When I went to France after taking French in high school I tried speaking French to various people and they usually responded to me in English. That’s certainly one way to say “your French is shit.”
When I went to France I remembered enough high school French to ask for directions, but didn’t remember enough to understand the reply. Luckily everyone spoke English anyway.
French people are so bad at speaking english that those who can manage want to show it off at every opportunity.
But in Montréal, it’s more a matter of an inferiority complex from french speakers. And the habit to be forced to speak english with those who don’t want to learn french.
Bro I made so much effort to learn this foreign language, of course I am going to use it whenever I have the occasion!
I do this also with other language I know.
People that have lived in France for years and speak perfect French told me that when they try to order something in French the waiters just look at at them with contempt and respond in English. It’s not you, it’s them.
It’s so weird because I NEVER have this issue in France. I grew up in Ottawa, went to French immersion in public school (therefore far from native speaker level), haven’t even lived in Canada for over 15 years now but the last two times I visited France they were just happy to me in French. There was just one time a baker offered to take my order in English and I asked if I could practice my French and he gladly obliged.
I dunno. Are they maybe way more lenient when dealing with Asians?
I have never heard of that happening like ever, with the exception being tourist places in Paris, where there are 99% of non natives because if you’re not a tourist you stay out of those places (paris is littered with fantastic restaurants).
I tried to buy cigarettes. “Winston, s’il vous plait,” while pointing at them. Lady started screaming for her colleague, “anglais!” Then I had to ask for them in English.
I had a similar problem when I lived in Japan, but it manifested in sort of the opposite manner. My Japanese was shit, but my work (as an English teacher) required that I answer the phone using a long Japanese greeting.
Eventually, I could do that greeting in my sleep with very little accent. And I have a name that could be mistaken for a Japanese name.
Inevitably, I’d finish the greeting and they’d respond with a torrent of full speed Japanese that I couldn’t understand at all.
I considered doing the greeting poorly, but instead, I just said “Hello” in English after finishing the greeting and people usually got the idea.
Mine was in my native language, not Japanese, but I also had a job that mandated a long greeting. I also had cause to repeat it sufficiently frequently that I could have done so in my sleep. In fact …
Once I was at home, in bed, asleep. I had a dream that my work phone was ringing. Of course, I wasn’t fully awake (or really at all) and my work phone was at work, not near my bed. In my half awake state, I picked up the nearest thing I could find - my personal cell phone - and recited the long spiel. Only after several minutes of slowly blinking myself awake did I realize my cell phone wasn’t connected to anyone and, also, I wasn’t at work.
The only character I had engaged was my dog, who was staring at me in apparent confusion. Probably that was just because I had gone from dead asleep to jerking upright grabbing my cell phone, but I like to think that in his head he was thinking I was a dumbass for thinking I was at work.
Sorry, off topic but your comment about the Japanese phone getting reminded me of when I worked at an English school too.
My coworker, who is 100% Japanese, was just off her game that day and instead of “お電話ありがとうございます〇〇です” she greeted a random caller with “おめでとうございます〇〇です” lol
It was really cute. She of course committed sudoku in shame soon after.
My gf studied Dutch for years, came over to NL, spoke to my parents in Dutch, all good.
Then we ordered things in a café. She kept speaking Dutch, the waitress understood, but kept replying in English with a heavy accent. Then switched to Dutch when speaking to me.
I’ve always heard those stories and couldn’t imagine anyone being so rude but yeah.
My pronunciation is pretty good. Comprehension not so much. And when I try this, I usually get hit woth the fastest French ever, as if I was a native speaker.
Same thing happened to me when I went to southern Mexico. I tried using the 3.5 years of Spanish I took and they barely even tried to humor me. At least the housekeepers were pretty chill and would indulge my not amazing Spanish lol
When I went to France after taking French in high school I tried speaking French to various people and they usually responded to me in English. That’s certainly one way to say “your French is shit.”
When I went to France I remembered enough high school French to ask for directions, but didn’t remember enough to understand the reply. Luckily everyone spoke English anyway.
French people are so bad at speaking english that those who can manage want to show it off at every opportunity.
