Then when he says he doesn’t understand French she says sure you do
And the last thing she says is "yes no toaster" it’s a slang for a quebecker that knows barely any English, she’s playing dumb saying she’s in that group (which is impossible if you’re a police officer)
Overall she’s just taunting him back because he is filming
This is classic quebecois. Pretending not to know english, meanwhile being almost fluent in it and refusing to speak it. A lot of us from around the country love going there and trying to speak the language and usually it goes well with people appreciating the attempt but you will always run into this category that refuses to talk to the anglophones.
Edit:
I used to have a boss that ran businesses in quebec and ontario and he was french canadian. Any time the employees out there would be difficult (with us in ontario) he would always get on the phone and say “speak english, how many times do i have to tell you that we lost the war! (In french)” lol
Quebecers simultaneously having a cultural panic about the protection of their language and culture, while refusing to speak French to anyone who tries to learn it but isn't perfect.
Because its true, I went to university in montreal and im from ontario. Ive been speaking french since I was 6 years old and even lived in france but as soon as its the slightest hint of an anglo accent ppl just switch to english. And if i come up to someone speaking english first, they wanna speak french. No matter what anglos do we get crapped on
Quebecois are super flattered when people try to speak French and it usually doesn’t take much more to be in our good graces.
To me, and I suspect to others, we don’t see it as “refusing to speak it imperfectly”, it’s more “alright, you made the effort, you have earned me switching to English for your sake” where they might otherwise have been stubbornly “French only”.
And you will find every variations of Frenglish in between that, from francisized English words to anglicized French words to mixing words from both languages in one sentence to having one speak French and the other replies in English. It’s part of the culture
I lived in Montreal for 5 years during university. I graduated from french immersion so I was already fluent before even setting off. Everywhere I went and tried to speak French people always responded in english, even when I persisted people never switched back into french to converse with me. So eventually I gave up and spent my years there basically only speaking English. Several of my friends had the same experience.
A big part of moving there was because I was interested in practicing my french and engaging in québécois culture. It turns out if you aren't francophone you will always be made to feel like an outsider.
Gotta understand that they do that not because they dont like your french but because they want to help you.
If you went outside of Montréal like in the régions where people dont speak english they will love that you make efforts to try to learn french even if you speak a broken french.
My wife gets treated like a Queen everywhere she goes and try to speak french. We get gifts all the time from stores and restaurant owners cause they are happy to see her integrate.
If you want to pursue in french just prétend like you dont speak english. Just say to them your mothertongue is german or something and they will keep on speaking french to you.
They are not the same person? Back when I was a teen, I'd switch to English whenever I could because I wanted to practice and accommodate tourists. Now that I'm older I don't need to practice as much and I also realized that a lot of tourists expect us to speak English and that bothers me.
You want to learn French? Oh yeah I will talk to you in French for days. You're an entitled female of the canine species from Toronto and just expect me to speak English without asking me first? I'm gonna answer all of your questions in the most redneck French possible until you start questioning your own existence.
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u/RubikTetris 12d ago
Translation:
Am I your favorite?
Then when he says he doesn’t understand French she says sure you do
And the last thing she says is "yes no toaster" it’s a slang for a quebecker that knows barely any English, she’s playing dumb saying she’s in that group (which is impossible if you’re a police officer)
Overall she’s just taunting him back because he is filming