geedee

After being here for over a year, we find it's just like any other place on earth. Most people are decent, want to help and get along, but there's always the occasional dick head who wants to make an issue out of nothing. We've learned from experience that this particular type is not worth spending any energy on whatsoever, and is best ignored!

geedee

I forgot to mention.... we've been told they don't hate the English anything like they hate the French, who never helped with their army when they were being over-run by the Brits. Someone told me that this is why they have "Je-me-souviens" (I remember) on their number plates.

Perhaps Monty Mike or someone else could throw some light on this??

jandro

I believe it means the French Canadians will never forget their French roots even though there were conquered by the English.

montreal mike

Correct

from wiki as I understand it

"M. Taché is also the author of the beautiful poetic and patriotic motto which accompanies the official coat of arms of the Province of Quebec — “Je me souviens” — the full significance of which cannot perhaps be readily expressed in English words but which may be paraphrased as conveying the meaning “We do not forget, and will never forget, our ancient lineage, traditions and memories of all the past”."

montreal mike

you are yet another voice of reason on this thread

jandro

I also checked the wiki but it confirmed what I remember reading elsewhere and people telling me years ago. Up until the seventies the Quebec license plates had the less political motto 'La belle province'. According to the wiki 'Je me souviens' appears to be part of a poem by Taché:

Je me souviens/Que né sous le lys/Je croîs sous la rose.
I remember/That born under the lily/I grow under the rose.

montreal mike

As I understand it the lily refers to the French connection and the rose represents Britain.

I stand to be corrected though.

montreal mike

Yes, gain a degree of reassurance from reading the mostly positive posts on this thread.

johnehsmith

This thread has contained (in my opinion- and thats what forums are about, people's opinions) a lot of people talking about a few experiences they have had or things they have read and then passing them off as generalised subjective proclamations on the behaviour, character and beliefs of a large number of human beings.

The OP asked why people are so rude to him. Its a tough question to answer
but I havent had any animosity to me living here in a very French speaking part
of the city. I'd say Montreal is one of the friendliest places Ive ever lived.

That being said there are rude people everywhere, and if I had 2 or 3 experiences in a city that were of a negative type then I would feel entitled to say wow this city is full of rude people or somesuch. Whereas in fact its just bad luck that I met and interacted with 3 rude people. I could go on but i think Ive made my point.

montreal mike

I am still perplexed at the title of this thread 'brit-haters'

Seems to me either melodramatic, a gross exaggeration or simply used to grab attention.

BristolUK

Generally speaking, that is.

DunRoaminTheUK

French people the world over do this. Believe me. I'm half-Mauritian and my cousins all live in Reunion and constantly took the mickey out of my attempt to speak French.

PeterF

As said previously I thought Montreal was a great City when I was there and the people were on the main were very good.

Its the language thing I objected to though, as people have said, every other province has to put notices in both languages, yet I remember sitting on the Metro looking at a safety sign completely in French with no English translation.

Coming from Wales, I know how important it is to preserve a language as a living language, but I think its wrong to enforce firms to place French first, employ only French speakers (unless there's a need of course and they can't get enough).

My French colleagues laughed at the Body Shop and KFC, who both changed their names for Quebec but exist in the original format in France.

In Wales there are very few jobs that actually needs a welsh speaker and I know in Quebec a lot of jobe don't need the worker to speak french, but the 'language police' enforce that.

That in my opinion is what is wrong.


Oh and I remember arguing with a guy from Quebec (in a friendly way) where he insisted that Wolfe did not take Quebec..

dbd33

Not so. Just this morning I passed a sign, "Stop", it said. No mention of arreting.

TrishP

Was in Montreal over the weekend and my Canadian born-and-bred b/f was getting incredibly frustrated with the lack of English signage and I ended up having to translate, lol!