The majority of Montreal merchants still greet their customers in French only, but fewer and fewer are doing so, even though the “Bonjour-Hi” greeting has increased in recent years.
According to a new study by the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) published on Monday, the proportion of businesses that greeted their customers in French was 84.2 per cent in 2010, and 71.0 per cent in 2023.
Conversely, the proportion of businesses that greet their customers in French and English, often characterized by the “Bonjour-Hi” greeting, rose by 8.2 percentage points between 2010 and 2023, reaching 11.9 per cent last year.
As for businesses that greet their customers in English, the proportion rose between 2010 and 2017, from 12.1 per cent to 17.0 per cent, but it seems to have stagnated since then, increasing only to 17.1 per cent in 2023.
The OQLF says the data concerns specifically the language of welcome, which they define as “the language of the first words used by the staff of a business to approach an observer.”
So, even if a business welcomes its customers in English or in both languages, this does not mean that it does not offer a service in French to customers who want it.
In fact, in 90.1 per cent of cases, service is provided spontaneously in French if the customer initiates their interaction in French, regardless of the language in which they were greeted.
And in 7.3 per cent of cases, customers who interacted in French, were answered in English and then expressly asked to be served in French were served in French. Only 2.6 per cent of situations ended without the customer being served in French.
The OQLF also collected data from other regions, namely the South Shore (Longueuil, Boucherville and Brossard), Quebec City (Quebec City and L’Ancienne-Lorette), Gatineau, Laval, and Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke and Magog).
For these regions, the rate of reception in French ranged from 79.9 per cent (Laval) to 99.8 per cent (Sherbrooke) last year, while the rate of reception in both languages varied between 11.9 per cent (Laval) and 0.2 per cent (Sherbrooke).
However, it is not possible to track the trend over recent years outside Montreal, as previous studies have focused solely on the metropolis, said the OQLF.
For all the regions studied, it was in the restaurant, accommodation, and leisure sector that the rate of reception in both languages was highest, at 13.3 per cent.
According to the OQLF, these results show that the availability of service in French remains high, but it is surprising to note that the number of complaints about language of service has more than tripled from 2018-2019 to 2022-2023. In fact, this is the number one reason for complaints filed with the OQLF, representing 24 per cent of complaints in 2022-2023.
“This increase in complaints raises a number of questions. Are customers sufficiently aware of their right to be informed and served in French? Are merchants taking all the necessary steps to ensure that service is available in French, by at least one person, at all times?” raises the OQLF in its study.
For this research, the OQLF conducted 10,378 visits to 7,314 businesses between 15 August 2022 and 8 April 2023.
In a previous version, La Presse Canadienne wrote in the third paragraph that the proportion of businesses that greeted their customers in French and English had increased by 8.2 per cent between 2010 and 2023. In fact, the proportion has increased by 8.2 percentage points.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews