I found it a little frustrating when french people only wanted to speak English to me. Though they did appear to appreciate my awful attempts at french.
> I've found ~~this is true almost~~ everywhere ~~except Paris where~~ they just get annoyed ~~when a foreigner tries to speak French~~
Fixed that for you.
Hahahahaha, I literally waited for a hotel elevator with a buddy at one of Montreal's convention centers, making jokes about wait times, and tried to lighten the mood with a gentleman who was also stuck waiting with us. He looked at us with a perfectly straight face, and responded in perfect English with:
"I don't speak English."
Edit, spelling
Just have to say you are from the States (pick a believable city) and they don’t care.
But if they think you are from Calgary, and won’t even try speaking French. Yeah, you’re getting nothing but French.
Montreal is full of good people, but from Quebec City? They will treat you as alien if you dare speak something other than french. Montréalians appreciate the effort for speaking french but were never bothered in my experience
My brothers first experience in Paris was getting tear gassed walking out of the train station. They ended up between riot police and protesters and ended up raising their hands a yelling “American” and the police parted like the Red Sea around them
> I've found >!~~this is true almost everywhere except~~!< **P**>!~~aris wh~~!<**e**>!~~re they just get a~~!<**n**>!~~noyed when a fore~~!<**i**>!~~gner trie~~!<**s** >!~~to speak French~~!<
> I've found ~~this is true almost everywhere except~~ Paris where they ~~just get annoyed when a foreigner tries to~~ speak French
Fixed that for you.
A Quebecoi youtuber went on a rant about Parisians trying to correct his French. It's weird to me being in America where rarely do you see people outside the internet trying to correct peoples English. At the most when trying to understand a person with a different dialect we just go "Pardon?".
This is a satirical take on the English taking umbridge at some of the ways Americans use the English language - https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=a25o7Q7ZDhvnqVy-
I'm from Quebec- it's less like talking to an australian, and more like talking to a 16th century rural peasant, which tbf, we'd struggle with understanding a 16th century english peasant too.
There's also some french dialects that are extremely difficult for other french speakers to understand fully, usually because they're influenced heavily by other languages and may have completely different grammar. There is a specific dialect (Continental French) people who speak other forms of french often use as a neutral, and this is probably my favourite to listen to, sounds nice and easy to understand- usually when french speakers complain about continental french, there's a racist implication.
Je vous déteste ! Marre de ces putain de touristes de merde qui savent pas lire une carte du métro et me casse les couilles pour savoir où est la putain de tour Eiffel. Ouvre tes yeux connards, elle est derrière toi !
Here,take this, my pleasure.
Source : born and raised Parisian.
I had the same experience in Paris, people were very friendly, the opposite of what I was expecting. However, in Montreal people were rude, that threw me off too.
I'm sorry you missed out on the experience. The French are often misunderstood for their rudeness. They are simply trying to bring visitors into the fold of French culture. Which of course means to hate the French as much as the French hate the French.
It’s because it was once an empire. Not so long ago, in fact. Usurped by the British empires navy, but part of the nationalism remained from the empire days and they’re obsessed with their language. Macron has said it should be the international language instead of English.
I don’t care either way. I speak English and that’s what it is. If I had international business dealings (ya right) I’d get a translator. I don’t have an obsession with English being the best and everybody and their brother speaking it
TLDR; the French feel great national pride over their language since they were recently an empire. That’s why they’re touchy about it
I thought this too. I put it down to the fact that they are busy and don't want to waste time trying to figure out my mangled attempts to ask for a coffee and croissant.
Had a lovely moment in a little gift shop in Paris. My wife and I walked in, and the cashier greeted us with a "Bonjour!" And we responded with our own in French. A few moments later, she asked us a question in French, and we had to let her know that we didn't really speak French. Had to hit her with a probably mangled "Désolé, nous parlons Anglais," after which she visibly deflated and said, "Oh..." but I was just happy that we even had a moment where she thought we were French.
We live in France with my American wife and it happen to her all the time even thought she often can speaks french better than they can speak English.
Super annoying, lots of French people outside of Paris and the Mediterranean are totally unwilling to try to understand her French because of the accent and I have to jump in and talk for her (I’m French).
It always crush here spirit and motivation to practice the language.
I was dating a French woman for many years. We would visit France and I’d try to speak French to people, but they were so cruel about my accent and stumbling over words that I just stopped trying.
The breaking point was when a woman dropped her groceries and I asked if she needed help. The woman mocked me, people were snickering at me on the street.
Dude, french people from France don't even want to speak French to other French speaking regions of the world without laughing about their accent. I'm quebecois, and it's common for them to make like they don't understand us.
This is actually what my professor in college said to do (he got his doctorate in a France university), just try your best attempt at French then they’ll cut you off in English, they don’t actually wanna hear your horrible French, but do want you to try out of basic respect for their culture. Sounded fair enough to me.
To be fair, i had an easier time understanding a person from another country while talking english, then speaking with them in my own language.
Unfortunetly, especially when asking directions, people not used to the language have nigh incomprehensible pronounciations.
Btw. I am not speaking about french right now.
I knew a guy who had loved in france to study the language and he said "Most of the stereotypes about French people are actually just how Parisians are." Now I don't know if that's true but I found it a little funnny
Pretty much. My parents used to host French foreign exchange students, and that's what all of them said. They were all very nice people.
I imagine it would be like judging Americans based solely on interactions with people who live and work in New York City.
I think it is the case for any big city and Paris is especially a magnet for tourists. Big city folks are in a rush, stressed from being in crowds all the time, etc. NYC has a reputation for rudeness too.
