Yeah ...
Somehow we've got a 2-bedroom in west-end Halifax that's about to finally go over $1200/month after we renew, but the units are up to over $1400 if we were just moving in now. And that's probably better than average for the city at this point. The cost of a residence in Halifax is completely fucked given the actual job market and traffic issues if you dare to live outside of the peninsula.
Agreed. I like living in Halifax, but it's definitely more expensive than it should be. Some political action on that is long overdue here.
Nova Scotia gets much cheaper pretty quickly if you go outside the HRM ... but then you're outside the HRM. (Halifax Regional Municipality).
We put up our condo in Victoria for 250k, and people were tripping over themselves offering us 300k. In what other market does that even happen? "I want to give you moar money!!!". It was put up on the market at noon Friday, and by 3 there was already somebody wanting to come in and look. We had to tell them that while it's fine, but like... there are still open boxes and shit strewn around, a deep freeze being defrosted, and other unsightly things that we were expecting to clean up on the weekend in preparation for showings next week.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
We haven't decided if we will rent or buy when we make our way out to Victoria in a year and a bit. Guess we will see what happens to the market.
I suggest renting, the market is grossly overvalued. That said, it probably won't come down anytime soon, but it will crash and burn eventually.
Where do you plan to work? You will want to avoid the Colwood Crawl if you can, it is a fucking nightmare. Nothing like an 8km commute that takes 45min on average, 2 hours on a bad day or if someone hits a cyclist.
We put up our condo in Victoria for 250k, and people were tripping over themselves offering us 300k. In what other market does that even happen? "I want to give you moar money!!!". It was put up on the market at noon Friday, and by 3 there was already somebody wanting to come in and look. We had to tell them that while it's fine, but like... there are still open boxes and shit strewn around, a deep freeze being defrosted, and other unsightly things that we were expecting to clean up on the weekend in preparation for showings next week.
Any market with high demand vs supply. That's how prices go up.
We haven't decided if we will rent or buy when we make our way out to Victoria in a year and a bit. Guess we will see what happens to the market.
I suggest renting, the market is grossly overvalued. That said, it probably won't come down anytime soon, but it will crash and burn eventually.
Where do you plan to work? You will want to avoid the Colwood Crawl if you can, it is a fucking nightmare. Nothing like an 8km commute that takes 45min on average, 2 hours on a bad day or if someone hits a cyclist.
Hmm good to know.
My employer has a branch in Victoria and from what I understand most most of our clients we look after are BC government related, either that or ill be in the office there which isnt far from DT. My wife is a Youth and Adolescent Psychiatrist so she can work where ever the hell she wants to.
One of the first things I'm doing as Prime Minister of Canada is making a National Online Housing Registry/Marketplace. Everybody sells on one website, everybody searches one website, everybody buys or rents on one website. Already "Moving is hell", as my grandmother would say, so let's make searching for a new place to live as simple and as convenient as possible.
Isn't that basically what REALTOR.ca is, which was originally know and MLS or Multiple Listing Service.
We put up our condo in Victoria for 250k, and people were tripping over themselves offering us 300k. In what other market does that even happen? "I want to give you moar money!!!". It was put up on the market at noon Friday, and by 3 there was already somebody wanting to come in and look. We had to tell them that while it's fine, but like... there are still open boxes and shit strewn around, a deep freeze being defrosted, and other unsightly things that we were expecting to clean up on the weekend in preparation for showings next week.
Any market with high demand vs supply. That's how prices go up.
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. When we sold our house in Portland, Maine just about a year ago, we got an offer almost $40k over list and had it sold for that in less than a week. It was crazy.
We haven't decided if we will rent or buy when we make our way out to Victoria in a year and a bit. Guess we will see what happens to the market.
I suggest renting, the market is grossly overvalued. That said, it probably won't come down anytime soon, but it will crash and burn eventually.
Where do you plan to work? You will want to avoid the Colwood Crawl if you can, it is a fucking nightmare. Nothing like an 8km commute that takes 45min on average, 2 hours on a bad day or if someone hits a cyclist.
Hmm good to know.
My employer has a branch in Victoria and from what I understand most most of our clients we look after are BC government related, either that or ill be in the office there which isnt far from DT. My wife is a Youth and Adolescent Psychiatrist so she can work where ever the hell she wants to.
