One thing I learned early on in my French immersion schooling, was that the French spoken in Canada is often very different from the French spoken in France. This should come as no surprise, as France and Québec are separated by an ocean. The English spoken in Canada is actually quite different than British English, though it doesn’t often feel like it to fluent speakers.
One downfall of studying language on Duolingo, is that it often only provides one dialect of a language, when there may be two or several. In this case, the French I am learning on Duolingo reflects French spoken in France. I wanted, therefore, to expose myself to some Québecois French. An enjoyable way to do that, while also take in some content being created in Canada, is to watch Québecois films.
Today I took the recommendation of a Global News article I saw, and watched the short-film, Rebel. This film, directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny, a filmmaker from Montréal. The short-film follows a young boy whose father is a member of a far right-wing activist group in Québec. The genius of the film is that the whole thing is filmed from the little boy’s perspective, contrasting the innocence of youth with the insidious actions of a vigilante group kidnapping immigrants for the purpose of transporting them—against their will—to the United States. This is a beautifully filmed piece of work, and it was capable of evoking strong contrasting emotions in the span of a few minutes.
Linguistically, I found myself understanding more dialogue as the film progressed. At first I was listening and reading the subtitles to try to reconcile what was being said, but I often find that this detracts from my ability to simply hear language and understand. I gradually stopped reading the subtitles and though I missed a few lines, I was able to continue following the story. I look forward to more dives into Québecois cultural works.
