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Life in Montreal
True life: Leaving my comfort zone in Canada.
Once upon a time (5 hours behind Ireland)...
Sometimes described as the most ‘European’ city in North America. Montreal can be the best of both old and new worlds with North American vibrancy and European joie de vivre. Montreal is Canada’s second city with a population in the metropolitan area of 3.6m. It is the largest French speaking city in the world after Paris.
The Québécois (Québec people) have championed the protection of the French language. This is understandable give that French speakers are surrounded by Anglophones who make up 98% of the population of North America. The protection of the language has not come without some alienation of the Anglophone community. There are language laws such as Bill 86, which allows English on outdoor commercial signs only if the French lettering was at least twice as large as the English. The road signs use ‘Arrêt’, even in France it is ‘Stop’! It still seems rather bizarre to me that some people within both communities still fail to speak either French or English having grown up in this bilingual city.
Given my struggles with the French language, I can understand why some do not want to leave their comfort zone. I never thought the idea of looking stupid bothered me so much until I began learning French. Sometimes, it is as if you are child again starting from scratch and the most basic words can elude you and the language seems like white noise! L’accent Québécois and slang does not help my understanding but it is no more different to French French than our very own Hiberno-English is to the Queen’s English.
With many of my extended family having built lives abroad, you think you have some understanding of what it is like to be an emigrant, ‘fresh off the boat’ as they say here! One has read about the Diaspora or the scattering but it remains an abstract term without any concrete meaning until you experience it for yourself.
The Irish community here in Montreal includes people born in Ireland, people whose parents/grandparents/great grandparents were Irish and people who are Irish by desire as Enda Kenny puts it. The Irish community have provided great support for new immigrants organising networking nights with employers and monthly gatherings to build up contacts. The aim of these events is to try to integrate people as quickly as possible into the way of life in Montreal.
Sport also provides a great opportunity to get to know people, the Montreal Shamrocks GAA team have been making the headlines in La Presse a popular francophone daily and the Montreal Irish Rugby Club are one of the top teams in Quebec. My goal is to get a game against the Barley House Wolves a US army hurling team based in New Hampshire, that was set up after viewing the All-Ireland final in Shannon airport a number of years ago!
Happily ever after? We'll have to wait and see how this new guy gets on...
By: Conor Farrell
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