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<blockquote data-quote="Banshee16" data-source="post: 3016127" data-attributes="member: 7883">I'm not sure it's as clearcut as that <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; I'm bilingual, though my French is admittedly rusty.&nbsp; Of course, if I'm talking to you in French for an hour, by minute 55, I'm doing much better than I was at minute 5..What I have noticed, however, is that east of St. Laurent Blvd in MTL, the use of English decreases dramatically.&nbsp; West of it, yeah, lots of English speakers.&nbsp; When I went to John Abbott, many of my friends spoke *only* English..which I found pretty incredible.But I've talked with companies in Montreal that refused service if I didn't speak French.&nbsp; My fiance, who is English-only, was with me on St. Hubert, and we were in a fashion store, and nobody working there could assist her, because none of them spoke English.&nbsp; I ended up needing to translate for both her and the shopkeepers, so they could conclude their transactions.&nbsp; It was the same thing in Quebec City, when we drove back from Halifax...we stopped in places up there where they only spoke French.&nbsp; We went into a gas station, and she had to leave, because she couldn't communicate with them, so I went in and handled things.&nbsp; The majority of my relatives, beyond my immediate family, are Francophone, with many of those from Eastern Quebec speaking no English, or very little.&nbsp; There are plenty of places where if you don't talk French, you're going to have a real tough time accomplishing anything.In Rome, we were ok, as long as we were at the tourist areas....but at the airport, I was using my phrase book, because nobody at the airport spoke English...again, in Venice, many who spoke a tiny bit of English, but not nearly as many as in Rome.On the topic of gaming, there's a very cool shop down the street from the Vatican, called Storiae Magica, I think, that had all sorts of fantasy stuff....swords, axes, sailing ships, gnomes, resin knight figures, etc.&nbsp; Huge selection of cool stuff, much of which I've never seen before.&nbsp; Closest I've seen was the Red Dragon in MTL, but that shop closed in February, and the one in Rome had a much bigger selection.Banshee</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Banshee16, post: 3016127, member: 7883"] I'm not sure it's as clearcut as that :) I'm bilingual, though my French is admittedly rusty. Of course, if I'm talking to you in French for an hour, by minute 55, I'm doing much better than I was at minute 5.. What I have noticed, however, is that east of St. Laurent Blvd in MTL, the use of English decreases dramatically. West of it, yeah, lots of English speakers. When I went to John Abbott, many of my friends spoke *only* English..which I found pretty incredible. But I've talked with companies in Montreal that refused service if I didn't speak French. My fiance, who is English-only, was with me on St. Hubert, and we were in a fashion store, and nobody working there could assist her, because none of them spoke English. I ended up needing to translate for both her and the shopkeepers, so they could conclude their transactions. It was the same thing in Quebec City, when we drove back from Halifax...we stopped in places up there where they only spoke French. We went into a gas station, and she had to leave, because she couldn't communicate with them, so I went in and handled things. The majority of my relatives, beyond my immediate family, are Francophone, with many of those from Eastern Quebec speaking no English, or very little. There are plenty of places where if you don't talk French, you're going to have a real tough time accomplishing anything. In Rome, we were ok, as long as we were at the tourist areas....but at the airport, I was using my phrase book, because nobody at the airport spoke English...again, in Venice, many who spoke a tiny bit of English, but not nearly as many as in Rome. On the topic of gaming, there's a very cool shop down the street from the Vatican, called Storiae Magica, I think, that had all sorts of fantasy stuff....swords, axes, sailing ships, gnomes, resin knight figures, etc. Huge selection of cool stuff, much of which I've never seen before. Closest I've seen was the Red Dragon in MTL, but that shop closed in February, and the one in Rome had a much bigger selection. Banshee [/QUOTE]

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