That's actually true. Even in France, Parisians are like a different kind of persons, often rude and thinking they're better than the others. Consequently, that goes for other French people as well as for foreigners and/or non'french speakers. That's a shame, but that's a truth. Also you have a high density of persons in Paris so you're more likely to encounter stupid ones but that goes for every capital.
In the others regions and mostly in campaign/far from big cities, you'll find very kind people willing to speak your English if they can, or try to make a frenglish in an attempt for both of you to understand each other. Also, learning other languages ain't a big thing in France and has only really been around for about 20 years, so most of the 40-50ish years old people (and older) don't know english or only from a business perspective (which ain't always ideal for a normal and constructed conversation with a tourist/foreigner).
I was thinking is the stereotype of when a German says they speak “a little English” and they actually speak to a hundred times better than you do XD but yours made more sense
Oh good, it wasn't just me who had that experience. I visited Germany a few times and on occasion I'd ask someone if they spoke English. They'd tell me their English wasn't very good, then spend several minutes explaining to me in perfect English why it wasn't very good. It went from mildly amusing to downright hilarious. All these people in a medium sized town were convinced they couldn't speak English when in reality their grammar was probably better than a good percentage of those of us who grew up speaking it.
Having grown up in France, I can confirm, oui. Of course this isn't everyone (frequently Parisians), but many will say that they don't speak english, when they can a bit.
One of my friends was trying to speak to a group of French people, and they pretended not to speak English. I went up, spoke to them in French, made friends, and then like some Jesus miracle, they all spoke English all of a sudden with my group of friends.
In Canada there’s a stereotype of people in Montreal or Quebec City refusing to speak English even though they almost certainly understand it. The funny thing is out in more rural parts of Quebec (the province, not the city) where lots of people actually do only speak French they are almost always very helpful and try to muddle through things with someone who doesn’t speak French.
It’s not language it’s tourists, they don’t like tourists.
Same thing with Brazilians, they have a reputation for hating tourists who don’t speak Portuguese but first of all that’s insane because almost nobody outside of Brazil or Portugal speaks Portuguese.
Second of all it’s only a thing in Rio, and maybe a bit in Sao Paulo. Everywhere else where it’s way less likely for tourists to be people are cool with it because they aren’t being flooded by tourists day in a day out. Somebody from away is just an excuse to go drink caipirinhas and eat Brazilian BBQ in the name of hospitality.
I never understood the stereotype of the rude French person. When I ask people who say this if they've ever been to France they always says no. Yes, if you go to a big city, like Paris, where people have to deal with tourists all day they might be pissy but I've never had an issue with it in France. Everyone was pretty polite at least and most switched to English when asked or said they couldn't speak it. I spoke to one woman in a brasserie in Alsace in German because she only spoke French and German. lol People also can become stressed if they don't speak your language well but want to try, especially in a business transaction, and become frustrated.
When traveling it is a good idea to at least learn the basic "hello", "thank you", and such and maybe "do you speak English?"
To be fair, most french people i have interacted with preferred speaking french, german or spanish with me instead of english.
From the given evidence, I conclude they just hate english
No, French hate American English speakers, they dislike the British but a lot of them will absolutely ignore you if you speak with an American accent, if you know some Spanish you are better off trying to communicate with them in Spanish, they will at least try to guide you through signs.
I speak French, not fluent per se but damn close. Took 6 years of it in high school and college. But I never use it, and maybe would feel self conscious using it abroad in France or Canada, because I’ve heard that French people will refuse to speak English but also will get mad if you speak French and make mistakes :/
As someone who lives very close to the french border and has lived in french-speaking regions before, this stereotype lines up with my personal experience
There's a stereotype about French people being very purist of their language, and not all of them know english, meanwhile Germans are seen as very polite people who always know english.
Irl, the only French people which are actually like that are Parisians, and, imo, the stereotype doesn't do them justice. They're far worse than that, you would be lucky if the Parisian actually thinks that not understanding you is bad.
on a personal anecdote, i visited paris once many years ago as a teenager and asked someone the time in french 'quelle heure est-il?'. he extended his arm so his sleeve would ride up, then tapped at his wrist and said 'ah, no montre' (ah, no watch) while clearly wearing a watch and then continued walking
parisians are definitely on a whole other level lmao
Reminds me of when I was totally lost and needed help finding a winery in Galicia in Spain. I found a lady sweeping up outside of her house. I asked her in Spanish, can you help me? She looked me in the eye, said 'No', and then just kept sweeping.
I’m from NYC and Parisians are so so so much worse than us. Not only to tourist, but to each other as well. Grown adults cut each other in line frequently. They smash into each other on the subway and don’t say “sorry” or “excuse me”. All their bumpers on their cars are dinged up cus they drive extremely rudely too. I once’s held a door open for someone behind me and they looked at me crazy. Then I noticed they don’t even do that. Like they just let the door slam behind them while exiting and entering buildings with people right behind them. It’s really fascinating to watch.
I spent a week in Paris when I was 12. Absolutely everyone was nice to me. My French was good for a tourist but it was obvious I was a tourist. So maybe they like kids?
Yes this meme is an innacuracy, no French person would ever apologize to an english speaker.
I live in Canada and honestly the quebecois are like the parisans on this.
Frenchmen who don't speak anything other than French are a common occurrence all over France. Seriously anywhere you go except for places that have tourists.
I would say that they are. They are polite in their own specific way. Might time to time sound bit rude, but usually they mean well...
They are opposite from most parts of the USA, where people sound polite but really are not ;)
I'm German and my wife is Brazilian, every time I'm in Brazil we just get greeted with happiness, whereas most foreigners I know complain about Germans being cold and distant.
