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Speaking French with French people | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Marlowe Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 5712 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 1 of 37 09 May 2009 at 3:11am | IP Logged |
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I've read on numerous occasions that French people tend to be quite unforgiving when a foreigner tries to talk to them in French. Some seem to describe them as downright rude in this respect.
I would really like for this not to be true, because I see myself making a lot of mistakes if I ever go to France and try to speak the language. If there's something I genuinely despise, it's an elitist attitude to languages; it just ruins the whole experience, and when I get discouraged I lose the motivation to learn. Far be it from me to make sweeping generalizations, so I hope some of the more experienced forum-goers can give their take on the matter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 7132 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 2 of 37 09 May 2009 at 6:41am | IP Logged |
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Its not true. Although I read French fairly well, my speaking very poor. I've never
had anyone be rude to me. Most will patiently listen to my awkward French and then answer the question or reply as the case may be. No one has ever commented on my obvious mistakes. They've all been generous in letting me try work out how to say things in French; sometimes they'll switch to English, but not often. There's no way you'll learn without speaking and making mistakes. I think most people understand this. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5994 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 3 of 37 09 May 2009 at 9:30am | IP Logged |
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The french are some of the warmest and forgiving people I have ever met. They will correct you if you want them to, most will be pleased that you make the effort to speak to them in their tongue. Don't judge a people by the stereotype, even if some of them are tools to tourists.
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| Ortho Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6350 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes | Message 5 of 37 09 May 2009 at 12:17pm | IP Logged |
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In my experience, people won't mock you or be rude to you any more than people in any other country I've spent time in, but if you are in an area where a lot of English-speakers visit and your accent is identifiable as foreign or if you make a mistake or even use an odd-but-correct construction, you will recieve English in reply to your French quite often.
There are a lot of reasons for this, some good, some not-so-good but it is reality in France in my experience. For a long time, of course, I thought that my French must be terrible, etc., but I routinely say something to a stranger or someone in a shop, get English back in response to my question (indicating very clearly they have understood what I said) and say the exact same thing 5 minutes later to a French friend or a teacher to check if it was correct, only to be told that what I said was completely correct and intelligible. It doesn't always have anything to do with how good/bad your French is. It depends very much on what part of the country (or even what part of Paris) you are in and in what circumstances. Whether you interpret it as rude of not (I have had to force myself to stop thinking of it as rude), it is something that happens, even occaisionally (funnily enough) to native French speakers with non-standard accents from Canada and Belgium. Oh, I forgot to mention that for me this has happened almost always in public, dealing with people in shops, etc. When you are in private with people or in social situations people are very accomodating and forgiving and are more patient about speaking French with you, in my experience. Edited by Ortho on 09 May 2009 at 12:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nadien Triglot Newbie Indonesia Joined 5678 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Indonesian*, French, English Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 37 09 May 2009 at 5:15pm | IP Logged |
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well..from my experience involving with french people, they are very helpful to correct my terrible french even I've learned it for about 4 years.. They sometimes give the suggestion a correct word to express something. It helped me to force my french vocabulary to come up from my brain so i can practice all the things that I've learned because french people usually don't like o use English when they speak with foreigner..
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| Nadien Triglot Newbie Indonesia Joined 5678 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Indonesian*, French, English Studies: Italian | Message 8 of 37 10 May 2009 at 11:15am | IP Logged |
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"He told me the French were being rude, for they did not speak English to him! "
wish they know more bout the history of France. It just all because of la guerre de 100ans et Jeanne d'Arc n'est-ce pas? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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