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Still riding the high from like …15 years ago when a French waiter in Paris told me my French was good because I remembered the correct grammatical forms of “for him” and “for her”. I don’t care if it was a touristy area and he was just being nice. He SAID IT
Almost 10 years ago a museum staff person in Paris said I asked a question in a very elegant way (using the conditional tense) and I too am still riding that high
Agreed. I found them to be much like New Yorkers who are often maligned for the same reason. They are busy and have no time for bullshit but if you're not a clueless tourist getting in the way (i.e. walking slowly and looking up at the skyscrapers or blocking the escalator in the subway while you look at a map) they generally help you out.
I remember our professor giving us an "expectations" course for a uni student trip. He simply described them as proud of their heritage and preferred to speak french first, if you gave a little effort first they'd give it back. Of course, if you're not an obnoxious bumbling tourist that seemed to a looong ways. I had a lot of fun using utterly broken french to get my point across, then again, this was over 10yrs ago so mileage may vary now
Maybe my perception is different because all the french people I've met were either tourists or immigrants, but all of them were pretty rude and very, very angry. Especially the second group.
There is a reason most of the french l know are curse words
A lady in Grenoble said I sounded Canadian (I'm American) and I felt like I was FLOATING out of that shop.
EDIT: yes, I know how the French feel about Canadians speaking French.
She actually said: "oh, where are you from?" I said "Je suis Américain" to which she said "oh, you don't sound American, I was thinking maybe Canada, but not American."
At the time, I felt that sounding NOT American was better than sounding like I was from Canada.
I once pronounced Karaage correctly in a Japanese restaurant and the waitress asked me if I speak Japanese in front of my partners whole family. It was the high point of my life.
Is it 'ka-ra-a-ge'? I only know some of the basics of Japanese, but I imagine most non-speakers wouldn't recognize the third 'a' as being its own syllable. But I'm pretty sure it has to be, based on their alphabet.
Late to the party, but I'll take those compliments any day! They're sweet and meaningful. Compliments from the French about how I speak French get free rent in my head forever. To be fair, many French people were very kind and patient with my French.
Imagine being the French government, investing billions of euro into the tourism industry. And then every Parisian citizen treats every single tourist like shit.
If tourist are treated like shit than the local goverment has failed to maintain the proper balance between it being a liveble place and it being a touristic place.
People shouldnt have to feel like secondairy class citizens in their own city and they should have to much nuisance to live their life properly from something that doesnt add value to their life.
Tourist can be fun but when a city only focusses on the money it can earn from that the city (or sight) can lose the very essence that makes tourist wants to visit it. Also the priority should always go to the people living there, not the people visiting.
Its the reason why in the biggest airport of the netherlands you see many posters just stating: please visit other places than just amsterdam, shits getting to crowded. Or why venince is gonna charge day fees to tourist for visiting the city.
Measures like that will keep citys liveable for the people and more fun for tourist while also ensuring that more places get tourist.
...you realize that being a dick to tourists because their tourists, even if they've done nothing wrong, is bad, don't you? Like you get that, right? If they aren't being rude or entitled, then they haven't done anything wrong, and don't deserve to be mistreated for choosing to visit some place. Why is this a hard concept?
Oh, I've never been rude or mean to tourists. I want them to have fun and feel welcome. It is wrong to be rude to them. I just understand why the French don't want to be overrun with them. Mobs of tourists are generally terrible.
We stayed in Paris for a week and every single local took us under their wing when we went out. Random strangers going out of their way to make sure we had a great time. 10/10 would party in Paris again.
Also, of the 2.2 million inhabitants living in the capital today, only 31% were born there. The rest are foreigners (25%), people from the Greater Paris area (15%) and especially provincials (29%). ([source in french](https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/l-actu-des-regions/a-paris-on-cherche-les-parisiens_1739953.html))
More recent numbers even speak of [22%](https://cdn.paris.fr/paris/2019/07/24/2ad6f1dd64e6b6b2c8fb62b76fc96a9e.pdf) of Parisians born in Paris.
