The minister responsible for the French language, Jean-François Roberge, encourages Quebecers to file complaints when they are not served in French.
There is consensus on the question of the place of French in businesses: 78.4% of Quebecers still want to be greeted and served in French in the province’s businesses. And 39.1% of consumers experience negative feelings, are unhappy or angry, uncomfortable or embarrassed, insulted or disappointed, when they are not. However, a third of Quebecers, 32%, say they are indifferent to being greeted in businesses other than in French.
It therefore seems that indifference towards the “hello-hi?” », and reception in a language other than French in Quebec businesses is gaining ground. In fact, 61% of consumers experienced negative feelings in these situations in 2012. Quebec consumers who find it positive to be served other than in French increased, between 2012 and 2023, from 4.4% to 18, 6%. This is what the latest statistics released by the Office québécois de la langue française reveal, in the report Welcome languages and service languages in Quebec businesses.
Significantly, young people aged 18 to 34 experience more indifference and fewer negative feelings when they are served in a language other than French in businesses than their elders.
These data caused the Minister of the French Language of Quebec, Jean-François Roberge, to react on Tuesday, who took the opportunity to urge Quebecers to file complaints when they are not served in French, while defending the French Language Plan of his government.
“This study confirms that we must be proactive on the French language issue, as our government has been since its election in 2018,” he said. We adopted Law 96, developed new regulations for commercial signage as well as a Plan for the French language, to defend and promote our national language. Our government will continue to work to reverse the decline of French, particularly in Montreal. It’s a matter of pride. We have a firm desire to make our official language stronger. I invite all Quebecers to demand to be served in French in Quebec businesses and to file a complaint with the OQLF when this is not the case. »
A weariness
The OQLF data seems to signal a weariness in defending the practice of the French language in commercial spaces. In its conclusion, the OQLF report questions this subject in these words:
“Welcome and service in a language other than French are now normalized, hence the presence of a feeling of indifference among some customers and the reduction of their negative feelings when they are not not welcomed or served in French? Is this experience, formerly less frequent and perceived more negatively, tending to become more commonplace? »
In fact, among customers throughout Quebec, in 2023, 24.7% have already been greeted in a business bilingually, that is to say in French and English, with a “Hello- Hi? », and 70.0% were greeted in French only. Unsurprisingly, these proportions are higher in the Montreal and Gatineau regions. Customers saying they received a bilingual welcome are 34.4% and 28.1% respectively. Unlike consumers in Montreal, those in Gatineau express more negative feelings related to having been welcomed into a business in a language other than French. They were also more numerous, proportionately, than in Montreal, to declare that they would no longer return to such a business.
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