goes by if you lived there, but it would still be a struggle... not an impossible undertaking but definitely a challenge (and this is coming from someone who studied it from Year 8-11 in school and for a couple if semesters at uni and practices from time to time at home by speaking to Husband and reading books).
> 
> Good luck to you!


I absolutely agree. As a Canadian living in France, these are challenges I deal with on a day-to-day basis. My first language is English and my second language is French. The différences between Canadian French and French French are huge as well so I am constantly flipping mentally among 3 languages. On the French Forum we regularly refer to the 'dreaded French phone call' because, of course, you have no body language cues on the phone. 

If you are certain you would like to live in Canada, think about a job in an English environment and go to the French speaking provinces and areas of provinces on vacation.

Cheers!

MS


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