Tech Around The World: Montreal Part 1

Have you ever wondered how the tech that we are familiar with is sold and used in other places around the world? In this three-part series, we will explore the fascinating relationship that Canada’s largest French-speaking metropolis has with the tech that we rely on every day.

Montreal is located in the Canadian province of Quebec, and is situated on a large island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River which links the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.

Montreal has a population of over 1.7 million people, and the region has been continuously settled since the First Nations indigenous peoples discovered the region over 4,000 years ago. In modern times, the main spoken language is French with over 50% of the population being English/French bilingual.

The Montreal Skyline from Mt. Royal Park. You can see the St. Lawrence River in the background behind the skyline.

Montreal has a very vibrant cultural scene, with a stacked schedule of arts and culture events, most notably the Montreal International Jazz Festival which is one of the largest jazz festivals in the world! The city also has a booming food scene with numerous restaurants highlighting foods from around the world.

(Our staff writers also had some of the best croissants they have ever eaten! 🥐 🥐)

Since Montreal is one of the largest French-speaking cities outside of France, and is the heart of Quebec, it should not come as a surprise that the official language of the city, and Quebec as a whole, is French. However, the dialect of French spoken in Quebec is different from the dialect of French spoken on the European continent.

The people of Montreal and Quebec have a deep love for their language and are actively engaged in its preservation. In 1977, the provincial government of Quebec passed the French language charter which, among other things, stipulates that companies must conduct their business primarily in French.

As a result of the passage of this law, multinational companies had to change all parts of their branding to lawfully operate in Quebec. For example, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC, had to rebrand to PFK or Poulet Frit Kentucky. This law was overturned in 2012, but some companies like KFC (PFK) chose to keep their branding for customer familiarity.

Not PFK, but fried chicken nonetheless.

Since the French language is deeply infused into the culture of the region, we couldn’t write an article about Montreal without a mini French lesson on one of our favorite words: “computer”.

The word computer originates from the Latin word “computare”, which means to determine mathematically.

Because French is a Romance language, and is directly derived from Latin, the French language has the word “compter” which means to count or to add up.

When IBM began to popularize computers in France in the 1950s, their marketing department sought to create a word entirely dissimilar from the English or Latin root words. After much deliberation, “l'ordinateur” (the device that puts things in order), or just “ordinateur” was selected as the word of choice for “computer” and was rapidly adopted into the French language.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Tech Around The World: Montreal. We will explore a magasin d'informatique (technology store) and see how technology is sold and priced in Montreal.