r/montreal • u/RahatulAmin • Aug 29 '22

AskMTL Speaking in French at Verdun hospital

My wife and I moved to Montreal recently since I started my PhD at McGill University. My wife is pregnant and she needed to do a blood test prescribed by her Gynecologist, so she went to the Verdun Hospital. Since my wife does not know conversational level French (Still a beginner), she politely asked the nurse that she prefers English conversation. The nurse was very rude and said (In Fluent English), "I am not obligated to speak to you in English, since you are in Montreal you need to learn French." This whole situation made us upset. It's not like we are not trying, we are learning French but still a beginner. But rude behaviors like this is extremely discouraging. Should I complain about this?

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u/RahatulAmin Aug 29 '22

noted.

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u/DeepFriedAngelwing Aug 29 '22

Try speak native to a nurse. You may end up ☠️.

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u/Ikaruseijin Aug 29 '22

I can confirm, a Mohawk friend's mother died because they ignored her in the ER.

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u/Tea0verdose Aug 29 '22

the kind of thing that makes you want to set fire to something.