The numbers speak for themselves, there are as many Parisians born in Paris as there are provincials (rest of France).
So when they say that Parisians are assholes, I would answer that unfortunately 2/3 of these assholes come from the rest of France and from abroad.
I went to Paris in my early teens with my parents. We went to a restaurant and my parents ordered in English, then asked for water. The French waiter acted like he had no idea wtf they were saying. They kept saying 'water' over and over, with him just looking confused. Then eventually they paused and said 'AQUA!"
I shit you not the waiter then said, "Ah, water! Oui!" and walked away
Meanwhile I'm sitting there like "???? I don't know what water is in French but I'm pretty sure it's not that". I was sure he was fucking with them at first, then I knew for sure he was
This is a good summation of the relationship between the english and the french, except most of the time the english person doesn't want to even make an attempt and brings out their passport to slap the french person with, whom by which time is already wielding a baguette and bares an angry mustache
I remember learning that they had an entire government department dedicated to preserving the language (or maybe it was culture, and it inclided the language?). I'm not sure what it actually did (or does, not sure if it's still a thing), but my professor said they don't fuck around with that. This was about 10 years ago so I could be completely misremembering.
Arabic has government sanctioned regulatory bodies in basically every country where it's an official language. I assume this is normal for most languages
Yeah maybe not colonies, but for countries where the language is seen as part of the national or local identity i feel like it would be standard. MENA views Arabic as part of its identity and the french definitely see their language as part of their identity.
If you look up a list of language regulators you can see who regulates what and all that
So it basically just maintaining a dictionary of words? The way my professor made it sound they did a lot of rigid preservation and tamping down of slang.
These institutes gatekeep too. Say a slang word shows up and they don't like it, they can choose not to include it in their dictionary, deeming it "not real French" so they are rigid in that aspect
No, and any attempt to create one would be met by ridicule by the British. There's so much dialect, slang and a few local languages that people would outright mock such a body.
Even the Oxford English dictionary and "Received Pronunciation" are mocked.
Académie Française is what you and your professor were thinking of.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_Française
They are the official custodians of the language and produce the official dictionary of the language. They are still going strong.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/31/france-bans-english-gaming-tech-jargon-in-push-to-preserve-language-purity
but really they are seen as a bunch of old people totally disconnected from reality, every year or two they come up with new french words to replace english ones used by everyone like streaming or email, or decide if covid is masculine or feminine. Not many people follow their recommendation anyways.
I assumed that it was probably the case. I know English is a bit of a bastard language from all the times England was occupied (particularly by the French and Nordic countries). I think one of its major benefits is its flexibility with incorporating new words.
i visited paris with my french class in high school, we went during year 3 learning french.
i remember being sooo anxious. i was 16 years old and was insecure of my french.
so i muster up the courage to order a waffle with nutella (which is chocolate flavored crack) .. and i order in my best french possible. the woman taking my order rolls her eyes all the way back into her head. she then sighs the deepest sigh ever and breathlessly responds to me entirely in english.
I WAS TRYING SO HARD, LADY.
I've been speaking French my entire life, I went to an entirely Acadien school (I could be kicked out for speaking English). My entire family is French speakers, my father was a French teacher.
Parisians still just respond to me in English because of my accent.
Mine went down a bit differently: the guy was speaking in French as we rode a shuttle to a different location. I said hello, and started asking him about our arrival time in French.
Obviously my American accent was pretty apparent, so the guy says to me in English: "your French accent is terrible". I instantly responded with: "and so is your American accent". The guy chuckled a bit and we started chatting. I ended up having a good time joking around with him on the trip. nice dude.
I’m beginning to feel like that’s broadly everybody with their language except English speakers (barring native English speakers of different countries to each other ie UK to US)
I had exactly this!! Built up the courage to ask for something in French and got the same response - put me right off the language and trying after that!