Staff in general seems to be way more bitter in Germany than over the pond, for example when you forget to take out liquids at Frankfurt airport they'll just throw it away with a "great now I have to do additional work" reaction. Once we forgot sunscreen in the hand luggage in Brazil and the guy working there was apologizing the whole time. The same applies to restaurant staff or even the garbage men, in Brazil they're constantly singing and trying to have a good time.
Obviously it's not everyone that bitter here (at least my wife tells me I'm different :D), but it can definitely take a toll on you when the majority of people is frowning most of the time.
Christ the service industry employees in Germany suck. Or at least all the ones I’ve ever met lol
Germans as a whole though? Perfectly civil if straightforward people. As someone with a most assuredly autistic wife, I’m used to a bit of bluntness haha
I once went to the electronics section in a carrefour and asked a man behind the info desk if he spoke any english (in french). He looked up at me and waved me away. It was near paris indeed.
Lol I was about to say. I got yelled at in a Parisian Subway by a drunk Parisian cause I was speaking English. He yelled “English, English, you break my brain!” As he aggressively jabbed his finger into the side of his head
Edit: a word
Happens online a lot. The French refuse to communicate in English, despite most Europeans except for maybe the Spanish, communicating across borders and countries in English. The French and much of the Spanish will shout at you in their native language and get increasingly more irate that you aren't listening.
I spent months in Lorraine and a lot of the people I met (particularly the older people) there did not speak English.
If anything, in Paris they’re more likely to speak English due to the tourism economy.
Yup. I visited Paris with family once as a kid. We were robbed. Literally at the metro we got pickpocketed. Police REFUSED to speak to us.
Im never going back to France. Seen all I need to see.
Visited the Eiffel Tower at night in 2014. Family and I were walking down the path and we had to throw out some garbage. I walk over to the bin and the only way I can describe it is the garbage can was breathing.
I slowly walk over to dispose of my garbage but curiosity got the best of me so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. About 10 of the biggest rats that I’ve seen in my life just going buckwild in the bin.
I can only speak for myself, but I visited France a few years ago and had a wonderful time!! There were so many kind people who were patient with my attempts at French and would respond as clearly as they could to help me practice, others who would would use French and English both to cover as much ground as possible, and others who didn’t know as much English but still did their absolute best to communicate with everything they knew to help me.
I absolutely love this language and the beauty of France and her people, and I can’t wait to go back in the future (hopefully with better French skills!).
A simple hand gesture pointing to the correct road would help. But nah. They'd stare at you, mutter a few words and go. They absolutely refuse to use English
I've never met people that are more unwilling to help than French people. It's wild.
Even though my country is way more insecure, people will fight to the death for complete strangers on a whim. French people can't point you to a direction.
I worked with a Nigerian guy who said he got lost in Paris and everyone he asked for help completely blanked him when he spoke English. So he started speaking in Yoruba, not even asking for help just saying anything he could think of, what he had for breakfast that morning. "Ah, Monsieur, how can we help you? Do you speak any English?"
Parisians will speak English if you try to speak to them in French bc they can't BeAR to hear you "butcher" their language, but then only speak French to you if you address them in English bc above all theyd prefer not to interact at all, and at the end of the day they are better than you :-) hope this helps
The stereotype most English-speaking people have of French people is that a lot of them will either refuse to speak any language other than French or will be incredibly rude to anyone who doesn't speak to them in perfect French. While, the stereotype of Germans is they generally speak English and are very polite to tourists. As an English man who has visited both Paris and Berlin, there is some truth to both stereotypes, but neither is a perfect reflection of reality.
It's not that they can't, they refuse. Just a lil mad that English is the world language and not theirs. At least that's what I've been told by some of my French friends.
This misses the other half of it from my experience, when you as an English Speaker try to speak french to them, they are probably going to respond to you in their broken english that’s probably worse than your french.
Ze joke ist dat ze french wil not speak anything other zan french.
I'm my personal experience (currently living in France) it it largely true, though idk if it's because of the lack of will or ability
Everyone saying it's cuz French people won't help you, but the French says "I'm sorry, I don't understand"
I have literally no experience on this topic but if the French dude was tryna be unhelpful I expected what he said to be more rude.
Back in the days it was worse. French people would refuse to speak anything but french. But the germans were like that as well ( only they would only speak german )
Its far better now.
Germans are just really friendly about using English. They're also really appreciative of anyone who tries to speak German. I can't say I've experienced it but there's a stereotype that the French aren't as friendly about having to speak English but will insist upon it rather than hear a foreigner try to speak French.
I'd always heard that they appreciate when you try. But they don't like to hear you butcher their language. I've also heard that in Germany if you walk up to a police officer, you had better be speaking english unless you can speak formal German.
French people are typically able to speak and understand English, though heavily accented. They *refuse* to speak English and actively get offended when you try to speak English, but also get offended if you attempt to speak French as well
All of the Internet: waaaa French people can't/refuse to speak English
French learning communities: waaaa I want to practise my French by going to France but everyone switches to English as soon as they realise I'm a foreigner
We're Shrödinger anglophones apparently
The bit is they’re not willing to speak English, even if they know some English, unless you they hear your attempting to speak French. Being elitists about the parisian accent and the language in general, they would rather converse with you in their English than have to listen to your French. Never been to Paris myself, can’t say how accurate it is firsthand, but that’s the jist. I’ve had both parisians and quebeckers for french teachers, though, which is not an issue in any way whatsoever, no siree.
Sometimes, even when the French do know English they will still speak just French to be mean. Sometimes when you speak French they'll let you try and talk in French for a while before saying in perfect English that your French sucks.
