u/FluffyKitchen9597

Bonjour! My family and I would be moving to Montreal soon. For context, I would be starting a postdoc which should run for about 2-3 years and my spouse will have a work permit that isn’t tied to an employer.

Would like to say that we did have a pick of Montreal vs Windsor and Waterloo but settled on Montreal for a couple of professional reasons, and in the spirit of being open to new experiences, because the only point of skepticism for Montreal was really the language so we are like don’t knock till you try. I don’t have any personal attachment to English as it is not my mother tongue so I don’t mind learning another language in addition. We both learnt French in school while younger but didn’t not get to use it and we’ve only started learning again. Plus our kids are really young - 5 and 1 so maybe they can pick up French during our time there…

Now I’m generally worried about social integration for my 5 year. He is set to start Kindergarten in the fall and we were planning to enroll him in a French school so he can learn the language. I was speaking with a friend last weekend who mentioned how this move might be quite stressful for my son and suggested getting an exemption to enroll him in an English school instead so he isn’t dealing with too many changes at once. Based on my findings, I understand that it’s compulsory he goes to a French school. While I was initially looking forward to this, I am now starting to worry that this move might be a selfish one on my part because I focused so much on the group I wanted to work with while deciding between opportunities in Quebec and Ontario. It would probably be hard enough making friends as a newbie, without the added language pressure, then add the fact that he would be dealing with physical changes in his environment too. He was already looking forward to start Kindergarten at the University preparatory school in our current location in the U.S and I am hoping he would still be this excited about school.

I must say lurking around this sub as we plan our move also made me notice that the emphasis on French is much stronger than I presumed based on official correspondence and somewhat substantiates the concern my friend expressed. To be honest, I am also a bit worried about my spouse too but I think he can still hold himself (he is the one open to new experiences he’s said worst case scenario he would come back here and we might have to do long distance for a bit while I wrap up my project, hopefully we don’t have to do that). I don’t know if I’m spirally the move is quite close.

I would really appreciate perspectives if any about how the immersion of kids into French schools are managed.

We’ve also been thinking about housing and but given the skepticism I’m starting to feel, I am not sure how long we would stay, I’m wondering how common furnished housing (suitable for family) are. Is it even reasonable to rent a bare apartment and furnish by ourselves if we might be moving after a year?

I realize I just dumped a lot here and might not have been quite coherent, but I will appreciate thoughts on any of the issues or just general pointers even. Merci beaucoup par avance!

Edit: I know this is not the right sub for this kind of post per se, but I was unable to post on the Montreal sub.