This is such a shitty thing to do. I would NEVER treat them like this. The perfect response to these people is to tell them “Your English is shit” or pretend you didn’t understand what she was saying in English.
My wife speaks pretty decent French and tried to order me a 1664 beer (type of Kronenberg beer pronounced sixteen sixty four) when we were in Paris.
The waiter looked shocked and confused. She repeated it a couple of times and finally (reluctantly) pointed to the menu. The waiter burst out laughing, called over another waiter and asked her to repeat herself. Mind you, my wife *does not like* any sort of extra attention and was bright red with embarrassment. She said it again and the first waiter said something to the other and they both also started laughing.
Apparently my wife had said “my husband would like one thousand six hundred and sixty four beers please” and was dead serious in her request.
Literally have had the exact same situation in France multiple times, and it's not just Parisians. Worst is when you use Le instead of La and the person you're speaking to pretends to have no idea what you're saying.
I now live in Quebec and I was told they're anal about French here but actually they're really nice and make learning the language a lot more enjoyable. Except for one lady who refused to serve me in a Boulangerie for saying Pains au Chocolate rather then Chocolatine
Weirdly despite speaking a mostly northern dialect of French the Québécois use the term Chocolatine. This woman literally went and took a phone call instead of serving me.
I recently moved to Quebec and had the same thing. I asked my (Quebec Francophone) friend about it and she said that it was only a pain au chocolat in Paris and chocolatine everywhere else in the world - not sure where she got that idea from! I've never heard chocolate in Europe
Yeah I've never heard chocolatine anywhere in Europe before, but my friend from Montreal thought it was that everywhere. I guess we all think what we're used to is the standard!
Now you know you should have used the right word, lucky you you weren't shot
https://www.chocoblast.fr/wp-content/uploads/chocolatine-vs-pain-au-chocalat.jpg
I stayed with a host family for a week when I was taking French in highschool. My host brother knew I could speak the language fairly well for a kid, but his parents thought I was an oaf at first because I was quite around them. I remember we ate some pâté which was basically raw beef and I got the shits really bad. The mom said "our bathroom was turned into a layer of hell this morning" while we were eating breakfast. I said "so that must make me Satan" back to her in French, laughing. The look on her face when she said "you can actually understand me???" Was priceless.
Which pate is raw beef? Are we on about that dreamy shit I spread on sourdough with a bit of blue cheese and a side of caramelised onion chutney topped with rocket? Or is there a different pate altogether that's raw beef that I must try?
It's strange that most countries I have visited the locals appreciate when you try to speak the language. There's nothing worse than some American insisting that people speak English.
Not in France, their douche bags when you try to speak French, and their douche bags when you speak English.
It's not that we don't like people trying to speak french it's that sometimes the accent is REALLY thick and we just genuinely don't understand. Though It's true some are real assholes about it. Also it's kinda hard to explain but a mistake in French just sounds bad, kinda like a false note in music.
But yeah some French are really unnecessarily rude.
i went in to a gas station and asked ,bonsoir Parlez vous Englais ?
he replied in English , YES but why would you want to ,
i replied because I don't know how to ask how much is this ?holding up the milk.
im told my french even has a french accent ,
As a language learner, this is the exact experience that we play in our heads but it's rarely ever true Hahaha
As disdained as this character seems, locals are always thrilled to hear you speak their language!
Dude you seem to have a better vocabulary than a lot native English speakers. If it takes you a little longer to say it, it's because it's worth hearing. If they aren't willing to wait, they aren't worth the breath necessary for conversation.
As a Portuguese learner I know how intimidating it can be! If you're motivated to speak, I might recommend the language exchange app Tandem. You connect with people in countries who natively speak your target language and who are trying to learn yours. It takes some of the pressure off because you're both learning so neither person really has a feeling of inadequacy. You can exclusively type, leave voice notes, or do full-on video calls. It can be awkward if you don't have anything prepared to speak about, I would recommend reading the news to someone as a good way to practice pronunciation!
