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A lot of Americans in the south appear to speak Spanish from what I've noticed while traveling there.
Yeah the closer you get to Mexico the more bilingual we get. With the exception of Louisiana where it’s common to know some French
What about states close to Quebec?
They're trying to get further away from Quebec
That's exactly how Quebec likes it, honestly.
Even Canadian provinces and territories that close to Quebec are not that bilingual. Ontario is 11%, Newfoundland and Labrador is 5%. Only exception is New Brunswick that is 34% bilingual.
I was surprised when I traveled there and met a an employee at Mount Washington that speaks french.
There was a huge wave of french Canadian immigration to the USA in the early 20th century, in part because work was scarce in Quebec and in part because of the effort to erase them from the map in the other provinces, many came back eventually, but many families decided to stay and they continued speaking french at home. Outside of them, the french speaking diaspora isn't big enough/doesn't renew itself, so there's no pressure for english speakers to learn it.
I have no idea tbh I don’t really talk to Mainers all that often. Like I’m closer to Quebec than Louisiana but Quebecers feel further and far more foreign than Louisianans. And idk I’ve never heard of someone from Buffalo learning French to go to Montreal. I can’t imagine why though. Every explanation I tried to come up with sounds exactly like something an ontarian would say about Quebec. They’re all these weird French speakers who understand English. But in Louisiana they use English first.
Some Americans (upstate NY, VT) close to Québec speak some French too.