McGill University

Montreal is part of Quebec. The people in Montreal speak French, but in another way then I have learned. It's more of a dialect, that in my opinion doesn't sounds as nice as the 'proper' utilisation of the french language. I really want to improve my language skills in French, so when I get the change I try to speak French with a local. Besides this, I followed for 7 weeks a intensive language course, and from 14-3 I'll start a communication course. Both in French of course, at an institute called YMCA. Before departure I already followed classes in english. I can honestly say that I control this language.

the above evaluation is based on the fact that I consider FRENCH to be the official language of Québec, not English; this is because locals are very proud of their French heritage and consider themselves a nation of their own...the language of instruction was however English, and so were most of my friends - well, complicated, I know

Since I already spoke English and knew some French, I thought with the shor time span for an exchange program, I would probably be able to improve my French a whole lot more being in Montreal and taking an intensive French class, than if I had gone to another country and had to learn the local language from scratch.

Since my English was fluent already before the exchange in Montreal, I didn't have any problems studying there. Furthermore, Montreal is a great place, because most of the locals are bi-lingual and the population diversity is huge. Communication with people, regardless of context or situation, is easy here.

For some people who want to learn English, Montreal doesn't seem a good choice, because of the French. It's true that a lot of poeple speak French, especially in the city, but on Campus, most people only speak English. But you can easily avoid speaking French. It depends with who you hang out.

As Quebec is francophone, and McGill is a anglophone university, the academic and social experiences are very different. English works well within the city of Montreal, but in other parts of Quebec, french is needed for communication with the local population