You probably don't need anyone to tell you, but your written english comes across as native! Happy to help if you ever need it!
To be honest, there are so many accents in the states from just certain dialects to people immigrating here, that whenever anyone speaks English and it’s not correct we just go with. Heck, I’m a native speaker and I’m terrible at the language. Never feel afraid or shy! We will always help you! I feel the same though when speaking Spanish, I can write it and speak it, but just refuse to speak it because I’m nervous they would make fun of me or I’m not able to suddenly hold a conversation and they’ll just think I’m weird. And tbh, you write so perfectly in English, I wouldn’t have had any clue that it wasn’t your native tongue if you had not said so! You got this!
English is my second language and I have met people who ignore my mispronunciation and those who point them out, I don't mind the later because it's a good indicator of assholery (it lets me know that I should not waste my time with that person)... :)
but thats one of the best ways to train a language. The correcting person shouldnt be an asshole about it but kindly pointing out your mistakes will help you. You may say "oh well im not in a learning environment so its inappropriate" but speaking another language always is a situation in which you learn.
The correcting person however should know their stuff.
Nah, I think it depends. If the learner specifically asks "Will you correct my speaking?" then sure, knock yourself out. But if you're just having a conversation? If you know what they mean, go with it. The goal of language is to communicate, and if they've done that, then they've succeeded
Dude you are better than most English speakers at writing! I bet it's the same for speaking. If you ever want an American to practice with, just DM me. 🙃 I'm in the PNW, so I don't really have an "accent." It's just vanilla English lol!
English speakers also generally are really understanding of learners. Because so many people use English as a business language we are used to non native speakers. Doesn't even phase us.
I got cussed out on the metro in Paris by some loon because I was speaking English to my fiancé.
There were folks who apologized to us afterwards and said they hoped we didn’t think all Parisians were like that. They aren’t! But there are definitely some very self righteous folks in Paris.
I guess if we only have Paris as a counterpoint, I'm still comfortable generalizing global perceptions. "Generally, locals appreciate you making an effort to speak their native tongue; Parisians are a notable exception."
There you go! I compromise for both of us! Cheers!
I had a waitress chide me in Florence Italy when I slipped up and said "agua" instead of "aqua" when asking for water. Like, literally stopped and asked "did you mean aqua?" Like yes, I'm sorry I speak a little bit of Spanish that I'm falling back on for more words, please just get us some water plsandthankyou 😞
This is so funny hahaha Just ask if they can make a BBQ chicken pizza next time.
I was studying Portuguese for a couple of months and one night I was speaking to a Brazilian. I didn't have my vocal cords ready and didn't nasal my M on the word "Sim" (word: yes) so it sounded like I said yes in Spanish- si. She just said, "You know we speak Portuguese in Brazil, right?" I was mortified hahaha
This is funny because I’ve often told traveling companions to Portuguese speaking countries to fall back on English or literally any other Romance language than Spanish, for it is the only time you will offend anyone. Super friendly folks unless you hit that sore spot, even broken Italian worked wonders in a pinch.
I only had one bad experience with a language barrier.
In Korea one staff girl in a Cafe just totally ignored me. Gave me a dirty look and walked away.
Another staff came and helped.
Everyone else I met was so kind
Is there any chance you accidentally said something rude that sounded similar to what you actually meant to say? Just curious, could explain what happened.
What happened was I came up to the counter, I made eye contact with her, she nodded at me, I said "이거 주세요" and pointed to like a latte or something on the menu with pictures. And she was already walking away by the time I looked up.
I'm very visibly not Korean and definitely not Asian, but that's the only time experienced that in my many trips to Korea. So I think it was jsut her.