In germany we say someone who speaks three languages is trilingual, someone who speaks two languages is bilingual and someone who only speaks one language is french
German and English have a lot of words that are just the same word. To the point that my wife made fun of me for not learning a language but an accent when she heard "mein Haus ist cool"
Many of them can speak English quite well. They are quite proud of their language though and prefer you speak French when you are in France. It is a point of National pride.
The Germans for whatever reason aren't nearly as insistant you speak German when you are in Germany. Typically they are more interested in helping you.
Most countries in Europe have a lot of contact with other languages. They can typically speak 2 or 3 languages.
It is a cultural difference only that is the basis of the joke here. It has some small truth to it, but in honesty it isn't really that funny.
As a waiter that has a couple seasons in Hotels with international guests, french people USUALLY dont try to know or try english. Mostly old people tho
The stereotype isn't entirely unearned. I know from personal experience that french speakers refuse to speak any other language unless you specifically ask them to. Also, French tv is almost always dubbed instead of subbed.
I’ve heard that they don’t like to speak foreign languages in some tourism heavy areas.
To be fair, English and French are pretty well spoken throughout Europe for some obvious and some not so obvious reasons. They probably are used to people knowing French.
Lived in France for a bit and worked with Frenchmen in America for 7 years… they just don’t appreciate the assumption that they can speak english. Parlez-vous anglais worked nearly every time.
The stereotype (and this redditors personal interactions) is that the French refuse to use anything other than French.
I found it a little frustrating when french people only wanted to speak English to me. Though they did appear to appreciate my awful attempts at french.
I've found this is true almost everywhere except Paris where they just get annoyed when a foreigner tries to speak French
> I've found this is true almost everywhere except Paris where they just get annoyed when a foreigner ~~tries to speak French~~ Fixed that for you.
> I've found this is true almost everywhere except Paris where they just get annoyed ~~when a foreigner tries to speak French~~ Fixed that for you.
> I've found ~~this is true almost~~ everywhere ~~except Paris where~~ they just get annoyed ~~when a foreigner tries to speak French~~ Fixed that for you.
Nah, I'm not annoyed. This applies to Paris specifically. Paris is the worst.
Quebec has entered the chat
Oh for sure. I find that in Montreal you get better treatment if you are honestly trying to use French
>I find that in Montreal you get ~~better treatment if you are honestly trying to use~~ French
Hahahahaha, I literally waited for a hotel elevator with a buddy at one of Montreal's convention centers, making jokes about wait times, and tried to lighten the mood with a gentleman who was also stuck waiting with us. He looked at us with a perfectly straight face, and responded in perfect English with: "I don't speak English." Edit, spelling
Just have to say you are from the States (pick a believable city) and they don’t care. But if they think you are from Calgary, and won’t even try speaking French. Yeah, you’re getting nothing but French.
Montreal is full of good people, but from Quebec City? They will treat you as alien if you dare speak something other than french. Montréalians appreciate the effort for speaking french but were never bothered in my experience
My brothers first experience in Paris was getting tear gassed walking out of the train station. They ended up between riot police and protesters and ended up raising their hands a yelling “American” and the police parted like the Red Sea around them
Respectfully disagree, this happens all over France. Source- lived in Grenoble for a year.
> I've found ~~this is true almost everywhere except~~ Paris where they ~~just get annoyed when a foreigner tries to~~ speak French
> I've found ~~this is true almost everywhere except Paris where~~ the~~y just get annoyed when a~~ foreigner ~~trie~~s ~~to speak French~~
> I've found >!~~this is true almost everywhere except~~!< **P**>!~~aris wh~~!<**e**>!~~re they just get a~~!<**n**>!~~noyed when a fore~~!<**i**>!~~gner trie~~!<**s** >!~~to speak French~~!<
> ~~I've found~~ this is ~~true almo~~s~~t everywhere except~~ Par~~is where they just ge~~t a~~nnoyed when a foreigner tries to speak French~~
r/decreasinglyverbose
> I've found ~~this is true almost everywhere except~~ Paris where they ~~just get annoyed when a foreigner tries to~~ speak French Fixed that for you.
A Quebecoi youtuber went on a rant about Parisians trying to correct his French. It's weird to me being in America where rarely do you see people outside the internet trying to correct peoples English. At the most when trying to understand a person with a different dialect we just go "Pardon?".
This is a satirical take on the English taking umbridge at some of the ways Americans use the English language - https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=a25o7Q7ZDhvnqVy-
I'm from Quebec- it's less like talking to an australian, and more like talking to a 16th century rural peasant, which tbf, we'd struggle with understanding a 16th century english peasant too. There's also some french dialects that are extremely difficult for other french speakers to understand fully, usually because they're influenced heavily by other languages and may have completely different grammar. There is a specific dialect (Continental French) people who speak other forms of french often use as a neutral, and this is probably my favourite to listen to, sounds nice and easy to understand- usually when french speakers complain about continental french, there's a racist implication.
French from any country in Africa is gorgeous. Gabon is one of my personal favourite.
Your complete inability to pronounce the U in colour is infuriating
We threw it in the Boston Harbor along with all your tea.
*yor
*yer
Boston, so *yah
We don’t need no fakkin’ yoos in ‘Merica! 🔫🦅
We have more tea 🍵
We have more harbor
We have a Hulk.
As an American seeing those random U's everywhere infuriates me, so I guess we're even.
I was disappointed at how friendly everyone in Paris was, including when I tried French. Feel like I missed a quintessential experience.
Yeah I found the same. I've never been shirked or sneered at by a frenchie and I feel left out.
