This is probably not necessary, but as a Quebecoise I kind of wanted to give an example of the moment I discovered that I actually *didn't* speak French very well.

After nineteen years of living in grand old Quebec, I moved to Toronto a couple of years ago. My first job was at a French (France-French) bakery. On my first day, my new boss asked me to come to work wearing "des baskets". I had to ask a knowledgeable friend to decode for me. "Baskets" meant running shoes. There were more of these crazy, English-influenced terms that I didn't understand.

In Quebec, running shoes are "des espadrilles", "le week-end" is "la fin de semaine", and so on. We'd be apalled if someone referred to braking at a red light as "stopper".

French Canadians might very well speak their own language, but it seems to be differentiated from France-French because Quebec refuses to adopt the multitude of English words that France has incorporated.

If you go out into the boonies of Quebec, you'll even find roadside restaurants advertising "chien-chauds" and "hambourgeois".