French Language

I have heard several times in my life that the French language is the same no matter where you are on the planet. So if a French speaking man from Vietnam, a French speaking man from Africa, a French speaking man from Paris and a French speaking man from Montreal were all talking, they would have no difficulty understanding each other.

Is it true? Sounds like bullshit to me

It is bullshit.  French in Quebec is virtually incomprehensible.

Of course, when a French person can't understand another French speaker he says the other person isn't really speaking French.

>French in Quebec is virtually incomprehensible.

(To give the other side, the Québécois claim that they speak the real French, and Parisians speak a bastardized version full of vulgar Anglicisms.  For all I know they might be right.)

>>3
The "Anglicisms" thing is true. One example is that in Québec e-mail is called "le courriel," but in France it's always called "le e-mail."

The dif between quebec and french anglicism is as follows:
Les Français se garent dans un parking
Les québécois se parkent dans un stationnement.

Both have anglicisms, but they're different, therefore they always pick up the ones the others say.
And anyways, the point is moot when you know that a lot of english words come from french (and vice versa).
Fun fact: "flirter" comes from english: "to flirt", which comes from french: "conter fleurette".
Seriously though, from experience, whenever either side talks about the anglicisms of the others, they don't speak the language that well themselves.

I find it to be highly amusing that the British say American English is too heavily influenced by French and the French speaking cultures accuse each other of being too heavily influenced by the English language.

>>1
>>2
It's not bullshit if they all put some effort and speak it like it should be, with the right pronunciation, a somewhat international and not colloquial vocabulary and getting rid of all if not most of their accent.

That is what I aim. In Québec, people can't tell where I'm from. Some even think I have a French accent (they don't know any better). In France and Belgium, they can tell I do not have a French accent, but they also say I do not speak like a Quebecer (I live in Québec since the age of three).

>>3
On both sides, they speak a bastardized version full of anglicisms.

>>5
andouille > hot-dog > chien-chaud/saucisse sandwich
ros de bif > roast beef > rosbif
...

Canadian French is the hardest to understand.