I will admit, I am biased and one of the few people that didn't like living in Victoria. Mainly due to how terrible the infrastructure is there and how in denial everyone seems to be about it.
Although housing is cheaper in the west shore, the traffic is insane. Sooke is especially bad due to having only one way in and out, any accident will shut down traffic for hours. Problem is, buying or renting downtown can be prohibitively expensive as well. If you like biking to work and don't mind doing it in the rain half the year, that is a feasible alternative.
When you do go there, check out La Belle Patate in Esquimalt. One of the few legitimate Quebecois poutine places in Western Canada. Even has Spruce Beer.
I don't live in a place where the crawl was a daily issue but I have coworkers who do. The recent project has actually made things considerably better.
Also any "crash and burn" in this city doesn't make things magically affordable because it will come with a shitload of other economic impacts and no one will be able to work or afford anything anyways.
I've heard the "I'll wait for the market to x" for 15+ years. Any day now it'll crash, along with new York, Toronto, London, etc.
Someone archive this post because in 15, 20 or 50 years whenever the crash comes then you can say I was wrong.
I don't live in a place where the crawl was a daily issue but I have coworkers who do. The recent project has actually made things considerably better.
Also any "crash and burn" in this city doesn't make things magically affordable because it will come with a shitload of other economic impacts and no one will be able to work or afford anything anyways.
I've heard the "I'll wait for the market to x" for 15+ years. Any day now it'll crash, along with new York, Toronto, London, etc.
Someone archive this post because in 15, 20 or 50 years whenever the crash comes then you can say I was wrong.
You are likely right, however we are hitting a point where most people can't afford to buy in Victoria and renting isn't much better. It will be interesting to see how Victoria continues.
Besides, it will all be moot when that entire area slides into the ocean and all the insurance companies declare bankruptcy.
+2
Options
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
We put up our condo in Victoria for 250k, and people were tripping over themselves offering us 300k. In what other market does that even happen? "I want to give you moar money!!!". It was put up on the market at noon Friday, and by 3 there was already somebody wanting to come in and look. We had to tell them that while it's fine, but like... there are still open boxes and shit strewn around, a deep freeze being defrosted, and other unsightly things that we were expecting to clean up on the weekend in preparation for showings next week.
Pre-Coronavirus, this was happening in Halifax based on the three people I know who were actively making offers on houses. Again, it's a very dumb situation here given our relative population.
Toronto and Vancouver truly are in a world of their own when it comes to real estate prices. $2k a month would get you nearly any appartment in my town! Hell, I don't even pay that much for my house.
You've just hit upon why the craziness of Vancouver (and Victoria really) do not stay in those locations but spread out across all of BC to places that can't afford it even more so. And then the property assessment arrives...
Wife kinda would have liked to live in Toronto instead of london (small l london, not big L London) and fuuuuuuuuuck that. Love you dear, but holy shit Toronto can kiss my 5 minute commute own / a house with a big backyard having ass. Even now our house is up 30% in the past 10 years or so on the promise of speedy trains to Toronto I guess.
London isn't perfect, but it beats the hell out of TO.
Wife kinda would have liked to live in Toronto instead of london (small l london, not big L London) and fuuuuuuuuuck that. Love you dear, but holy shit Toronto can kiss my 5 minute commute own / a house with a big backyard having ass. Even now our house is up 30% in the past 10 years or so on the promise of speedy trains to Toronto I guess.
London isn't perfect, but it beats the hell out of TO.
The kawartha lakes and cottage country have pretty good highway road infrastructure, imagine it gets much worse where the GTA peoples cottages end not related I'm sure!!
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
As for place to live, that'll depend on your budget and such. Some places that are getting construction done and would have new, modern apartments where you don't have to put plastic sheets over the windows in winter would be Griffintown/Little Burgundy, Mile-Extension, and The Triangle in Côte-des-Neiges, but they'll be more expensive. Maybe in the 1000 - 1500 a month range.
But if you don't mind a little bit of DIY in the winter, then you've got lots of options, pretty much everywhere. Some with 'quirks' like the entire floor being slanted in one direction, most being fairly reasonable. Some can start as low as 400 a month, but most would be in the 700-900 range.