But in Montréal, it’s more a matter of an inferiority complex from french speakers. And the habit to be forced to speak english with those who don’t want to learn french.
Bro I made so much effort to learn this foreign language, of course I am going to use it whenever I have the occasion!
I do this also with other language I know.
People that have lived in France for years and speak perfect French told me that when they try to order something in French the waiters just look at at them with contempt and respond in English. It’s not you, it’s them.
I’m French-Canadian. My native language is French, I spoke French at home growing up and the entirety of my education was in French.
When I’ve visited Paris, I had people switching to English despite me speaking exclusively in French to them.
It’s so weird because I NEVER have this issue in France. I grew up in Ottawa, went to French immersion in public school (therefore far from native speaker level), haven’t even lived in Canada for over 15 years now but the last two times I visited France they were just happy to me in French. There was just one time a baker offered to take my order in English and I asked if I could practice my French and he gladly obliged.
I dunno. Are they maybe way more lenient when dealing with Asians?
I mean, I’m sure they have an accent, but in America you’d be considered racist for disparaging someone over that.
Maybe that’s the cultural disconnect.
Wut?
I have never heard of that happening like ever, with the exception being tourist places in Paris, where there are 99% of non natives because if you’re not a tourist you stay out of those places (paris is littered with fantastic restaurants).
From a Swede in France.
I tried to buy cigarettes. “Winston, s’il vous plait,” while pointing at them. Lady started screaming for her colleague, “anglais!” Then I had to ask for them in English.
No need to bother with French.
Its like there’s a nation actively trying to kill its own language.
Lingua Franca indeed.
I had a similar problem when I lived in Japan, but it manifested in sort of the opposite manner. My Japanese was shit, but my work (as an English teacher) required that I answer the phone using a long Japanese greeting.
Eventually, I could do that greeting in my sleep with very little accent. And I have a name that could be mistaken for a Japanese name.
Inevitably, I’d finish the greeting and they’d respond with a torrent of full speed Japanese that I couldn’t understand at all.
I considered doing the greeting poorly, but instead, I just said “Hello” in English after finishing the greeting and people usually got the idea.
Mine was in my native language, not Japanese, but I also had a job that mandated a long greeting. I also had cause to repeat it sufficiently frequently that I could have done so in my sleep. In fact …
Once I was at home, in bed, asleep. I had a dream that my work phone was ringing. Of course, I wasn’t fully awake (or really at all) and my work phone was at work, not near my bed. In my half awake state, I picked up the nearest thing I could find - my personal cell phone - and recited the long spiel. Only after several minutes of slowly blinking myself awake did I realize my cell phone wasn’t connected to anyone and, also, I wasn’t at work.
The only character I had engaged was my dog, who was staring at me in apparent confusion. Probably that was just because I had gone from dead asleep to jerking upright grabbing my cell phone, but I like to think that in his head he was thinking I was a dumbass for thinking I was at work.
Sorry, off topic but your comment about the Japanese phone getting reminded me of when I worked at an English school too.
My coworker, who is 100% Japanese, was just off her game that day and instead of “お電話ありがとうございます〇〇です” she greeted a random caller with “おめでとうございます〇〇です” lol
It was really cute. She of course committed sudoku in shame soon after.
Dur mais réel.
That’s how it was in NL too.
We’d say hello / good morning in Dutch and they’d clock my accent and switch to better English than I could muster.
My gf studied Dutch for years, came over to NL, spoke to my parents in Dutch, all good.
Then we ordered things in a café. She kept speaking Dutch, the waitress understood, but kept replying in English with a heavy accent. Then switched to Dutch when speaking to me.
I’ve always heard those stories and couldn’t imagine anyone being so rude but yeah.
Oh they weren’t being rude to me.
I had it explained as “15 million Dutch people speak mostly Dutch, but we all speak French / English / German cuz they can’t stop fighting wars here”
My pronunciation is pretty good. Comprehension not so much. And when I try this, I usually get hit woth the fastest French ever, as if I was a native speaker.
Same thing happened to me when I went to southern Mexico. I tried using the 3.5 years of Spanish I took and they barely even tried to humor me. At least the housekeepers were pretty chill and would indulge my not amazing Spanish lol