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by rconti 3731 days ago
I used to have TV6 Monde here in California back when I had cable.

The Quebecois programming was inevitably subtitled in (real) French, which was an endless source of humor for me.

3 comments

Well it's similar to US and UK English. c.f. how confused people in the US can be when they hear UK English for the first time if they were not exposed to it when growing up.

On the other hand, while Quebec French has its regional expressions (as do most US, UK and French regions), it's fascinating how the language and accent has changed in 30-40 years only.

This archive video from 1963 church-era is hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HjSfZWI-ZA -- Radio-Canada interviewing a bunch of people at the municipal pool asking them about short shorts. Lots of different accents.

You probably mean TV5 Monde.
My wife (we're American) watches a lot of British programming, and for some shows she has to put on the subtitles. Between certain English accents and slang, it's hard to follow sometimes.
As a French I never found an American TV show that I had difficulties with (love the Appalachian accent btw) but English shows were another matter (usually when there are criminals).

But if you tell me it's difficult even for Americans I'm a bit reassured about my abilities ;-)

Rest assured, there are American accents I can't even understand. The most recent example on American TV that comes to mind is some of the characters in the first season of True Detective. Some of those Deep South accents, particularly from the bayou in Louisiana are beyond my comprehension.
BBC America used to have a banner before certain programs suggesting that some people may want to put on closed captioning for the show.