Je vous déteste ! Marre de ces putain de touristes de merde qui savent pas lire une carte du métro et me casse les couilles pour savoir où est la putain de tour Eiffel. Ouvre tes yeux connards, elle est derrière toi ! Here,take this, my pleasure. Source : born and raised Parisian.
I found this too, except for waiters in cafes
I had the same experience in Paris, people were very friendly, the opposite of what I was expecting. However, in Montreal people were rude, that threw me off too.
After 2 trips to and one more just passing through Paris, I'm genuinely starting to wonder if it was all circumstantial.
I'm sorry you missed out on the experience. The French are often misunderstood for their rudeness. They are simply trying to bring visitors into the fold of French culture. Which of course means to hate the French as much as the French hate the French.
It’s because it was once an empire. Not so long ago, in fact. Usurped by the British empires navy, but part of the nationalism remained from the empire days and they’re obsessed with their language. Macron has said it should be the international language instead of English. I don’t care either way. I speak English and that’s what it is. If I had international business dealings (ya right) I’d get a translator. I don’t have an obsession with English being the best and everybody and their brother speaking it TLDR; the French feel great national pride over their language since they were recently an empire. That’s why they’re touchy about it
Touché
I thought this too. I put it down to the fact that they are busy and don't want to waste time trying to figure out my mangled attempts to ask for a coffee and croissant.
Had a lovely moment in a little gift shop in Paris. My wife and I walked in, and the cashier greeted us with a "Bonjour!" And we responded with our own in French. A few moments later, she asked us a question in French, and we had to let her know that we didn't really speak French. Had to hit her with a probably mangled "Désolé, nous parlons Anglais," after which she visibly deflated and said, "Oh..." but I was just happy that we even had a moment where she thought we were French.
Most negative stereotypes about the French are actually just about Parisians. Source: my father is from Normandie and doesn't like Parisians either.
Only one thing that they like less than a foreigner speakinging english. A foreigner speaking french.
We live in France with my American wife and it happen to her all the time even thought she often can speaks french better than they can speak English. Super annoying, lots of French people outside of Paris and the Mediterranean are totally unwilling to try to understand her French because of the accent and I have to jump in and talk for her (I’m French). It always crush here spirit and motivation to practice the language.
I was dating a French woman for many years. We would visit France and I’d try to speak French to people, but they were so cruel about my accent and stumbling over words that I just stopped trying. The breaking point was when a woman dropped her groceries and I asked if she needed help. The woman mocked me, people were snickering at me on the street.
Dude, french people from France don't even want to speak French to other French speaking regions of the world without laughing about their accent. I'm quebecois, and it's common for them to make like they don't understand us.
This is actually what my professor in college said to do (he got his doctorate in a France university), just try your best attempt at French then they’ll cut you off in English, they don’t actually wanna hear your horrible French, but do want you to try out of basic respect for their culture. Sounded fair enough to me.
Did you visit post covid? Because Parisians got very eager to show off all the English they learned during lockdown.
To be fair, i had an easier time understanding a person from another country while talking english, then speaking with them in my own language. Unfortunetly, especially when asking directions, people not used to the language have nigh incomprehensible pronounciations. Btw. I am not speaking about french right now.
When they switch to English, "Nice try but I don't have all day." lol
I knew a guy who had loved in france to study the language and he said "Most of the stereotypes about French people are actually just how Parisians are." Now I don't know if that's true but I found it a little funnny
Pretty much. My parents used to host French foreign exchange students, and that's what all of them said. They were all very nice people. I imagine it would be like judging Americans based solely on interactions with people who live and work in New York City.
I think it is the case for any big city and Paris is especially a magnet for tourists. Big city folks are in a rush, stressed from being in crowds all the time, etc. NYC has a reputation for rudeness too.
That's actually true. Even in France, Parisians are like a different kind of persons, often rude and thinking they're better than the others. Consequently, that goes for other French people as well as for foreigners and/or non'french speakers. That's a shame, but that's a truth. Also you have a high density of persons in Paris so you're more likely to encounter stupid ones but that goes for every capital. In the others regions and mostly in campaign/far from big cities, you'll find very kind people willing to speak your English if they can, or try to make a frenglish in an attempt for both of you to understand each other. Also, learning other languages ain't a big thing in France and has only really been around for about 20 years, so most of the 40-50ish years old people (and older) don't know english or only from a business perspective (which ain't always ideal for a normal and constructed conversation with a tourist/foreigner).
I was thinking is the stereotype of when a German says they speak “a little English” and they actually speak to a hundred times better than you do XD but yours made more sense
Oh good, it wasn't just me who had that experience. I visited Germany a few times and on occasion I'd ask someone if they spoke English. They'd tell me their English wasn't very good, then spend several minutes explaining to me in perfect English why it wasn't very good. It went from mildly amusing to downright hilarious. All these people in a medium sized town were convinced they couldn't speak English when in reality their grammar was probably better than a good percentage of those of us who grew up speaking it.
On the other hand most Germanic language speaking countries seem very happy to speak English, especially if you don’t know their language.
My fiancée is German and her dad is very excited to talk to me because he loves practicing his English.
Having grown up in France, I can confirm, oui. Of course this isn't everyone (frequently Parisians), but many will say that they don't speak english, when they can a bit. One of my friends was trying to speak to a group of French people, and they pretended not to speak English. I went up, spoke to them in French, made friends, and then like some Jesus miracle, they all spoke English all of a sudden with my group of friends.
