I was stationed in a multi-nation camp and was astonished about how few French were able to speak basic English. Like most Asian countries had a better english vocabulary then the French.

Do they not teach English in France?

[–] jyte@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

They do. But why should they care ? English really is only present during school classes or for some few words that have made it to common vocabulary.

Kids are taught, but they don't learn (much). And since they have practical no use for english in everyday life, once they left school, they tend to forget the very little they ever learned.

[–] ForrestGrump@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Excuse me, but not all French people only bake baguettes, do they? Don't they use the internet and other technologies? Social networks like this one for example? Don't they become pilots, IT technicians etc. all these jobs that require English?

[–] jyte@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I guess pilot is some kind of a special thing. They really need to speak english and require some minimal level. They will learn the basic they need for the job. Also, they get constant exposure to English, which help maintain and improve it.

IT people, that's a different story. I know "many" that don't speak english or have such basic knowledge that they understand something different than what is actually said or written. Many job in IT will not require english, mostly a bonus. Take microsoft docs for instance, their website auto-translate to french. And even when needed, read/written is often enough. It's also easier because we mostly learn to read & write english in schools and both language have common/similar words. Tools like google translate are also a blessing. Those 2 categories are in the upper class and I don't really think they represent even 5% of the french people :)

The real pain point is the accent. Because we mostly learn through text (reading/writing), many will fail to identify the word pronounced because it doesn't match how a french would read/pronounce it out loud despite knowing the word. Same goes the other way, there were a few times when someone had a hard time understanding me because I failed to pronounce a word properly : brother vs browser. Any french would read out loud those two the exact same way.

And about your point on social media I cannot say. I grew up at a time when they didn't existed, and I don't have youngsters around me to see their exposure to english and how they deal with it.