A new three month pilot project is helping recent Montreal immigrants learn French while they're at work.
The Metropolitain Montreal Board of Trade says they were hearing about the same problem: merchants who are new arrivals to Montreal who can't find the time to take French lessons.
"For many of those entrepreneurs, the ones that came from immigration, it's almost impossible - they have to earn a living, they have to have their shop going," said board president Michel Leblanc.
Their government funded project sees Université de Montreal students going to the merchants' place of business and giving owners and employees lessons on the spot twice a week. The participants who signed up for the pilot project are in the Côte-des-Neiges district.
Leblanc said in March, they'll re-evaluate the pilot project which he says is something that hasn't been seen in Quebec or even in North America or Europe.
"We hope that we will have a phase two initiative and perhaps even extend it to other boroughs and other places in Montreal that could benefit from such a program later this year," said Leblanc.