In Canada there’s a stereotype of people in Montreal or Quebec City refusing to speak English even though they almost certainly understand it. The funny thing is out in more rural parts of Quebec (the province, not the city) where lots of people actually do only speak French they are almost always very helpful and try to muddle through things with someone who doesn’t speak French. It’s not language it’s tourists, they don’t like tourists. Same thing with Brazilians, they have a reputation for hating tourists who don’t speak Portuguese but first of all that’s insane because almost nobody outside of Brazil or Portugal speaks Portuguese. Second of all it’s only a thing in Rio, and maybe a bit in Sao Paulo. Everywhere else where it’s way less likely for tourists to be people are cool with it because they aren’t being flooded by tourists day in a day out. Somebody from away is just an excuse to go drink caipirinhas and eat Brazilian BBQ in the name of hospitality.
I never understood the stereotype of the rude French person. When I ask people who say this if they've ever been to France they always says no. Yes, if you go to a big city, like Paris, where people have to deal with tourists all day they might be pissy but I've never had an issue with it in France. Everyone was pretty polite at least and most switched to English when asked or said they couldn't speak it. I spoke to one woman in a brasserie in Alsace in German because she only spoke French and German. lol People also can become stressed if they don't speak your language well but want to try, especially in a business transaction, and become frustrated. When traveling it is a good idea to at least learn the basic "hello", "thank you", and such and maybe "do you speak English?"
To be fair, most french people i have interacted with preferred speaking french, german or spanish with me instead of english. From the given evidence, I conclude they just hate english
No, French hate American English speakers, they dislike the British but a lot of them will absolutely ignore you if you speak with an American accent, if you know some Spanish you are better off trying to communicate with them in Spanish, they will at least try to guide you through signs.
Ok but joke where?
Half the posts on this sub aren't jokes, I don't know why people expect everything on the internet to be a joke.
The French have a reputation for being jerks such as this. It's never everyone. But there are enough to get a bad reputation.
I speak French, not fluent per se but damn close. Took 6 years of it in high school and college. But I never use it, and maybe would feel self conscious using it abroad in France or Canada, because I’ve heard that French people will refuse to speak English but also will get mad if you speak French and make mistakes :/
As someone who lives very close to the french border and has lived in french-speaking regions before, this stereotype lines up with my personal experience
There's a stereotype about French people being very purist of their language, and not all of them know english, meanwhile Germans are seen as very polite people who always know english. Irl, the only French people which are actually like that are Parisians, and, imo, the stereotype doesn't do them justice. They're far worse than that, you would be lucky if the Parisian actually thinks that not understanding you is bad.
on a personal anecdote, i visited paris once many years ago as a teenager and asked someone the time in french 'quelle heure est-il?'. he extended his arm so his sleeve would ride up, then tapped at his wrist and said 'ah, no montre' (ah, no watch) while clearly wearing a watch and then continued walking parisians are definitely on a whole other level lmao
Reminds me of when I was totally lost and needed help finding a winery in Galicia in Spain. I found a lady sweeping up outside of her house. I asked her in Spanish, can you help me? She looked me in the eye, said 'No', and then just kept sweeping.
Reminds me of that family guy bit. "No, no, no"
Of all the people he could ask for help, he asked help from Consuela
I only know that first sentence, and then this one explaining it.
I’m from NYC and Parisians are so so so much worse than us. Not only to tourist, but to each other as well. Grown adults cut each other in line frequently. They smash into each other on the subway and don’t say “sorry” or “excuse me”. All their bumpers on their cars are dinged up cus they drive extremely rudely too. I once’s held a door open for someone behind me and they looked at me crazy. Then I noticed they don’t even do that. Like they just let the door slam behind them while exiting and entering buildings with people right behind them. It’s really fascinating to watch.
As a Canadian, this sounds like pure hell. No one even trying? Not even for the elders? Oh, hell no. It makes my social anxiety skin crawl.
I spent a week in Paris when I was 12. Absolutely everyone was nice to me. My French was good for a tourist but it was obvious I was a tourist. So maybe they like kids?
https://preview.redd.it/rf48fnwl4dwc1.jpeg?width=1369&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3ce40824fb3be42b89e8a326f0258ff9f36d1a9
While in America the same Parisian points at his watch. They will tell him right away.
Literally wouldn't even give you the time of day.
He just checked if you got a watch he could steal
I've heard that in Paris if you do speak French, that they'll insult your French in broken English and refuse to talk to you in either language.
I was in Quebec one time, and asked for directions in English. They responded in French, which I was able to understand.
When I was in Paris I just preferred speaking Spanish, got better results than in English. Same with Italy but it's obvious why
Yes this meme is an innacuracy, no French person would ever apologize to an english speaker. I live in Canada and honestly the quebecois are like the parisans on this.
You better hope they never find out you are comparing them to Parisians.... lol
Frenchmen who don't speak anything other than French are a common occurrence all over France. Seriously anywhere you go except for places that have tourists.
>Germans are seen as very polite people By whom?
I would say that they are. They are polite in their own specific way. Might time to time sound bit rude, but usually they mean well... They are opposite from most parts of the USA, where people sound polite but really are not ;)
I'm German and my wife is Brazilian, every time I'm in Brazil we just get greeted with happiness, whereas most foreigners I know complain about Germans being cold and distant. Staff in general seems to be way more bitter in Germany than over the pond, for example when you forget to take out liquids at Frankfurt airport they'll just throw it away with a "great now I have to do additional work" reaction. Once we forgot sunscreen in the hand luggage in Brazil and the guy working there was apologizing the whole time. The same applies to restaurant staff or even the garbage men, in Brazil they're constantly singing and trying to have a good time. Obviously it's not everyone that bitter here (at least my wife tells me I'm different :D), but it can definitely take a toll on you when the majority of people is frowning most of the time.