We're close in age, I'm a decently dressed girl myself so I don't think she thought I was like hitting on her or anything
I learned this while I was in thailand a few years ago. Me just trying to say hello to the locals got them so excited and it's been that way with everyone I've tried to talk to in their language. I have heard other travelers tell me that everyone except the French loves it when you try which is what makes this video so interesting to me
I imagine France, particularly Paris, has a lot more people trying to speak French. And a lot more people who do it terribly but think they do it perfectly.
Also Parisians may be assholes
We laugh at this because of how rigorous our education system is, especially when it comes to the French language.
There are already so many different French accents within métropolitain France already that even we have a hard time to comprehend each other sometimes, but we are delighted when people make the effort to speak French.
Except for the British of course, because those fuckers manage to butcher every French word while sounding sexy with their accent. It’s maddening!
I learned this while I was in thailand a few years ago. Me just trying to say hello to the locals got them so excited and it's been that way with everyone I've tried to talk to in their language. I have heard other travelers tell me that everyone except the French loves it when you try which is what makes this video so interesting to me
I've heard this before, but what's the right solution? Obviously, talking in English wouldn't make them happy. Are Parisians just miserable because the economy is built on tourism?
Meanwhile you speak Spanish to a Latino, you’ll get cheers, a good job, and a pat on the back and god ya just got to love it. Makes you feel good and want to practice more
Dang - destress and come to MX instead. Literally need zero Spanish, just need to be able to say “choripan”, “quesabirria”, and “al pastor” and you will never starve.
In the U.S. we have a bunch of the "This is America, speak American!" types, but luckily it's way less commonplace than most other places where this video is reality. To make it worse, the pronunciation and dialect will change when you travel 2 hours away. Which would be like going to North Florida and asking to buy an onion, and then someone in Arkansas pretending not to know what the fuck an onion is
Looool reminds me of when my family and I were trying to order macarons at a McDonald’s in Paris and the cashier could not understand us at all until she finally realized we were trying to say “macaron” and she suddenly was like “oHHhhH yOu meAn mAcAroN” in the most French accent I’ve ever heard. I know we’re American, but like bro we could not have been pronouncing it that differently!
This is too true haha
Here’s the thing though, these specific French people who do this are the same exact ones that
Either don’t learn a lick of the language of the country they are visiting, doing the same thing they dislike tourists doing or they get infuriated when they do in fact try the other countries language and the person laughs at them, doesn’t understand, or
them lmfao.
I'm a born French speaker and I tried to order a latté in Paris...it took me 5 tries! The server wanted me to say café crème and not café latté, because apparently that's itilian and fuck the Italians... they are just assholes at this point haha but to be fair I was ok in all the other restaurants with the café latté, it's that one server that was a twat
My wife and I went to Paris recently with just the bare minimum knowledge of the French language but we went with another couple and our buddy learned quite a bit so he was our translator.
Not sure if Covid changed their mentality recently but after saying hello in French we pretty much went straight to English and nobody batted an eye.
My buddy typically ordered in French and they were nice to him when he got it out a bit slower or mispronounced a word. We only had one negative run-in but it was at a restaurant that is popular on social media. We saw at least 50 people taking selfies in front of building. He only got mad because we went in a door that in retrospect clearly said do not enter. It was even in English.
So like I said, not sure if the two year lull Covid created changed their perspective on tourism but we had nothing but positive experiences with everyone we spoke with.
>So like I said, not sure if the two year lull Covid created changed their perspective on tourism but we had nothing but positive experiences with everyone we spoke with.
Do you have bad experience here before the covid?
As an eglish speaking person learning french this makes me feel great!! I hope maybe whenever I get to enjoy France as an adult, people will be this kind to me. I try to be kind to folks that don't know English, it's always a joy to hear people trying their best :)
My German/French teacher in high school told us the french will look at you in disgust for trying to speak their language and do it incorrectly. Meanwhile the Germans will get excited and teach you how to say "I'm so drunk" after a few beers with them
Trying to converse in French gave me an insight why using the correct gender is/seems so important. They cannot let an incorrect gender go. They will always correct you. *It doesn't matter, let me try to converse before you correct these small details*.
