Tangram

I find this very surprising.

Laowai79

Hi,

I also am quite shocked that this happened to you. I grew up in New Brunswick and this has NEVER happened to me. Occasionally, a French salesperson will speak French to me before I've said anything but that's about it.

Oh, just a tidbit for you all that you might not know....when you're shopping in Dieppe, NB, the salespeople will greet you with 'allo!'. French people take it as 'allo' and proceed to speak in French. English people take it as 'hello' and usually respond with, 'hi'. That let's the French salesperson know you're English. Sometimes I've replied with a quick 'hello', which the salesperson mistakenly takes as 'allo'. Then then proceed to speak French to me. This is not a big deal, as I can speak basic French but I always feel weird speaking French in NB.

I've also had instances where the server is bilingual and constantly switching from English to French in a busy restaurant. Sometimes they would come back to our table speaking French to us. We would usually answer in English and then they would switch to English.

Tangram

Exactly our experience.

bodgerx

From what I've read on here, and elsewhere, New Brunswick seems to be predominately English over French, despite the self bilingual proclamation. The very fact that there are current debates about the benefits of French 'immersion' classes, may suggest that a lot of kids arrive at school with little French...

Would it be fair to say that Dieppe is the most likely place where these bad 'French only' experiences would happen? Whereas maybe Fredericton/Saint John much less so?

Tangram

With a big caveat that I have never had bad experiences like those quoted even in Dieppe ( which is 10 minutes away from my house ) I would say yes.

BristolUK

Funny thing...I have noticed how many storm warnings we get in Moncton that don't actually amount to anything. This could have something to do with NB being 33% bigger than NS and bad weather hitting somewhere within NB more often than somewhere within NS, with no single area being particularly worse than anywhere else. I don't know for sure, it just seems likely.

As for the floods, doesn't everywhere suffer that in limited areas? In Moncton there are a couple of roads, nowhere near housing, that are known to suffer flooding when it rains and the water doesn't drain away as it should and that's about it I think. I haven't heard anything about the river rising like it did in Fredericton. You make it sound like flooding is a problem throughout NB and exclusively in NB.

I've been researching NS with a view to moving there because there are prescription drug plans that help people hit by high costs whereas in NB you're left to fend for yourselves.

My limited to North shore area research showed floods to be a feature in (or around) New Glasgow and Truro.

As for major storms, before we moved to NB we were in Quebec. Wasn't NS pretty severely hit by an ice storm around 04? I believe it touched part of NB but the brunt was in NS according to media reports.

I'm not here to have a go at NS, as I say, I'm looking at a possible move there. It seems incredibly similar to NB in nearly every respect which is why I'm considering it.

But you seem to be painting a poor picture of NB with your little anecdotes and assumptions. I'm beginning to understand the nature of some of the comments on here recently.

Paradisefound

I too am researching NB because I am interested in buying property there. Yes maybe I am bias to NS but I have been to NB often.

I can imagine Moncton being close to the northern NS does get simular weather. We live nine miles out on a point and do have a bit of a micro climate here. Oxford can be prone to flooding and Truro does have a flood plain. Did Juan hit NB too?

Sorry to hear about the expensive prescription costs in NB. Do they not have Blue Cross Insurance there? Although this would not help for a prior condition.
Which areas are you looking at? Will you be restricted by work situations? If I can help in your research just give me a shout.

Paradisefound

One of my favourite places is in NB as mentioned above.