Language of service in businesses | One in three Quebecers indifferent when not served in French

One in three Quebecers feel indifference when they are not served in French in a business, according to a survey by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF). This feeling is a little lower among French speakers – one in four people – even if 93% of this clientele says they prefer service in French.

However, more than half of French speakers (56.9%) have negative feelings when they are served in another language. Nearly half of English speakers (47.2%) have positive feelings when they are not served in French.

Among young people, the feeling of indifference is greater than among their older peers. 41% of those aged 18 to 34 feel indifference, while 31.1% of them feel negative. By comparison, these rates are respectively 29.6% and 41.9% among those aged 55 and over.

Across the province, 70% of respondents have always been greeted in French and 24.7% have already received a bilingual welcome – the expression “Hello hi” for example. Therefore, only 5.4% of respondents were greeted at least once in English or in a language other than French in a business during the six months preceding the OQLF survey.

The situation is slightly different in the Greater Montreal and Gatineau regions than in the rest of the province. More respondents from these two regions were greeted by a language other than French at least once in the six months preceding the survey – 40% and 37.4% respectively. In Montreal, this proportion is up compared to 2010 (27%).

The proportion of Montrealers who have no preference regarding the language of service has increased since 2010, from 14% to 20%.

On the Gatineau side, respondents are more bothered by a welcome than a service in a language other than French. According to the OQLF, the proximity of Ontario explains this particularity of the Gatineau clientele, for whom “the first words of the staff of a business are important”.

The survey “Welcome language and language of service in Quebec businesses in 2023: consumers” was carried out among a sample of 3,822 people. The margin of error is 1.6% based on a 95% confidence interval.