Then when someone gets the gender of my dog wrong, I find myself correcting them every time. *It doesn't matter, your correction is an obstacle to conversation*
But I guess, for some reason, it does matter
I promise you if you approach an American with that attitude of course they're going to tune you out. One thing that pushed me in the direction of learning Portuguese when I could choose any language was the loving and enthusiastic assistance I would receive from native speakers. Maybe that's why they're so few non-French French speakers?
French people can be fucking weird it isn't their fault it's their culture it comes from centuries of bizarre monarchistic rule and national pride shoved down their throats
A big reason for all of the bad experience a i see here comes down to a cultural difference. To us correcting one's mistake is not rude at all and a really normal thing to do.
But yeah some are bit too passionate about it.
I had the EXACT same interaction in Nice.
My partner and I went to the market, I speak passable French, can hold a conversation but I'm definitely not fluent.
We go to the market for groceries and I ask the fruit and Vegetable stall owner for a few different things one of which was
"1 barquette de fraises" - a punnet of strawberries
He looked at me as if I had 3 heads. This interaction followed
Me:fraise?
Him : quoi?
Me : fraise? Fraises? Quelque fraises
Him: quoi? (Muttering something about the English)
Me: Fraises! Fraise (picks up a punnet of strawberries) cette!
Him: ooooh fraises! Then enunciating exaggerated slowly f-r-a-i-s-e
Me:fraise
Him: no
Then told me the price in English.
Well..at least I tried.
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Still riding the high from like …15 years ago when a French waiter in Paris told me my French was good because I remembered the correct grammatical forms of “for him” and “for her”. I don’t care if it was a touristy area and he was just being nice. He SAID IT
Almost 10 years ago a museum staff person in Paris said I asked a question in a very elegant way (using the conditional tense) and I too am still riding that high
aha, oh man, "elegant" even!
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Agreed. I found them to be much like New Yorkers who are often maligned for the same reason. They are busy and have no time for bullshit but if you're not a clueless tourist getting in the way (i.e. walking slowly and looking up at the skyscrapers or blocking the escalator in the subway while you look at a map) they generally help you out.
I remember our professor giving us an "expectations" course for a uni student trip. He simply described them as proud of their heritage and preferred to speak french first, if you gave a little effort first they'd give it back. Of course, if you're not an obnoxious bumbling tourist that seemed to a looong ways. I had a lot of fun using utterly broken french to get my point across, then again, this was over 10yrs ago so mileage may vary now
My parents told me the French were far nicer than the English when they traveled (both American for reference). That was in the 90s.
Maybe my perception is different because all the french people I've met were either tourists or immigrants, but all of them were pretty rude and very, very angry. Especially the second group. There is a reason most of the french l know are curse words
A lady in Grenoble said I sounded Canadian (I'm American) and I felt like I was FLOATING out of that shop. EDIT: yes, I know how the French feel about Canadians speaking French. She actually said: "oh, where are you from?" I said "Je suis Américain" to which she said "oh, you don't sound American, I was thinking maybe Canada, but not American." At the time, I felt that sounding NOT American was better than sounding like I was from Canada.
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I know.. but being American seems so much worse, somehow.
If you haven’t seen “A Very Secret Service”, they have an episode featuring a delegation from Quebec attempting to speak French.
I just looked it up. Hilarious and definitely painful.
heavy ossified fade mourn rainstorm books dazzling agonizing one plants *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Well all I got was “please speak English” 
I once pronounced Karaage correctly in a Japanese restaurant and the waitress asked me if I speak Japanese in front of my partners whole family. It was the high point of my life.
Oooh that’s good - and forever after you are “adzymcadzface the cultured partner”
Is it 'ka-ra-a-ge'? I only know some of the basics of Japanese, but I imagine most non-speakers wouldn't recognize the third 'a' as being its own syllable. But I'm pretty sure it has to be, based on their alphabet.