Vancouver is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE, I can't stress this enough to people who don't understand it and are all mew mew toronto is just as expensive.
For realz. Like, just look at the data on average house prices, etc.
Also, I think incomes are generally lower in Vancouver as well, which is you know, a fabulous combination.
Whenever the cost of living in New York City comes up as an explanation of why a 6 digit income is not all that much, I always look around at local salaries and housing prices in Vancouver and just shake my head.
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
Generalizations and all but my experience has always been that if you're a non-native french speaker in Quebec (or often even outside of Quebec) most people have limited patience with attempting to speak french with you and at times are even openly hostile with you if you're in any kind of position that is deemed bi-lingual. I've got to assume that things would be different in an actual academic context but my experience dealing with the general public has not been very pleasant.
0
Options
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Indeed. My French-first Acadian partner stopped speaking French while she lived in Montreal because people would insult her.
It's a very weird sort of anti-culture? I'm (slowly) learning French because it's important to her, and it just boggles my mind how pissy some people want to be about you literally trying to understand them, their culture, and their history better.
My sister grew up in Toronto and did French Immersion and Extended French until Grade 13 but got out of practice. She moved to Montreal in her mid-20s and tried to get it back by practicing when she went out and was really frustrated with how often she would ask a question in French and the person would respond in English. I guess they thought they were doing her a favour if they felt they could speak her first language better than she could speak her second language but it didn't feel great for her.
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
Generalizations and all but my experience has always been that if you're a non-native french speaker in Quebec (or often even outside of Quebec) most people have limited patience with attempting to speak french with you and at times are even openly hostile with you if you're in any kind of position that is deemed bi-lingual. I've got to assume that things would be different in an actual academic context but my experience dealing with the general public has not been very pleasant.
I've had similar experiences. Montreal wasn't so bad for this, but Quebec City I found people would get really shitty if you tried to speak French and weren't fluent Quebecois.
Indeed. My French-first Acadian partner stopped speaking French while she lived in Montreal because people would insult her.
It's a very weird sort of anti-culture? I'm (slowly) learning French because it's important to her, and it just boggles my mind how pissy some people want to be about you literally trying to understand them, their culture, and their history better.
I've definitely noticed this, and have heard it from multiple french Acadian relatives of mine if they visit Quebec (so it's not just my French being so-so).
I feel like it's especially weird to us, because Acadian culture tends to be almost the opposite, being appreciative of outsiders making any kind of effort, or expressing any sort of interest in the culture.
My French, it's not so good. But half of my family is from Quebec, and my accent is usually good enough to fool people for the first sentence when I'm ordering coffee or breakfast, and that gets awkward really quickly. So I've started really fucking up my pronunciation so that instead of a flood of fluent French, I get that slow-and-tolerant French (or just English) that I can hobble along with.
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
As for place to live, that'll depend on your budget and such. Some places that are getting construction done and would have new, modern apartments where you don't have to put plastic sheets over the windows in winter would be Griffintown/Little Burgundy, Mile-Extension, and The Triangle in Côte-des-Neiges, but they'll be more expensive. Maybe in the 1000 - 1500 a month range.
But if you don't mind a little bit of DIY in the winter, then you've got lots of options, pretty much everywhere. Some with 'quirks' like the entire floor being slanted in one direction, most being fairly reasonable. Some can start as low as 400 a month, but most would be in the 700-900 range.
Côte-des-Neiges is expensive? Spent a few years there in the 80's.... My stepdad took a job as a concierge for an apartment complex of 150+ units that were 90% made up of welfare/refugees..... It was pretty gross.
I lost track of how many feces-filled apartments we had to clean up after midnight moves. We moved back to Verdun after a few years and that seemed like a high-class area after that
Hot tip, donating blood right now will score you a handy cloth mask in a very fetching revolutionary red
Good to know. My next appointment is on Thursday (and frankly, I'm glad to see them going to appointment only, as I was there for an hour and a half due to a massive backlog from walk-ins on my mid March donation.
