The “Hello-Hi!” » is not about to disappear in businesses on the island of Montreal. A study released Monday by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) shows that customers in the Quebec metropolis are greeted 71% of the time in French only, a drop of 13 percentage points in 13 years.
These data come from a study carried out last year by anonymous observers commissioned by the OQLF. They made “more than 10,000 visits to businesses” in order to know the language used when they arrived in the establishment or at the checkout.
First observation: the use of English or a mixture of English and French in stores and restaurants in Montreal is increasing. Reception only in English has increased from 12% to 17% since 2010 – the year during which the Office carried out a similar exercise. Reception in French and English increased from 4% to 12%.
In Montreal, therefore, the study estimates the reception rate in French only at 71% in 2023, a marked drop compared to 2010 (84%).
However, this does not prevent customers from being served in French. Still according to the OQLF, only 2.6% of the traders visited on the island as part of the study were unable to express themselves in the language of Molière. In 7.3% of cases, the use of French was “provoked”, that is to say that the observer had to ask to be served in French. For 90.1% of users, French took precedence as the language of service.
In the rest of Quebec, the OQLF also presents a more nuanced portrait. In Sherbrooke, for example, its observers were greeted 99.8% in French only. In Quebec and on the South Shore of Montreal, this percentage increases to 93.4% and 88.4%, respectively. It is lower in Gatineau (85.5%) and Laval (79.9%).
Abnormal, according to Roberge
According to the Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, the national reception rate, which stands at 78.3% only in French, “demonstrates that French is less and less the normal language of business and trade in Quebec.
“Normal should be being greeted in French and receiving service in French here in Quebec, without having to ask for it. This study is further proof that constant vigilance is required in the face of the decline of French and vigor to restore the French language to its rightful place in our society,” he indicated in a written statement sent by his office on Monday.
Symptomatic of this slowing use of French as a host language, the “Hello-Hi!” » has already found itself in the crosshairs of the Coalition Avenir Québec government. In 2019, the former minister responsible for the French language, Simon Jolin-Barrette, even mentioned the idea of legislating to ban this expression, before reversing his steps shortly after.
The expression in Franglais was even the subject of a motion, in 2017, in which the National Assembly invited “all traders and all employees who are in contact with local and international customers to warmly welcome them with word “hello””, rather than “Hello-Hi!” “. The motion was supported in particular by the Liberal Party of Quebec, which then occupied the government seats.