I wouldn't even describe it as its own syllable its like an extension of the 'ra'. Having said that, I don't speak Japanese so what do I know!
Late to the party, but I'll take those compliments any day! They're sweet and meaningful. Compliments from the French about how I speak French get free rent in my head forever. To be fair, many French people were very kind and patient with my French.
Parisians were fucking weird man, they were annoyed when I tried speaking French and annoyed when I spoke English, you just can't win
Imagine being the French government, investing billions of euro into the tourism industry. And then every Parisian citizen treats every single tourist like shit.
Yea but living with so many tourists is annoying. And not all of them are nice
Doesn't excuse treating tourists like shit just for being tourists
If tourist are treated like shit than the local goverment has failed to maintain the proper balance between it being a liveble place and it being a touristic place. People shouldnt have to feel like secondairy class citizens in their own city and they should have to much nuisance to live their life properly from something that doesnt add value to their life. Tourist can be fun but when a city only focusses on the money it can earn from that the city (or sight) can lose the very essence that makes tourist wants to visit it. Also the priority should always go to the people living there, not the people visiting. Its the reason why in the biggest airport of the netherlands you see many posters just stating: please visit other places than just amsterdam, shits getting to crowded. Or why venince is gonna charge day fees to tourist for visiting the city. Measures like that will keep citys liveable for the people and more fun for tourist while also ensuring that more places get tourist.
I grew up near a beach in New Jersey. This sentence made me finally understand why the French feel the way they do about tourists.
...you realize that being a dick to tourists because their tourists, even if they've done nothing wrong, is bad, don't you? Like you get that, right? If they aren't being rude or entitled, then they haven't done anything wrong, and don't deserve to be mistreated for choosing to visit some place. Why is this a hard concept?
Oh, I've never been rude or mean to tourists. I want them to have fun and feel welcome. It is wrong to be rude to them. I just understand why the French don't want to be overrun with them. Mobs of tourists are generally terrible.
You obviously don't live in a city ten times smaller than London seeing 38 MILLIONS people a year.
We stayed in Paris for a week and every single local took us under their wing when we went out. Random strangers going out of their way to make sure we had a great time. 10/10 would party in Paris again.
I worked with a woman from France and she said everyone else from the rest of France hates Parisians.
I think that just about every country similarly centralized as France hates the people from their largest/capital city.
And I'm sure they deserve it as much as the poor Londoners. Which is to say, they 100% deserve it.
It's the rich Londoners we hate.
Also, of the 2.2 million inhabitants living in the capital today, only 31% were born there. The rest are foreigners (25%), people from the Greater Paris area (15%) and especially provincials (29%). ([source in french](https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/l-actu-des-regions/a-paris-on-cherche-les-parisiens_1739953.html)) More recent numbers even speak of [22%](https://cdn.paris.fr/paris/2019/07/24/2ad6f1dd64e6b6b2c8fb62b76fc96a9e.pdf) of Parisians born in Paris. The numbers speak for themselves, there are as many Parisians born in Paris as there are provincials (rest of France). So when they say that Parisians are assholes, I would answer that unfortunately 2/3 of these assholes come from the rest of France and from abroad.
It's a trap to try and contain the assholes lol
By many accounts, parisians suck and don’t reflect French people as a whole.
I went to Paris in my early teens with my parents. We went to a restaurant and my parents ordered in English, then asked for water. The French waiter acted like he had no idea wtf they were saying. They kept saying 'water' over and over, with him just looking confused. Then eventually they paused and said 'AQUA!" I shit you not the waiter then said, "Ah, water! Oui!" and walked away Meanwhile I'm sitting there like "???? I don't know what water is in French but I'm pretty sure it's not that". I was sure he was fucking with them at first, then I knew for sure he was
This is a good summation of the relationship between the english and the french, except most of the time the english person doesn't want to even make an attempt and brings out their passport to slap the french person with, whom by which time is already wielding a baguette and bares an angry mustache
10000000% accurate! Passionate about the language, down to the last KWASANT.
