College in Montreal

[Shane]

Hey Guys-
I figured y'all might be good people to ask about this. You can always count on the Buick guys.
I might be getting out of the US Navy in about a year and a half (or 3.5 years, but I'm trying to pull some strings). Anyways, I was stationed in Albany, NY for a while, and being 19/20 at the time, I spent a lot of time in Montreal on the weekends.... for the museums, of course. I never indulged in the finer bars and establishments of the greater Montreal area. Never .
Anyways, I loved it there. Great city y'all have there. I'm 75% French Canadian myself, so I kind of felt like I fit in.
The question is this, I'm thinking of going to college there. I would love to live in Montreal for a while, but I don't think I'm quite ready to settle in Canada yet. Maybe if I wind up liking the college experience, I could apply for citizenship. I want to apply to Concordia, any thoughts?
I haven't really decided on what to study. The USN has got me very close to a degree in Nuclear Engineering, so I might finish it, and go for a graduate program in Electrical Engineering. Then again, I've been toying with going for a BA in Business. Either way, I want to get a degree in French, thus the Montreal idea.
Do you guys think that I could get by up there? I speak a little bit of French. Is the hatred towards Americans really as bad as some say? I noticed that as long as I tried to talk to people in French they would help me out, either in very basic French (to accomidate me), or in English. My friends that didn't speak French usually got treated to a very prompt "Je nais parle Anglais".
I really liked it there, and I'm basically looking for an excuse to spend some time there. Any thoughts?

[Joe_Biucchi]

Hi Shane.
Coming from a fella like me who lived all my life in Montreal.
I really don't see a problem with that. Concordia is a very good place to go. Being friendly is the same everyhwre you go. You may find some A$$ Holes like you may find great people to meet.
I keep saying that it's the greatest and wildest City in North America. Something like N.Y.

I wish you all the best of luck.




Joe

[jasonlachapelle]

Shane,
Concordia's regarded as a pretty good university. My dad got his civil engineering degree there. Plus, it would be dirt cheap compared to what Americans pay for University! I'd go for the degree in Nuclear Engineering and then electrical, because electrical engineers are in high demand, but do what you like best.
You would get by just fine in montreal even if you didn't speak a word of French, so having some basic knowledge of it will help you even more. Most quebecers are usually quite happy to help you out if you make the effort to talk to them in French, even if you happen to be horrible. Like Joe said, there are some English-hating clowns out there, but a big percentage of montreal's population is anglophone, which means in many places on the island you would do great with English and some basic French, especially in the viscinity of the campus of an English university.
It might be a problem if you went to, say Chicoutimi, where only a handfull of people on the nearby military base speak english (there are no English VHS cassettes here. I'm happy there are DVDs now!), but that's not the case in Montreal.

Hope we get to see your Buick some day,