You were probably taught Parisian French like I was. I learned proper Parisian French in the Protestant school system taught by Sephardic Jews from North Africa, for the most part. Quebecois "French" is damned near an alien tongue to it. I was never able to keep up there even though I have lived there twice for a total of almost three decades.
I found myself on St. Pierre/Michelon for a few days when I was in the Navy, though and suddenly, I understood everybody and could even converse comfortably. It was as if a curtain had opened and let the sun in.
Quebec french is equivalent to Elizabethan English!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any school kid who has laboured over Shakespearian English will understand this reference to an archaic dialect that is no longer used in the wider world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The great majority of people who immigrated to New France were poor peasants- the poorest of the poor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Life in New France was rather harsher and more restrictive than life for the average inhabitant of France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For one thing- New France operated on the Seigneurial system that made it impossible for farmers to own their own land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So Quebecers tended to be an illiterate bunch speaking a rough Norman provincial peasant version of French- since apparently Norman immigrants predominated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hence the MAJOR DIFFERENCE between standard Quebec French and Parisian French spoken by modern people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quebers speak a French dialect that was not in wide use even in 1650 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The conquest of Canada by British army ensured that Quebecers would not keep up with the evolving usage of modern French!!!!!!!!!!
