“Get a job”. “Keep it dead.” ” Give me one lift »… Quebec French is full of colorful expressions, but sometimes disconcerting for a newcomer, even a French speaker. A Trois-Rivières company is tackling these misunderstandings using a very special card game.
We spread the pack of 110 cards in our hands and curious expressions appear. Understandable for native Quebecers, they seem very opaque to the uninitiated: “Butter thickly”, “Hay spit”, “It’s going badly at home”. shop »…
“One of the complicated expressions is the “welcome tax”,” underlines Frey Guevara, general director of SERY, a reception organization for immigrants in the Haute-Yamaska and Brome-Missisquoi region, which This summer the card game, entitled PURE dialect. “Is the welcome tax to welcome the owner? No, of course, we learn that it comes from a certain story. There are many Quebec expressions that are linked to historical events. For people arriving in a new society, this expression will simply mean nothing. »
This fun integration tool intended for newcomers was created in 2019 by Carlos Ruiz, former member of the Stratégie Carrière team, an organization in Trois-Rivières.
“When immigrants go to practice their French before coming here, it is often via France, or the French of France,” explains Natasha Normand, general director of Stratégie Carrière. “They don’t learn our expressions, they arrive with a delay. Sometimes, even the French experience a shock that they did not think they would experience. » She highlights the work of Carlos Ruiz, Colombian of origin, at the origin of the idea of this joyful method of learning French spoken “icitte”.
The package was distributed in nearly 200 locations in Quebec, everywhere new Quebecers land: school boards, organizations welcoming new arrivals, but also leisure centers, CEGEPs, universities, etc.
Some 600 copies of this curious card game were sold free of charge thanks to the financial support of the Quebec government. Given the public’s obvious interest in this game, another lot (another batch, one would say in good Quebec) of 300 copies came off the presses last month. “We only changed the cover image. We went from the maple syrup “can” to comic book bubbles. »
Break the ice
Whether by making people guess the meaning of the expression, by asking people to mime or draw what it means, this little fun object “breaks the ice”, explained both Mme Norman than Mr. Guevara.
Frey Guevara’s organization even uses the game “internally”, he who is originally Spanish-speaking. “We are a multi-ethnic team. Sometimes we pedal because we can’t find the right words! »
Leaving these cards filled with riddles in the workplace makes it easier for new workers to integrate, adds Natasha Normand. Factory conversations often derail from taught grammatical conventions. “We mix Quebecers and non-Quebecers, we pass the cards, and we tell them what this expression means. Everyone laughs, usually […] It’s not just a question of expression, it’s a question of a working tool. »
Frey Guevara’s favorite expression? “Little by little, the bird makes its nest… Because this is the reality of all immigrants! »
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.