Which, you know, kudos on people donating, but not ideal in a pandemic to have dozens of people sitting around for an hour in a waiting area (we were required to use hand sanitizer at the entrance, but none of the people donating were wearing masks at the time)
Less a complaint, and more of an FYI for anyone considering donating. At least in the Toronto area, appointments are booked up pretty heavily for weeks to come.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
My French, it's not so good. But half of my family is from Quebec, and my accent is usually good enough to fool people for the first sentence when I'm ordering coffee or breakfast, and that gets awkward really quickly. So I've started really fucking up my pronunciation so that instead of a flood of fluent French, I get that slow-and-tolerant French (or just English) that I can hobble along with.
My grandmother learned French overseas, she always referred to what they speak in Quebec as "Farmer's French". There's definitely a French language caste system of sorts! A friend in college was from a large Dutch family. They would go to Quebec for something or other event regularly and he said something they noticed at a few small restaurants was as they pulled in, the wait staff would spot their Ontario plates. When they went to order, they'd get the fastest spoken possible French so they'd reply in Dutch naturally, then all start ordering in Dutch. The wait staff would of course be pretty perplexed, at which point the Dad would helpfully offer that everyone spoke english....so why doesn't everyone stick to that.
When we went to France years ago, I'd offer to order food in French by way of "I can order in French and really just butcher your language, or should I stick to English?" It would always get a laugh, and sometimes they'd ask for the French for an even bigger laugh. Sometimes they'd help correct me, other times we'd just go back to English. I don't remember any sour experiences in France over language to be honest.
I've been through Quebec a few times, and even with my stunted primary school French immersion French, I don't remember anything overtly hostile. I remember when I was younger, driving my sisters car from Labrador to Ottawa, and there was certainly a more perplexed look when I would employ my French in Baie-Comeau or anywhere north-east of Quebec City. Nothing terribly hostile though, and at the time my French was decent.
Our recent trip to Montreal went well, and my French is far far worse now. I spoke a little, but it was very much pidgin-French, and no adverse reaction. That said, we were mostly going into restaurants in touristed areas.
Yeah, in terms of french there's a definite hierarchy. The France-French kinda look down on how Quebecois speak (and also everything else too it seems). And the Quebecois look down on Acadian french for sure.
That said, having moved to Montreal after growing up learning french in Ontario, I had zero problems ever for the entire very many years me and my wife lived there. French was not required for basically anything but if you spoke it people were fine. Never got a single bit of attitude from anyone and people would start with the "BonjourHi!" and then proceed in whatever option you picked.
The government also offers (offered?) free french classes, which I took to brush up on my french cause I hadn't really spoken it in years when I moved there.
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
As for place to live, that'll depend on your budget and such. Some places that are getting construction done and would have new, modern apartments where you don't have to put plastic sheets over the windows in winter would be Griffintown/Little Burgundy, Mile-Extension, and The Triangle in Côte-des-Neiges, but they'll be more expensive. Maybe in the 1000 - 1500 a month range.
But if you don't mind a little bit of DIY in the winter, then you've got lots of options, pretty much everywhere. Some with 'quirks' like the entire floor being slanted in one direction, most being fairly reasonable. Some can start as low as 400 a month, but most would be in the 700-900 range.
Côte-des-Neiges is expensive? Spent a few years there in the 80's.... My stepdad took a job as a concierge for an apartment complex of 150+ units that were 90% made up of welfare/refugees..... It was pretty gross.
I lost track of how many feces-filled apartments we had to clean up after midnight moves. We moved back to Verdun after a few years and that seemed like a high-class area after that
It was definitely poorer and rougher down towards the highway but they were already starting to redevelop some parts of it when I was there and Côte-des-Neiges the road was starting to get built up a bit with nicer shops and such. Condos going up and all that.
Little Burgundy was for sure getting gentrified like crazy, along with the canal in general, and there were complaints in the papers and such from locals as there always is when that happens.
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
As for place to live, that'll depend on your budget and such. Some places that are getting construction done and would have new, modern apartments where you don't have to put plastic sheets over the windows in winter would be Griffintown/Little Burgundy, Mile-Extension, and The Triangle in Côte-des-Neiges, but they'll be more expensive. Maybe in the 1000 - 1500 a month range.
But if you don't mind a little bit of DIY in the winter, then you've got lots of options, pretty much everywhere. Some with 'quirks' like the entire floor being slanted in one direction, most being fairly reasonable. Some can start as low as 400 a month, but most would be in the 700-900 range.