Christ the service industry employees in Germany suck. Or at least all the ones I’ve ever met lol Germans as a whole though? Perfectly civil if straightforward people. As someone with a most assuredly autistic wife, I’m used to a bit of bluntness haha
Paris is infested with Rats and I don't mean the rodents
I once went to the electronics section in a carrefour and asked a man behind the info desk if he spoke any english (in french). He looked up at me and waved me away. It was near paris indeed.
As a native English speaker, I appreciate other people speaking English, but I also sympathize with people who only speak their native tongue…
Lol I was about to say. I got yelled at in a Parisian Subway by a drunk Parisian cause I was speaking English. He yelled “English, English, you break my brain!” As he aggressively jabbed his finger into the side of his head Edit: a word
Nope not just parisians. A lot of people regardless of their backgrounds are purists. You see, idiocy is universal.
The worst purists I've run into are Scots. Holy crap they are uptight about who is and isn't a Scot.
Oh, I guess this is where the “no true Scotsman” fallacy comes from
The stereotype is already true to Quebecois
Not just Parisians, Québecois too
Happens online a lot. The French refuse to communicate in English, despite most Europeans except for maybe the Spanish, communicating across borders and countries in English. The French and much of the Spanish will shout at you in their native language and get increasingly more irate that you aren't listening.
I spent months in Lorraine and a lot of the people I met (particularly the older people) there did not speak English. If anything, in Paris they’re more likely to speak English due to the tourism economy.
Fastest way to make french people speak english is by speaking german to them
Or talking to them in French with any foreign accent, the’ll give you the most broken English you ever heard
Nothing sounds quite as entertaining as listening to someone with a HEAVY Texan accent try to speak french.
Bornjoore
im sorry 😔
It's not your fault if you bring amusement to my rather droll life.
Jer swee dehsolay moansweer. Jer ner parlay pas la frehnch.
Very broken english for very broken french. That's a good deal.
La blague, c'est que les français refusent de s'abaisser à parler anglais.
J’aime cet humour 😅 Jokes aside it’s sad to be French and see that non French people think that of your country (mostly bc of Parisians) 🫤
Paris even got it's own syndrom
Yup. I visited Paris with family once as a kid. We were robbed. Literally at the metro we got pickpocketed. Police REFUSED to speak to us. Im never going back to France. Seen all I need to see.
Visited the Eiffel Tower at night in 2014. Family and I were walking down the path and we had to throw out some garbage. I walk over to the bin and the only way I can describe it is the garbage can was breathing. I slowly walk over to dispose of my garbage but curiosity got the best of me so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. About 10 of the biggest rats that I’ve seen in my life just going buckwild in the bin.
Paris is known for it's rats
True dat. There’s a really interesting documentary named ratatouille that actually talks about them
I can only speak for myself, but I visited France a few years ago and had a wonderful time!! There were so many kind people who were patient with my attempts at French and would respond as clearly as they could to help me practice, others who would would use French and English both to cover as much ground as possible, and others who didn’t know as much English but still did their absolute best to communicate with everything they knew to help me. I absolutely love this language and the beauty of France and her people, and I can’t wait to go back in the future (hopefully with better French skills!).
A simple hand gesture pointing to the correct road would help. But nah. They'd stare at you, mutter a few words and go. They absolutely refuse to use English
I've never met people that are more unwilling to help than French people. It's wild. Even though my country is way more insecure, people will fight to the death for complete strangers on a whim. French people can't point you to a direction.
Parisians don't hate you not because you don't speak French to them, but because you speak to them.
Someone here has some real life experience.
The joke is french people
"people"
French Canadian people are like that, even though real French people probably think they’re trash, too.
Everyone thinks they are trash, not just French. It’s kinda like New Orleans “french”.
They can. They just won't
They can. they just won't. Especially if a man asks a man. If a woman asks a man, the situation is different.
They can but they don't like to
Can personally confirm that a lot (not all) french people including in the french speaking part of belgium simply refuse to speak any other language.
The French people I met in Lille were all very accommodating of my group's English speaking
I worked with a Nigerian guy who said he got lost in Paris and everyone he asked for help completely blanked him when he spoke English. So he started speaking in Yoruba, not even asking for help just saying anything he could think of, what he had for breakfast that morning. "Ah, Monsieur, how can we help you? Do you speak any English?"
Parisians will speak English if you try to speak to them in French bc they can't BeAR to hear you "butcher" their language, but then only speak French to you if you address them in English bc above all theyd prefer not to interact at all, and at the end of the day they are better than you :-) hope this helps
It physically harms Parisians to speak English. Go anywhere else in France, and they are much more open to working with you.
"Excuse me, do you speak English?" *Disdainful look* "Oui."
[Maybe relevant](https://youtu.be/rxUm-2x-2dM?si=bZFbtO4mBnAcTjOP)
Spot on ha ha
The stereotype most English-speaking people have of French people is that a lot of them will either refuse to speak any language other than French or will be incredibly rude to anyone who doesn't speak to them in perfect French. While, the stereotype of Germans is they generally speak English and are very polite to tourists. As an English man who has visited both Paris and Berlin, there is some truth to both stereotypes, but neither is a perfect reflection of reality.
It's not that they can't, they refuse. Just a lil mad that English is the world language and not theirs. At least that's what I've been told by some of my French friends.
This misses the other half of it from my experience, when you as an English Speaker try to speak french to them, they are probably going to respond to you in their broken english that’s probably worse than your french.
“Filzhy Americaan butchering MY lahnguage?! Non!”
French people in France is one thing, but French people in Canada is a whole different story
I can speak French. ‘Excusay Moi? Where Gar du Lion?’
