this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 64 points 2 months ago (9 children)

That's why no one learns French. Because if you try to speak French to a native they roll their eyes and start speaking English to you.

Zero appreciation of the efforts.

[–] lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

As I've been told, they* tend to be more polite to you if you make an attempt at least, considering it a gesture of respect for the country you're in. They may roll their eyes at how bad an attempt it is, but it's still a credit.

There is a similar phenomenon in Germany, where we may switch to English, not necessarily because we're annoyed at your bad German, but simply because we consider it more efficient or courteous to engage with people in English. Maybe the French have similar reasons.

I've caught myself in that reflex too: I learned English from the start of primary school, consume a lot of English media, speak English with international colleagues and consider myself fairly fluent. If you struggle with German, I'll be quick to offer using a language we're both good at because it makes things easier for you. That's not a lack of appreciation, it's an offer of convenience.

On the other hand, if you wish to practice your German, I'm more than happy to help. I get the impression that many generally are willing to humour you, provided we have the time for it. If you're ordering at a restaurant or asking for directions, odds are we'll switch to English to speed things up. But if I have the time, I'll gladly listen to your German and offer corrections and explanations.


*Possibly just a specific subset of localities or businesses; I can't give a first-hand account nor obviously make a blanket statement about a country of ~68 million people (1.66 times the population of california, for comparison).

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

no, fuck the fr*nch, they're the worst. they're all like "oh you vizeet a cunt-khe yueh shued mek zee effokht tueh speek zee longuage" meanwhile they can't speak any other language in a comprehensible manner and when you make an effort they hate that their precious disgusting sounding language is slightly altered by someone who normally speaks an objectively better language that makes more sense.

meanwhile nearly everywhere else if you try to string up a sentence in their language or even use like short phrases for hello thanks and goodbye they'll smile and look pleased you're at least trying. in a lot of places people help you without question if you speak English and respond in English or try signing if they're not fluent. being a decent human is not that hard.

and their food is overrated. not bad for europe i guess.

their only good contribution to the world was guillotines for the ruling class, and now they're even fucking that up.

[–] Jomn@jlai.lu 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes because you've obviously met every single person in France and have been in every single region...

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

yep, none of that forming opinions based on limited experience shit. this is how I form my opinions. I have things to potentially say about Germans too but have only met 87% of them, so I'm still waiting. I'll be saying some shit in a couple months after the survey.

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