Côte-des-Neiges is expensive? Spent a few years there in the 80's.... My stepdad took a job as a concierge for an apartment complex of 150+ units that were 90% made up of welfare/refugees..... It was pretty gross.
I lost track of how many feces-filled apartments we had to clean up after midnight moves. We moved back to Verdun after a few years and that seemed like a high-class area after that
It was definitely poorer and rougher down towards the highway but they were already starting to redevelop some parts of it when I was there and Côte-des-Neiges the road was starting to get built up a bit with nicer shops and such. Condos going up and all that.
Little Burgundy was for sure getting gentrified like crazy, along with the canal in general, and there were complaints in the papers and such from locals as there always is when that happens.
Yeah those are pretty sweet areas.
Even Verdun is now a hip and trendy neighborhood not just where you go to buy weed.
PSN: Canadian_llama
0
Options
HerrCronIt that wickedly supports taxationRegistered Userregular
So, since we're on the subject of Quebec, we're contemplating it as a landing spot when we move back to Canada in the next couple years. We currently live in Austin, TX, both work in health (me a software company, her a hospital system) and are trying to figure out a good spot.
My French is minimal, hers is non-existent, but we had planned to start doing lessons now. We've gravitated to looked at the Ottawa-Gatineau area, but I'm also intrigued by Montreal. Are there any other areas we should possibly look into?
Also, we own a home now, but are thinking of renting at the outset once we move.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
As for place to live, that'll depend on your budget and such. Some places that are getting construction done and would have new, modern apartments where you don't have to put plastic sheets over the windows in winter would be Griffintown/Little Burgundy, Mile-Extension, and The Triangle in Côte-des-Neiges, but they'll be more expensive. Maybe in the 1000 - 1500 a month range.
But if you don't mind a little bit of DIY in the winter, then you've got lots of options, pretty much everywhere. Some with 'quirks' like the entire floor being slanted in one direction, most being fairly reasonable. Some can start as low as 400 a month, but most would be in the 700-900 range.
Côte-des-Neiges is expensive? Spent a few years there in the 80's.... My stepdad took a job as a concierge for an apartment complex of 150+ units that were 90% made up of welfare/refugees..... It was pretty gross.
I lost track of how many feces-filled apartments we had to clean up after midnight moves. We moved back to Verdun after a few years and that seemed like a high-class area after that
Apartments in the newly built apartment blocks of Côte-des-Neiges would be. I won't speak to the borough as a whole, but there's a whole bunch of work going on there.
Yeah, in terms of french there's a definite hierarchy. The France-French kinda look down on how Quebecois speak (and also everything else too it seems). And the Quebecois look down on Acadian french for sure.
We do? That's news to me. I have never heard anyone complain about Acadian french. I've also never heard Acadian french, or at least not heard it identified as such.
On the other hand, myself and a lot of people around here look down on France-french. They use English words even when perfectly good and common French words exist, and they have the most annoying accent.
0
Options
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Yeah, in terms of french there's a definite hierarchy. The France-French kinda look down on how Quebecois speak (and also everything else too it seems). And the Quebecois look down on Acadian french for sure.
We do? That's news to me. I have never heard anyone complain about Acadian french. I've also never heard Acadian french, or at least not heard it identified as such.
On the other hand, myself and a lot of people around here look down on France-french. They use English words even when perfectly good and common French words exist, and they have the most annoying accent.
Yeah, in terms of french there's a definite hierarchy. The France-French kinda look down on how Quebecois speak (and also everything else too it seems). And the Quebecois look down on Acadian french for sure.
We do? That's news to me. I have never heard anyone complain about Acadian french. I've also never heard Acadian french, or at least not heard it identified as such.
On the other hand, myself and a lot of people around here look down on France-french. They use English words even when perfectly good and common French words exist, and they have the most annoying accent.
Come on, what's wrong with le week-end, Richy? ;P
Hebdomidaire, another "perfectly good french word."
Posts
Agreed. I like living in Halifax, but it's definitely more expensive than it should be. Some political action on that is long overdue here.
Nova Scotia gets much cheaper pretty quickly if you go outside the HRM ... but then you're outside the HRM. (Halifax Regional Municipality).