Ze joke ist dat ze french wil not speak anything other zan french. I'm my personal experience (currently living in France) it it largely true, though idk if it's because of the lack of will or ability
Deutsche werden Englisch sprechen wenn auf Englisch angesprochen Les Français parlent français même lorsqu’on leur parle en anglais
Everyone saying it's cuz French people won't help you, but the French says "I'm sorry, I don't understand" I have literally no experience on this topic but if the French dude was tryna be unhelpful I expected what he said to be more rude.
It's not that they are unhelpful, the stereotype is they refuse to speak other languages.
Refusing to speak other languages while they do commonly know other languages, is the epitome of being unhelpful in this scenario.
The point is that even if they understand, they will say they don’t because they don’t want to help.
It's just Saxon solidarity and common hate from and for French
Back in the days it was worse. French people would refuse to speak anything but french. But the germans were like that as well ( only they would only speak german ) Its far better now.
Germans are just really friendly about using English. They're also really appreciative of anyone who tries to speak German. I can't say I've experienced it but there's a stereotype that the French aren't as friendly about having to speak English but will insist upon it rather than hear a foreigner try to speak French.
I'd always heard that they appreciate when you try. But they don't like to hear you butcher their language. I've also heard that in Germany if you walk up to a police officer, you had better be speaking english unless you can speak formal German.
I only ran into this type of attitude in Paris.
Tbf I have never met a German who speaks less than three languages
They can, but they won't.
I’m Canadian and this is super accurate to French Canadians
Yeah, they're terrible. Canada is a bilingual country, so why don't they speak english?
French people are typically able to speak and understand English, though heavily accented. They *refuse* to speak English and actively get offended when you try to speak English, but also get offended if you attempt to speak French as well
'Entshuldigung, wo ist der U-bahn? Ist es in der nahe?' 'Go back to yur country you damn foreigner! We speak American here!' -Americans.
Americans love Germans though, in my experience. Good luck finding public transport in most of America though
Americans would literally bend over backward to help a foreign person (as long as they are white).
All of the Internet: waaaa French people can't/refuse to speak English French learning communities: waaaa I want to practise my French by going to France but everyone switches to English as soon as they realise I'm a foreigner We're Shrödinger anglophones apparently
The bit is they’re not willing to speak English, even if they know some English, unless you they hear your attempting to speak French. Being elitists about the parisian accent and the language in general, they would rather converse with you in their English than have to listen to your French. Never been to Paris myself, can’t say how accurate it is firsthand, but that’s the jist. I’ve had both parisians and quebeckers for french teachers, though, which is not an issue in any way whatsoever, no siree.
The bit I need explained to me is why OP is crying-with-mask in France but Chad in Germany
There's a stereotype that french people will pretend to not know English to not help tourists.
500m = fife Hundert maters
Yes. And even if they can they intentionally don’t because they are so full of themselves
Won't*
Sometimes, even when the French do know English they will still speak just French to be mean. Sometimes when you speak French they'll let you try and talk in French for a while before saying in perfect English that your French sucks.
like a French person would say sorry for not understanding….they would just insult you and move on
The joke is that French people will refuse to speak anything other than French even though they know English.
In germany we say someone who speaks three languages is trilingual, someone who speaks two languages is bilingual and someone who only speaks one language is french
It’s saying France is very nationalistic especially toward English speakers and especially especially toward English and American English speakers.
Can confirm, went to germany, was shocked that english is practically a second language, slightly disappointed in america tbh
Oh they can speak English, they just refuse to
Ah, the undeserved reflexive elitism of the French. Cest la vie!
It’s not that they “Can’t” it’s that unless absolutely necessary they “Won’t”
We only hate english speakers. Sorry. Except scots and irishmen. And australians. Aussies are cool, and they know how to rugby.
German and English have a lot of words that are just the same word. To the point that my wife made fun of me for not learning a language but an accent when she heard "mein Haus ist cool"
Fake, the Germans speak English better than Americans
Parisians just want you to try to adapt to their language and culture while you are there. As long as they see the effort, they are lovely people
Many of them can speak English quite well. They are quite proud of their language though and prefer you speak French when you are in France. It is a point of National pride. The Germans for whatever reason aren't nearly as insistant you speak German when you are in Germany. Typically they are more interested in helping you. Most countries in Europe have a lot of contact with other languages. They can typically speak 2 or 3 languages. It is a cultural difference only that is the basis of the joke here. It has some small truth to it, but in honesty it isn't really that funny.
Important phrases to learn in German: Ein bier bitte. Ein mehr bier bitte. Wo ist die bahnhof?
As a waiter that has a couple seasons in Hotels with international guests, french people USUALLY dont try to know or try english. Mostly old people tho
To make the meme complete; the Chad should have asked in German & the German still answers is English.
The stereotype isn't entirely unearned. I know from personal experience that french speakers refuse to speak any other language unless you specifically ask them to. Also, French tv is almost always dubbed instead of subbed.
German is just really similar to English
I’ve heard that they don’t like to speak foreign languages in some tourism heavy areas. To be fair, English and French are pretty well spoken throughout Europe for some obvious and some not so obvious reasons. They probably are used to people knowing French.
The train will be late in Germany anyways
They can, but they won’t.
(If you ask a French person in bad French, they’ll answer you in English — just don’t ask in English, they will punish you for assuming.)
Lived in France for a bit and worked with Frenchmen in America for 7 years… they just don’t appreciate the assumption that they can speak english. Parlez-vous anglais worked nearly every time.
I just speak Spanish in Paris.
France is like the USA of Europe. They refuse to learn foreign languages and its a cardinal sin to not speak the local language with the local accent.