this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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That's why no one learns French. Because if you try to speak French to a native they roll their eyes and start speaking English to you.
Zero appreciation of the efforts.
As I've been told, they* tend to be more polite to you if you make an attempt at least, considering it a gesture of respect for the country you're in. They may roll their eyes at how bad an attempt it is, but it's still a credit.
There is a similar phenomenon in Germany, where we may switch to English, not necessarily because we're annoyed at your bad German, but simply because we consider it more efficient or courteous to engage with people in English. Maybe the French have similar reasons.
I've caught myself in that reflex too: I learned English from the start of primary school, consume a lot of English media, speak English with international colleagues and consider myself fairly fluent. If you struggle with German, I'll be quick to offer using a language we're both good at because it makes things easier for you. That's not a lack of appreciation, it's an offer of convenience.
On the other hand, if you wish to practice your German, I'm more than happy to help. I get the impression that many generally are willing to humour you, provided we have the time for it. If you're ordering at a restaurant or asking for directions, odds are we'll switch to English to speed things up. But if I have the time, I'll gladly listen to your German and offer corrections and explanations.
*Possibly just a specific subset of localities or businesses; I can't give a first-hand account nor obviously make a blanket statement about a country of ~68 million people (1.66 times the population of california, for comparison).
The stressful thing about speaking French in France is that the French's attitude towards the French language is a lot like Brit's attitude towards English. I've definitely found it way more difficult than speaking German in Germany, or Spanish in Spain.
Tangential funny story: My parents used to live in Germany, and my dad dropped the car off at a local garage for servicing and the guy there spoke way better English than my dad's German, so they conversed in English. In the time that the car was in the shop, there was a football match between England and Germany that was a big deal, to the extent that when my dad picked up the car, the guy there pretended he could only speak German.
Germans tend to say 'ah, our language is difficult but I think you mean to say...' or 'we pronounce it...' the French on the other hand are far more likely to say 'I don't understand what you are saying at all' or 'it sounds disgusting when you speak'
My friend that's French born but lived in the UK a decade went back and got the same treatment, the shop keeper literally ten minutes from where he was born did the whole pretending not to understand and acting superior thing - I've never known anyone in germany do that. Spain you might get scolded for not speaking the correct dialect especially in Catalan but it's rare.
France is beautiful and the people can be wonderful but they have some weird issues too especially around language and identity.
I'd rather someone force me to speak properly than just refuse to engage at all, which is what happens if you meet a German who cannot/will not speak English.
no, fuck the fr*nch, they're the worst. they're all like "oh you vizeet a cunt-khe yueh shued mek zee effokht tueh speek zee longuage" meanwhile they can't speak any other language in a comprehensible manner and when you make an effort they hate that their precious disgusting sounding language is slightly altered by someone who normally speaks an objectively better language that makes more sense.
meanwhile nearly everywhere else if you try to string up a sentence in their language or even use like short phrases for hello thanks and goodbye they'll smile and look pleased you're at least trying. in a lot of places people help you without question if you speak English and respond in English or try signing if they're not fluent. being a decent human is not that hard.
and their food is overrated. not bad for europe i guess.
their only good contribution to the world was guillotines for the ruling class, and now they're even fucking that up.
Yes because you've obviously met every single person in France and have been in every single region...
yep, none of that forming opinions based on limited experience shit. this is how I form my opinions. I have things to potentially say about Germans too but have only met 87% of them, so I'm still waiting. I'll be saying some shit in a couple months after the survey.
I learned French in France. French rudeness is overstated. In Paris, in high-stress situations, yeah, they don't have time to listen to you stumble through a communication that could be completed in a fraction of the time with greater accuracy in English. But outside of Paris, or in more working class neighborhoods, in mom-and-pop shops, you can get all the practice you need. Stay away from Franprix, and go to the corner bodega, and you can strike up a friendly convo.
I also found that French people express appreciation by correcting you. They assume if you're putting in the effort to learn, you want to know when you make a mistake, and how you should improve. Constant correction can be mildly discouraging to me, but once I learned to take it in the spirit it was delivered, my emotions stopped hindering my communications.
Funny, every complaint I read online about the French seems to apply much better to Germany. But I've never heard the same criticism IRL for some reason