I spent two years living in Germany, about a 30-minute drive from the French border.
When my coworkers visited France and spoke English, everyone was rude to them and refused to help them. When my wife and I went to France and attempted to speak French, everyone was super nice and helpful... but would immediately switch to English for us.
We learned that as long as you made an attempt to speak their language, the French were very accommodating. But they'd get offended if you just assumed they spoke English.
My wife actually got frustrated because she wanted to practice her French, but no one would speak French with her. Except for the Germans. She tried to speak German to a guy in Berlin once and he switched to French for her. Turns out, my wife speaks German with a French accent. She was able to successfully complete the conversation in French.
I got told by a friend that if you want to encounter polite french people learn one phrase "Hello. I'm sorry, I dont speak french. Do you speak english?"
Dont assume they speak english and dont butcher their language.
Exactly.
In Paris and other urban and touristy locations you'll encounter the one listed. Elsewhere they might refuse you service if you don't at least say bonjour and try a few words. And when you do, they tend to be very nice.
When my coworkers visited France and spoke English, everyone was rude to them and refused to help them.
Huh... so it's not just Quebec. Good to know!!
Ireland is incorrect. The majority would probably be blue or red. But definitely not cream (no reaction).
I guess that depends on which language OP means by "their language."
I'm sorry, I'm English and you wouldn't get [no reaction].
Meet someone like me: I'll be happy that you're attempting and try to keep my English slow and simple for you.
But it's sadly likely you'll meet someone not like me: at best they'll get frustrated, say "I can't understand you" and try to fob you off onto someone else, and at worst you'll get "fuck off back to your own country" followed by a few choices slurs depending on how white you're skin is and how you're dressed.
It fucking sucks here.
Ahoi!
Ahoj.
I wonder how the Irish react if you (try to) speak Irish.
Slight panic at trying to remember the year they took of it at school (I'm guessing)
Spent two weeks on the West coast back in March. Some really tiny, tiny towns in the main Irish Gaelic speaking areas. Did not hear one word of Irish.
Compare this to when I was in the same area in late 1998, and in these small towns you'd still hear it often in the pubs. It is a damn shame, IMHO.
A friend of mine moved to Ireland for work. She told a co-worker that she'd like to learn a bit of Irish.
"Oh, great! You can teach me something after you do!"
Is that really people's experience in France ? that's a bummer
I feel that French is a rather thankless language in comparison.
if you speak french pretty well, its still not good enough. if you speak a bit of french, its taken for granted. if you speak no french, good luck getting anyone to talk to you.
meanwhile, speak three words of Arabic and people start cheering.
on the upside: Nothing helped revive my French just as much as being forced to use it (since English gets rejected). And people did seem to be patient with my attempts, which is worth a lot.
I'm German and I feel for the people trying to learn our insanely annoying language, only to get switched to English immediately. I'm fairly certain it's easier to learn French on the street than to learn German.
I can't compare since I don't know a word of german...
if you speak french pretty well, its still not good enough. if you speak a bit of french, its taken for granted. if you speak no french, good luck getting anyone to talk to you.
I didn't know this was the case, that sounds terrible. I almost feel like apologizing on behalf of my peers
Afraid so
Everyones experience in France is a bummer.
ah come on
Canadians: we do still have the letter "o" but good for you bud.
never understood why people get all amazed when a foreigner speaks their native language, why would you care unless it's somewhere like ireland where the native language has been supressed?
If people tried to speak terrible swedish to me with an obvious english accent i'd cringe out of my skin, like dude i can speak english, it's borderline insulting to assume i can't..
