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Speaking French with French people | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Ortho Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6350 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes  | Message 9 of 37 10 May 2009 at 11:31am | IP Logged | |||||
Would you find it rude if I respond to your tiny error (rude, rather than rudes is appropriate here, this doesn't change with number like in French), by instead of just going on with our English conversation, responding to you in terrible, broken French? I find it rude but have learned to stop myself from doing so. You can generalise that into a culture war if you wish because you met someone who was an idiot once who thought people were obligated to speak English to him, but I find it annoying to say something in perfect, though accented French to a waiter or shopkeeper in France and him responding with "Eez It Zat Shoo Wants Meelk Een Eet?", though, as I say, I have forced myself to stop thinkng of it as rude. If you were walking around London and every time you spoke you had to be subjected to the Englishman's schoolboy French regardless of his level, this would not begin to bother you at some point? Edited by Ortho on 10 May 2009 at 1:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5898 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 10 of 37 10 May 2009 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, Humbert, I agree: I read one million of times on this forum that francphones are arrogant, rude, snob, critical of mistakes, don't liek to speak English (refuse) , always reply in English etc. it's seems truly impossible to not be called this things: if you reply in English, it's rude but if you reply in french it's arrogant. But if you make a litttle critsim of the US , for example dont' like guns, death penalty, how they say they're Italain after the ancestors had immigrated in 1700, they tel you're anti-american, and very angrily tell off that all the world is anti-american and that we have to give respect to them, but they don't notice that they critisie us all the time. I'm NOT anti-american at all and I didn't experience some nasty things like this in my live, for exampel when I was in London it was great and we talked with very nice people. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 11 of 37 12 May 2009 at 11:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, this myth may have something to do with the ancient rivalry between England and France and the fact that many English people feel snubbed when they go to France and try to speak French (with insufficient skills). The myth has since been propagated throughout the English speaking world...
There is some truth to the fact that the French are not always as polite as they might be, according to English standards. But they are entitled to define what constitututes politeness in their own country! I never had any opinion at all regarding France (apart from finding the language hard to learn) before moving to the UK. Here I find that complaining about the French being rude and somewhat crazy is practically a national sport. Of course, French wine, food and design is ok by everyone in Britain.. (Some people are "Francophiles" on the other hand and speak really good French and dream of retiring in France.) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tantrum Triglot Newbie Switzerland Joined 5773 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish, German Studies: French, Russian | Message 12 of 37 12 May 2009 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, this is only anecdotal and I don't live in France, but I've had problems with rudeness in Paris (and with Parisians in other countries). Maybe they were due to being a foreigner, being poorly-dressed, speaking bad French, having a baby and trying to eat in a fancy café, I don't know, but it's happened quite a lot!
However, in the area around Nantes especially, and other places I've visited in France (Alsace, Montpellier, the snowy bits), they've been quite fine with my poor French and the people have been nice. I would say I feel more nervous speaking French in a restaurant, say, than I did when speaking other languages at the same level of competency. Probably it's something to do with this cliché - or maybe not knowing the rituals of French dining that well. My wife feels the same, although she used to be fluent in French. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5765 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 13 of 37 14 May 2009 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I usually get the impression that many French people dislike the British, regardless of their ability in the French language. But I think the British are generally unpopular in Europe because of the 'special relationship' with America, and their reluctance to properly integrate into the EU. At the start of the Iraq war in 2001 I heard (don't know how true it is) that some cafes, bars etc in both France and Germany were refusing to serve British and American visitors. I hope this situation has improved now that we've got rid of Blair and Bush...
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 37 14 May 2009 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
There is a funny twist to this. After the Norman conquest the British nobility spoke French, and if the British had kept their territories in France the upper classes might have continued to speak French much longer, maybe right up to our times. Now instead the corrupted mixture of Anglosaxon and French we call English won the battle. But French animosity towards the British has a long history, - they even have coined the expression "perfide Albion" for Britain. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 15 of 37 16 May 2009 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Too true, the "special relationship" is not so special to the US - most ppl there haven't even heard of it even though it's a big deal here. The PM needs to have a proper look at at the map and realise that the Channel is a lot narrower than the Atlantic. America looks after its own corporate and energy interests, whereas in the EU all the countries help each other out. I don't know what Britian is getting out of the special relationship other than fallen soldiers in Iraq and Aghanistan at the moment. Nazis would have been defeated in the end anyway, the difference is it would have taken longer (and I wouldn't have to struggle with Russian today because we'd probably all be speaking it, lol... ) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5898 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 16 of 37 16 May 2009 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
British are not unpopular in Wallonie I think, but the people don’t understand why doesn’t like Britain to be in the UE, for example. It’s not nice that the British blame Brussels for all the bad things!!! The Walloons find the French arrogant also, generally. I don’t know because I wasn’t in France, but I heard some complaints and they (French) think that Walloons are all the countryside idiots. This stereotypes are annoying. I’m not anti-nobody, although I don’t like Romanians. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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