I suggest renting, the market is grossly overvalued. That said, it probably won't come down anytime soon, but it will crash and burn eventually.
Where do you plan to work? You will want to avoid the Colwood Crawl if you can, it is a fucking nightmare. Nothing like an 8km commute that takes 45min on average, 2 hours on a bad day or if someone hits a cyclist.
Any market with high demand vs supply. That's how prices go up.
Hmm good to know.
My employer has a branch in Victoria and from what I understand most most of our clients we look after are BC government related, either that or ill be in the office there which isnt far from DT. My wife is a Youth and Adolescent Psychiatrist so she can work where ever the hell she wants to.
Isn't that basically what REALTOR.ca is, which was originally know and MLS or Multiple Listing Service.
I never finish anyth
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. When we sold our house in Portland, Maine just about a year ago, we got an offer almost $40k over list and had it sold for that in less than a week. It was crazy.
I will admit, I am biased and one of the few people that didn't like living in Victoria. Mainly due to how terrible the infrastructure is there and how in denial everyone seems to be about it.
Although housing is cheaper in the west shore, the traffic is insane. Sooke is especially bad due to having only one way in and out, any accident will shut down traffic for hours. Problem is, buying or renting downtown can be prohibitively expensive as well. If you like biking to work and don't mind doing it in the rain half the year, that is a feasible alternative.
When you do go there, check out La Belle Patate in Esquimalt. One of the few legitimate Quebecois poutine places in Western Canada. Even has Spruce Beer.
Also any "crash and burn" in this city doesn't make things magically affordable because it will come with a shitload of other economic impacts and no one will be able to work or afford anything anyways.
I've heard the "I'll wait for the market to x" for 15+ years. Any day now it'll crash, along with new York, Toronto, London, etc.
Someone archive this post because in 15, 20 or 50 years whenever the crash comes then you can say I was wrong.
You are likely right, however we are hitting a point where most people can't afford to buy in Victoria and renting isn't much better. It will be interesting to see how Victoria continues.
Besides, it will all be moot when that entire area slides into the ocean and all the insurance companies declare bankruptcy.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
You've just hit upon why the craziness of Vancouver (and Victoria really) do not stay in those locations but spread out across all of BC to places that can't afford it even more so. And then the property assessment arrives...
London isn't perfect, but it beats the hell out of TO.
Depends if you like the small city thing or not.
I dunno, I feel like sub 500,000 would be fair to call small.
Hey, so, about five years back i did more or less the same.
If you live on the island of Montreal, the lack of french isn't really a barrier to, well, anything. I've got fuck all of fuck all French and I've been fine. Especially if you work in software.
Health can be a bit of a mixed bag, I only know one person who works in health care (she's currently working with one of the telemed companies after years in the public health system) and she needs a level of French I would call highly fucntional. She can't get into a debate on Chaucher Vs Keates En français, but she can understand quebec french enough to understand symptons and give unambigious medical advice.
And Quebec is actually pretty good about helping people get up to speed on French if you have the time (and resources) to take them up on it. FrauCron is now fairly fluent after taking a full-time course offered by the Linguistic Integration Program for immigrants. there are part and full time options, I believe. More here
As for place to live, that'll depend on your budget and such. Some places that are getting construction done and would have new, modern apartments where you don't have to put plastic sheets over the windows in winter would be Griffintown/Little Burgundy, Mile-Extension, and The Triangle in Côte-des-Neiges, but they'll be more expensive. Maybe in the 1000 - 1500 a month range.
But if you don't mind a little bit of DIY in the winter, then you've got lots of options, pretty much everywhere. Some with 'quirks' like the entire floor being slanted in one direction, most being fairly reasonable. Some can start as low as 400 a month, but most would be in the 700-900 range.
For realz. Like, just look at the data on average house prices, etc.
Also, I think incomes are generally lower in Vancouver as well, which is you know, a fabulous combination.
CMHC's Housing Market Info Portal: https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en#Profile/1/1/Canada
Stat Can: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/subjects-start/housing
Whenever the cost of living in New York City comes up as an explanation of why a 6 digit income is not all that much, I always look around at local salaries and housing prices in Vancouver and just shake my head.
