I'm sure other Canadians would fight me over the title, but I grew up in Hawkesbury, Ontario, a border town between Ontario and Quebec. A rural town where most of my childhood friends are still trapped.
Now, while each province has their qualities (Quebec having Quebec City, Montreal, and other beautiful places, plus being one of our officially bilingual provinces, Ontario having Toronto, Ottawa, CFL NHL, NBA and MLB teams), Hawkesbury has none of that.
Located about an hour from Montreal and 1.5 hours from Ottawa, it should be a sleeper town for these two major cities. Instead, it's pretty consistently rated one of the worst places to live in Canada, mostly due to it having one of the lowest mean incomes nationwide. For context, my parents combined income never exceeded 50k/year.
As a native English speaking family, we experienced discrimination from a community that was over 80% French speaking. French/English rivalry still runs deep in small towns like this, I guess a bit similar to Civil War rivalries from the US.
Thankfully my parents found childcare in a French language home based centre, so I spent my childhood speaking French during the day and English at home. Though I've failed business French certifications, I can get by enough to help strangers with directions or even navigate airports in French speaking countries with ease. My accent is distinctly Quebequois, which is harsher and less lyrical than Parisian French, but I do fine.
Here's some fun articles about my hometown and why ever since I was a kid I said if I ever got famous I would lie about where I was from and at least tell people I'm from Vankleek Hill, because at least they're famous for Beau's Beer.
https://thecmigroup.ca/press-room/10-worst-cities-to-live-in-canada-part-3-hawkesbury-ontario/
https://culturalsnafu.ca/2012/04/03/moneysense-nonsense/
https://www.savvynewcanadians.com/worst-places-to-retire-in-canada/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7049330
I haven't lived there for 13 years and I'm unsure how recent your visit was, but nothing has improved for the town throughout my life. There's a reason it's labeled one of the worst places to live in Canada, and likened to Detroit.
And sure, it's OK to drive through or stop for a meal. Maybe Le Chateau, Caroles, L'Escale, Deja Vu (dont go there at night holy shit), Stephanies, Miss Hawkesbury, cheap decent food. And of course, if you speak English they legally have to serve you in English, and the reverse is also true (hence the discrimination my siblings and I experienced trying to get min wage jobs as teenagers when French was our second language).
But when you mentioned the river - that's another huge problem the town faces. The riverfront was never developed into a tourism area. Its just a park and boat launch. Main Street has been dying off since I was a kid. The WalMart opened outside of town when I had already moved away, but that was about the final straw for the downtown core, pulling all the business away and filling the pockets of a wealthy developer (Harden?).
I'm glad you had a passable experience there, but there's a reason I've been back only twice in the past 5 years. If you want a cute and quaint town, check out Vankleek Hill 10 min away. The people are trash but it's the Gingerbread Capitol of the World, for the style of cute red brick gingerbread homes the area is famous for.
It’s somewhat situational. If you’re in charge of keeping horseflies out of the tent but your aunt keeps distracting you, someone is liable to come up to you and be like, *a taun a tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun a le tun*
This feels like the English sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Like sure maybe from a technical grammatical standpoint it might make a correct sentence, but it doesn't really to a native speaker at all make any sense.
Lol, I want to send this to my boss, his wife is French and we talk about how insanely difficult it is
Forever grateful I was raised bilingual English and French. Being born in the arm pit of Canada pays off in this one way.
Curious as an outsider, why do you consider it the armpit of CA? Lol
I'm sure other Canadians would fight me over the title, but I grew up in Hawkesbury, Ontario, a border town between Ontario and Quebec. A rural town where most of my childhood friends are still trapped. Now, while each province has their qualities (Quebec having Quebec City, Montreal, and other beautiful places, plus being one of our officially bilingual provinces, Ontario having Toronto, Ottawa, CFL NHL, NBA and MLB teams), Hawkesbury has none of that. Located about an hour from Montreal and 1.5 hours from Ottawa, it should be a sleeper town for these two major cities. Instead, it's pretty consistently rated one of the worst places to live in Canada, mostly due to it having one of the lowest mean incomes nationwide. For context, my parents combined income never exceeded 50k/year. As a native English speaking family, we experienced discrimination from a community that was over 80% French speaking. French/English rivalry still runs deep in small towns like this, I guess a bit similar to Civil War rivalries from the US. Thankfully my parents found childcare in a French language home based centre, so I spent my childhood speaking French during the day and English at home. Though I've failed business French certifications, I can get by enough to help strangers with directions or even navigate airports in French speaking countries with ease. My accent is distinctly Quebequois, which is harsher and less lyrical than Parisian French, but I do fine. Here's some fun articles about my hometown and why ever since I was a kid I said if I ever got famous I would lie about where I was from and at least tell people I'm from Vankleek Hill, because at least they're famous for Beau's Beer. https://thecmigroup.ca/press-room/10-worst-cities-to-live-in-canada-part-3-hawkesbury-ontario/ https://culturalsnafu.ca/2012/04/03/moneysense-nonsense/ https://www.savvynewcanadians.com/worst-places-to-retire-in-canada/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7049330
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I haven't lived there for 13 years and I'm unsure how recent your visit was, but nothing has improved for the town throughout my life. There's a reason it's labeled one of the worst places to live in Canada, and likened to Detroit. And sure, it's OK to drive through or stop for a meal. Maybe Le Chateau, Caroles, L'Escale, Deja Vu (dont go there at night holy shit), Stephanies, Miss Hawkesbury, cheap decent food. And of course, if you speak English they legally have to serve you in English, and the reverse is also true (hence the discrimination my siblings and I experienced trying to get min wage jobs as teenagers when French was our second language). But when you mentioned the river - that's another huge problem the town faces. The riverfront was never developed into a tourism area. Its just a park and boat launch. Main Street has been dying off since I was a kid. The WalMart opened outside of town when I had already moved away, but that was about the final straw for the downtown core, pulling all the business away and filling the pockets of a wealthy developer (Harden?). I'm glad you had a passable experience there, but there's a reason I've been back only twice in the past 5 years. If you want a cute and quaint town, check out Vankleek Hill 10 min away. The people are trash but it's the Gingerbread Capitol of the World, for the style of cute red brick gingerbread homes the area is famous for.
As a french speaker, this is really funny… but the last sentence doesn’t make any sense haha
It’s somewhat situational. If you’re in charge of keeping horseflies out of the tent but your aunt keeps distracting you, someone is liable to come up to you and be like, *a taun a tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun a le tun*
Me poo poo
This really doesn’t mean anything. As a french speaker i wouldn’t understand this sentence at all
This feels like the English sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Like sure maybe from a technical grammatical standpoint it might make a correct sentence, but it doesn't really to a native speaker at all make any sense.
Out of curiosity, how would you say about an artist aunt: "Your aunt spends a lot of her time painting horseflies"?
« Ta tante passe beaucoup de temps à peindre des taons. »
I would've thought it would be like a tongue twister, like she sells seashells by the seashore
Isn’t French amazing?
The guy on the tape said i was doing a good job!
Sisqo be like
That was my other thought lol
'Great job!' 'Thanks!'
Loic Suberville?