Disadvantage not knowing any French?

[jrd_AU]

Will a student be disadvantaged in he/she does not speak French in the McGill MDCM program? I'm concerned about working in the hospitals in Montreal without a strong background in French.

 

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[Robin Hood]

Will a student be disadvantaged in he/she does not speak French in the McGill MDCM program? I'm concerned about working in the hospitals in Montreal without a strong background in French.

 

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

McGill offers French courses for it's medical students.

[future_doc]

And find a French speaking s.o.

[deeman101]

Will a student be disadvantaged in he/she does not speak French in the McGill MDCM program? I'm concerned about working in the hospitals in Montreal without a strong background in French.

 

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Speaking as a current out of province student in 2nd year of the McGill MDCM program, YES. You will be at a disadvantage. French courses will only take you so far but its not the same as being raised in QC (where "I don't speak French" actually means "I can speak French, but just don't like to"). Its a clear disadvantage. Especially if the patient has a heavy Quebecois accent. I"ve already had some awkward moments with French speaking patients. Its not a death sentence, many nonQC'ers have been through the system and managed to overcome it. But there will definitely be times where you wish you took the easy way out and gone to a nonQC med school.

[jrd_AU]

Speaking as a current out of province student in 2nd year of the McGill MDCM program, YES. You will be at a disadvantage. French courses will only take you so far but its not the same as being raised in QC (where "I don't speak French" actually means "I can speak French, but just don't like to"). Its a clear disadvantage. Especially if the patient has a heavy Quebecois accent. I"ve already had some awkward moments with French speaking patients. Its not a death sentence, many nonQC'ers have been through the system and managed to overcome it. But there will definitely be times where you wish you took the easy way out and gone to a nonQC med school.

 

Thanks deeman101 - that's what I was expecting, but I wanted to be sure.

 

What about OttawaU for Med? As a bilingual city, I'm assuming the same type of thing will happen in the hospitals in Ottawa. Or is it just the Quebecois accent that makes it difficult?

 

Thanks

[psychoswim]

Thanks deeman101 - that's what I was expecting, but I wanted to be sure.

 

What about OttawaU for Med? As a bilingual city, I'm assuming the same type of thing will happen in the hospitals in Ottawa. Or is it just the Quebecois accent that makes it difficult?

 

Thanks

 

I'd say in Ottawa it's different. Not many people live there without speaking any English. And unless you work at Montfort you should be fine, and even then.

 

As for Montreal - I'll say that spending a couple of months surrounded by French people will make you pretty fluent.

 

And wrt the Quebecois accent - it varies a lot depending on where you are in the province. Honestly, it's generally the most "normal" in Montreal, whereas if you go east towards Gaspésie, then even I can't understand them.

[KMMD]

Thanks deeman101 - that's what I was expecting, but I wanted to be sure.

 

What about OttawaU for Med? As a bilingual city, I'm assuming the same type of thing will happen in the hospitals in Ottawa. Or is it just the Quebecois accent that makes it difficult?

 

Thanks

 

I have volunteered at CHEO in Ottawa for three going on four years. I cannot comment on the adult hospitals but there are situations where you get only francophone patients and being strictly anglophone I found i had a slight disadvantage. I wish I was more fluent in French but English is definitely adequate

[thebouque]

 

What about OttawaU for Med? As a bilingual city, I'm assuming the same type of thing will happen in the hospitals in Ottawa. Or is it just the Quebecois accent that makes it difficult?

 

Thanks

 

haha what accent do you think french speakers have in Ottawa? It's either ''quebecois'' or francontarien (very close to quebecois but they tend to speak faster)... Trust me it's nowhere near the French accent (or the more standard CBC french).

[JB.]

I'd say in Ottawa it's different. Not many people live there without speaking any English. And unless you work at Montfort you should be fine, and even then.

 

As for Montreal - I'll say that spending a couple of months surrounded by French people will make you pretty fluent.

 

And wrt the Quebecois accent - it varies a lot depending on where you are in the province. Honestly, it's generally the most "normal" in Montreal, whereas if you go east towards Gaspésie, then even I can't understand them.

 

In my limited experience with Montreal, as soon as you begin speaking french, people recognize you're an english speaker and switch to english. I think Montreal is a good place to get your feet wet, but not a good place if you plan on picking up the language.

[Julie]

What about OttawaU for Med? As a bilingual city, I'm assuming the same type of thing will happen in the hospitals in Ottawa. Or is it just the Quebecois accent that makes it difficult?

 

Thanks

 

I think you'd be fine in Ottawa. Sure, it's an advantage knowing french, but it's also an advantage knowing lots of other languages. Except for CHEO, the vast majority of your patients will be able to speak English. The ones that aren't speak a variety of other languages, I'm not sure French predominates (it's a bit hard for me to tell I guess, since I do speak French, but haven't heard of it being a problem). I think the most common other language I've encountered/would have liked to know was Arabic, but someone else's experience might have been different.