Generalizations and all but my experience has always been that if you're a non-native french speaker in Quebec (or often even outside of Quebec) most people have limited patience with attempting to speak french with you and at times are even openly hostile with you if you're in any kind of position that is deemed bi-lingual. I've got to assume that things would be different in an actual academic context but my experience dealing with the general public has not been very pleasant.
It's a very weird sort of anti-culture? I'm (slowly) learning French because it's important to her, and it just boggles my mind how pissy some people want to be about you literally trying to understand them, their culture, and their history better.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
I've had similar experiences. Montreal wasn't so bad for this, but Quebec City I found people would get really shitty if you tried to speak French and weren't fluent Quebecois.
Oh well, more incentive to focus on Japanese.
I've definitely noticed this, and have heard it from multiple french Acadian relatives of mine if they visit Quebec (so it's not just my French being so-so).
I feel like it's especially weird to us, because Acadian culture tends to be almost the opposite, being appreciative of outsiders making any kind of effort, or expressing any sort of interest in the culture.
Côte-des-Neiges is expensive? Spent a few years there in the 80's.... My stepdad took a job as a concierge for an apartment complex of 150+ units that were 90% made up of welfare/refugees..... It was pretty gross.
I lost track of how many feces-filled apartments we had to clean up after midnight moves. We moved back to Verdun after a few years and that seemed like a high-class area after that
Good to know. My next appointment is on Thursday (and frankly, I'm glad to see them going to appointment only, as I was there for an hour and a half due to a massive backlog from walk-ins on my mid March donation.
Which, you know, kudos on people donating, but not ideal in a pandemic to have dozens of people sitting around for an hour in a waiting area (we were required to use hand sanitizer at the entrance, but none of the people donating were wearing masks at the time)
Less a complaint, and more of an FYI for anyone considering donating. At least in the Toronto area, appointments are booked up pretty heavily for weeks to come.
My grandmother learned French overseas, she always referred to what they speak in Quebec as "Farmer's French". There's definitely a French language caste system of sorts! A friend in college was from a large Dutch family. They would go to Quebec for something or other event regularly and he said something they noticed at a few small restaurants was as they pulled in, the wait staff would spot their Ontario plates. When they went to order, they'd get the fastest spoken possible French so they'd reply in Dutch naturally, then all start ordering in Dutch. The wait staff would of course be pretty perplexed, at which point the Dad would helpfully offer that everyone spoke english....so why doesn't everyone stick to that.
When we went to France years ago, I'd offer to order food in French by way of "I can order in French and really just butcher your language, or should I stick to English?" It would always get a laugh, and sometimes they'd ask for the French for an even bigger laugh. Sometimes they'd help correct me, other times we'd just go back to English. I don't remember any sour experiences in France over language to be honest.
Our recent trip to Montreal went well, and my French is far far worse now. I spoke a little, but it was very much pidgin-French, and no adverse reaction. That said, we were mostly going into restaurants in touristed areas.
That said, having moved to Montreal after growing up learning french in Ontario, I had zero problems ever for the entire very many years me and my wife lived there. French was not required for basically anything but if you spoke it people were fine. Never got a single bit of attitude from anyone and people would start with the "BonjourHi!" and then proceed in whatever option you picked.
The government also offers (offered?) free french classes, which I took to brush up on my french cause I hadn't really spoken it in years when I moved there.
It was definitely poorer and rougher down towards the highway but they were already starting to redevelop some parts of it when I was there and Côte-des-Neiges the road was starting to get built up a bit with nicer shops and such. Condos going up and all that.
Little Burgundy was for sure getting gentrified like crazy, along with the canal in general, and there were complaints in the papers and such from locals as there always is when that happens.
Yeah those are pretty sweet areas.
Even Verdun is now a hip and trendy neighborhood not just where you go to buy weed.
Apartments in the newly built apartment blocks of Côte-des-Neiges would be. I won't speak to the borough as a whole, but there's a whole bunch of work going on there.
We do? That's news to me. I have never heard anyone complain about Acadian french. I've also never heard Acadian french, or at least not heard it identified as such.
On the other hand, myself and a lot of people around here look down on France-french. They use English words even when perfectly good and common French words exist, and they have the most annoying accent.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Hebdomidaire, another "perfectly good french word."