Finally You Can Learn Canadian French Instead of Paris French

If you want to visit or move to the French speaking parts of Canada you really should learn French.  Unfortunately until now, almost all programs for learning French only taught the French accent and usage from Paris France.

But French immigration to Canada started with the founding of Quebec in 1608 so it’s not surprising that the French spoken in Canada is now quite a bit different in accent and usage from the French spoken in France.

This part of our site is for people who want to learn the Canadian version of French.

If you want to learn French the way it’s spoken in France, please go to our main Learn French Online site.

Paris French Doesn’t Always Work in Canada

I remember some friends from France telling me how they were absolutely unable to communicate with a bus driver in Montreal when they first arrived in Montreal.

To help solve this problem, Language101.com has developed Canadian French 1, 2 and 3 packages, to help you learn Canadian French online.

The lessons on the Learn-Canadian-French portion of our website have been carefully modified to reflect proper educated Canadian French usage.  The lessons have also been completely re-recorded by French native speakers from Quebec, Canada.

French is an official language of all of Canada (even the English speaking parts).  All signs, official documents, and even cereal boxes in all of Canada are labeled in both English and French.

How Many Canadians Speak French?

As of the 2006 Canadian census there were 6.7 million native French speakers out of a population of 32 million, so 21.5% of Canadians are native French Speakers.  You will hear a lot of French spoken, even when you travel in the English speaking portions of Canada.  This is because it’s so easy for French speaking Canadians from Quebec to travel both east and west in Canada for business and pleasure.

Native French Canadian speakers also live in Francophone communities outside of Quebec, such as New-Brunswick (Canada’s only officially bilingual province), Northern Ontario and Manitoba.

Of course we also offer French lessons with the usage and accent from Paris France in case you want to learn French the Parisian way.

Canada has three major cities that are French speaking.  The first is called Quebec City to distinguish it form the province of Quebec.  The second is Montreal, and third is Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, which is largely (but not entirely) a French speaking city.

Many Canadians need to pass a Canadian Civil Service in French in order to get a government job.  Our program should be a big help to them.

One question that we had as we started to develop these lessons was what to call the French spoken in Canada.  Should we call it Quebec French, Montreal French or Quebecois French?

After talking to a lot of Canadian French speakers, we found that most of them simply called it Canadian French.

Learn Both Canadian French and Paris French Here

If you purchase either our Canadian French lessons or our French lessons with the educated Paris accent, we will give you access to both our Canadian French lessons and our French lessons from France by paying for either one. Just e-mail customer service after you place your order from either the Canadian French orders page or the French orders page and ask.

We recommend that you study with just one or the other, but if you want to live in French speaking Canada for a few years and then move to Paris or vice versa, it’s nice to know that you won’t have to buy a different software package to learn the new accent.

Here’s a video tip by the teacher who recorded most of our French as a Second Language lessons.  Use your back button to come back to this page.

Read more about the Languabe101.com team.