The use of French is declining in shops, but young people are indifferent to it: OQLF

A business in Montreal's Gay Village includes text in both languages. (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

The use of French as a greeting and service language in Quebec businesses is declining across the province, but particularly in the Montreal and Gatineau regions, a situation that is leaving more and more Quebecers indifferent, especially among young people.

On Tuesday, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) published a study entitled “Language of welcome and language of service in Quebec businesses in 2023: consumers,” the authors of which make no secret of their concern.

“There are a number of questions about customer behaviour and perceptions,” the OQLF said. “Is it now standard practice to be greeted and served in a language other than French, resulting in a feeling of indifference among some customers and a reduction in their negative feelings when they are not greeted or served in French? Is this experience, once less frequent and perceived more negatively, tending to become more commonplace?”

Regional portraits

This fourth OQLF survey -- the others having taken place in 2010, 2012 and 2018 -- includes regional data for the first time, with data sets specific to the Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau and Sherbrooke regions, with respondents from elsewhere grouped in the “other territories” category.

The survey's findings are not all gloomy.

It shows, for example, that a large majority of Quebecers still prefer to be greeted and served in French, with around 70 per cent saying they prefer French as the language of service in shops, 14 per cent having no preference and 8 per cent preferring to be served in French, while 30 per cent had no preference.

Service: Sherbrooke and Gatineau at opposite ends of the spectrum

Nearly a third (31 per cent) of customers received service in a language other than French in a business in the six months preceding the survey.

However, this proportion falls to just 11 per cent.

Despite this, around half of respondents agree to continue the exchange in another language when the service is not first offered in French. The study also shows that two out of five customers “have negative feelings” when they do not receive service in French, while one in three is indifferent and 12 per cent are surprised, but no more.

Customers in the Quebec City region (47) are the most likely to have these negative feelings.

Indifference among young people

By age group, the 18-34 age group is by far the least likely (31) to be totally indifferent to service in a language other than French. By comparison, indifference is reported by only 30 per cent of those aged 35 and over.

Whatever the case, indifference or negative feelings, almost half of customers (46 per cent) would return to a business that had served them in a language other than French because it did not bother them, while only 12 per cent would return to a business that had served them in a language other than French because it did not bother them, and about a quarter (27 per cent) would return, but only out of necessity.

Reception: same findings

Before service, of course, there is the reception area, and here too, 30 per cent of customers have been greeted in a store in a language other than French. This proportion rises to 40 per cent in the Montreal region, but this is still the first drop since 2010. The proportion rose from 27 in 2010 to 45.6 per cent in 2018, before falling back to 40 per cent in 2023.

As in the case of customer service, the same phenomenon of greater indifference and fewer negative feelings can be observed among those aged 18-24 compared to those aged 35 and over when the greeting is in a language other than French.

“The results of this study,” write the authors, “show that in 2023, throughout Quebec, the lack of reaction among customers greeted and served in a language other than French tends to increase. In addition, among all customers, including francophone customers, many rarely or never request service in French when it is not first offered in that language.”

Call to the public

In an email to The Canadian Press, the Minister responsible for the French language, Jean-François Roberge, stated that “we must be proactive in the French language file” and called on Quebecers “to demand to be served in French in Quebec businesses, and to complain to the OQLF when this is not the case.”

The survey was conducted by telephone and online among 3,822 respondents between Nov. 7 and Dec.15, 2023. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 per cent with a confidence interval of 95 per cent.

However, the area designated by the authors as the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is much smaller than the area designated by Statistics Canada as the Montreal CMA. In addition, the sample includes a higher proportion of francophones (65) and anglophones (15) than the population (10.4 respectively), but the methodological notes state that “this approach ensures that the results for people whose mother tongue is English or a language other than French or English are well representative.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 19, 2024.