i haven’t had much experience with French people, the only French person I’ve ever met was actually a pretty kind person. I’m aware this story very, very likely fabricated
i haven’t had much experience with French people, the only French person I’ve ever met was actually a pretty kind person. I’m aware this story very, very likely fabricated
You’re not the first person I’ve heard this from. It seems to be a pretty universal experience, particularly in Paris.
Personally, as someone who took French in school, when I went to France I wanted the opportunity to practise it. And I found the French to be very friendly with it.
My wife’s biggest frustration in France was that she wanted to practice her French, but everyone picked up on her American accent and immediately switched to English. She rarely got more than a sentence out.
We Germans are worse, we also see it as an opportunity to practice our English on a native speaker.
I had the same experience in Italy. Since they hear an accent they want to help out by switching to your language. This doesn’t help if you want to experience.
Honestly, I make an effort to learn some basic phrases in the language of any country I visit, in no small part to simply not get put in the same category as those who don’t bother.
That and some of the more fun holiday memories I’ve got over the years started by me fumbling through the local language—as you say, most people are magnitudes more friendly if you don’t give the impression you think everyone should speak your language
I don’t get why people care about that, i mean sure if a foreign visitor shows up speaking actually good swedish i’d be pretty impressed but otherwise it kinda just feels a bit pretentious and cringy.
It’s not like speaking english means you’re from an english-speaking country, and assuming that feels really anglocentric, ironically.