<p>Hello! I am a high school junior who is interested in possibly double majoring in french and a major to-be-determined. I was wondering if McGill is a great place to major in french. Yes, I am aware that McGill is in Montreal, but I don't know how much Quebecois differs from Standard French. If I was to major in French there, would I be learning more Quebecois than Standard French? And is their French major strong to begin with? Thank you.</p>
<p>The D</p>
<p>As a native-English speaker, which department primarily would I be taking classes in if I wanted to major in French language and literature? Sorry if I am a bit confused. 
And thank you for answering my previous question.</p>
<p>You would be in the D</p>
<p>I don’t have much to help you with, but I am also an American junior who is looking at McGill for the exact same reason!</p>
<p>If you are concerned about the differences between Quebec French and European French, take a look at [url=<a href=“http://www.cyberpresse.ca/]Cyberpresse”>http://www.cyberpresse.ca/]Cyberpresse</a> | Actualit</p>
<p>The French literature program is like English Major programs at American schools. So if you don’t already speak and read french fluently, majoring in it is most likely not a good option. It is going to be significantly more difficult, I believe, than if you were to be a french major at top schools in the states.</p>
<p>As for the French as a second language department at McGill, there is no major, just French courses in the department. I have heard that some of the upper level FRSL courses are good, but the lower levels are horrible. They separate courses into four main introductory levels: beginner, elementary, oral and written 1, oral and written 2. If you have never taken French, you waste a lot of time taking the first two years as has been my experience. In beginner, they teach you they teach you present tense, imparfait, and passe compose. Elementary, they treat you as though you never learned the stuff from the year before. It is aweful. They literally reteach imparfait halfway through the course. In the other language departments, you would maybe spend the first three weeks reviewing everything from the prior level language course.</p>
<p>Look, some colleges in the US like Middlebury have good languages programs, but at the end of the day, you are still living in Vermont. If you actually want to study and learn French, short of moving to France, McGill is perfect.</p>
<p>Yes, Quebecois French has an accent, just as people from America and the UK speak differently. But it sounds like you are a beginner, so believe me, you will be fine. You should start taking FRSL courses at the EFLC department, and when you can firmly write an essay in French, you can do French literature courses in the other department. You will be able to pick up French by working in and around Montreal. I would also recommend you consider studying French over a summer somewhere like Laval University in Quebec City, or do a semester or year abroad in France/Belgium. </p>
<p>I think you’ll have a blast learning French in Montreal, where you can practice what you learn in class each time you go to a restaurant for dinner, go to a play, or even chat up Montrealers at a nightclub.</p>
<p>Its not just an accent, its actually a different grammatical system for a lot of it. Its very easy for french speakers to tell the difference. Regardless, you can still communicate easily with all french speakers throughout the world and you will still be learning a foreign language… just not parisian french like most other schools teach.</p>
<p>The grammar’s the same, the “standard” vocabulary is not.</p>
<p>No, I took a linguistics class there, the spoken grammar is distinct in some elements.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you’re referring to. I’ve taken advanced French grammar courses in both France and Canada and both use the same structures. It’s not like l’imparfait or le subjonctif changes from place to place. It’s more the slang, certain expressions, the accent…</p>
<p>True, but when slang turns into common colloquial expressions, overtime it gets embedded into the spoken language… which is often left out of grammar courses. For instance, you would never learn “Whatcha upto” in an English grammar course but we all know it means “how are you” or “whats going on with you”. I could go back and look at my notes, I don’t really remember the particulars.</p>
<p>Its not really important anyway, I just thought I’d mention it.</p>
<p>Ah, some spoken grammar is different, at least in the popular register. There’s none of that silly verlan in Qu</p>
<p>klmnop is correct. The first thing that comes to mind is the archaic particle “tu”. It’s like est-ce que, except instead of coming before verbs it’s after. The grammar isn’t all that much different, but there are differences nonetheless.</p>