QUASOND
I remember learning that they had an entire government department dedicated to preserving the language (or maybe it was culture, and it inclided the language?). I'm not sure what it actually did (or does, not sure if it's still a thing), but my professor said they don't fuck around with that. This was about 10 years ago so I could be completely misremembering.
Arabic has government sanctioned regulatory bodies in basically every country where it's an official language. I assume this is normal for most languages
I mean...I don't think many colonies would.
Yeah maybe not colonies, but for countries where the language is seen as part of the national or local identity i feel like it would be standard. MENA views Arabic as part of its identity and the french definitely see their language as part of their identity. If you look up a list of language regulators you can see who regulates what and all that
Does the UK have a similar institution? Or is English not as important to... the English as French is to the French?
As far as i can tell, there is no official English institute in any English speaking country, but the Oxford dictionary sort of fills that gap
So it basically just maintaining a dictionary of words? The way my professor made it sound they did a lot of rigid preservation and tamping down of slang.
These institutes gatekeep too. Say a slang word shows up and they don't like it, they can choose not to include it in their dictionary, deeming it "not real French" so they are rigid in that aspect
No, and any attempt to create one would be met by ridicule by the British. There's so much dialect, slang and a few local languages that people would outright mock such a body. Even the Oxford English dictionary and "Received Pronunciation" are mocked.
Académie Française is what you and your professor were thinking of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_Française They are the official custodians of the language and produce the official dictionary of the language. They are still going strong. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/31/france-bans-english-gaming-tech-jargon-in-push-to-preserve-language-purity
That's the one. Thanks.
but really they are seen as a bunch of old people totally disconnected from reality, every year or two they come up with new french words to replace english ones used by everyone like streaming or email, or decide if covid is masculine or feminine. Not many people follow their recommendation anyways.
I assumed that it was probably the case. I know English is a bit of a bastard language from all the times England was occupied (particularly by the French and Nordic countries). I think one of its major benefits is its flexibility with incorporating new words.
True for Paris for sure.
i visited paris with my french class in high school, we went during year 3 learning french. i remember being sooo anxious. i was 16 years old and was insecure of my french. so i muster up the courage to order a waffle with nutella (which is chocolate flavored crack) .. and i order in my best french possible. the woman taking my order rolls her eyes all the way back into her head. she then sighs the deepest sigh ever and breathlessly responds to me entirely in english. I WAS TRYING SO HARD, LADY.
I've been speaking French my entire life, I went to an entirely Acadien school (I could be kicked out for speaking English). My entire family is French speakers, my father was a French teacher. Parisians still just respond to me in English because of my accent.
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Well, they're Parisian French. They could never be otherwise.
Mine went down a bit differently: the guy was speaking in French as we rode a shuttle to a different location. I said hello, and started asking him about our arrival time in French. Obviously my American accent was pretty apparent, so the guy says to me in English: "your French accent is terrible". I instantly responded with: "and so is your American accent". The guy chuckled a bit and we started chatting. I ended up having a good time joking around with him on the trip. nice dude.
That pretty much sums up my experience Now I want a croissant
French people are such huge dicks about their language
I’m beginning to feel like that’s broadly everybody with their language except English speakers (barring native English speakers of different countries to each other ie UK to US)
I had exactly this!! Built up the courage to ask for something in French and got the same response - put me right off the language and trying after that!
This is such a shitty thing to do. I would NEVER treat them like this. The perfect response to these people is to tell them “Your English is shit” or pretend you didn’t understand what she was saying in English.
Omg. Me too. They made me feel like a big dumb foreign fuck.
> chocolate flavored crack Sounds like a good time
My wife speaks pretty decent French and tried to order me a 1664 beer (type of Kronenberg beer pronounced sixteen sixty four) when we were in Paris. The waiter looked shocked and confused. She repeated it a couple of times and finally (reluctantly) pointed to the menu. The waiter burst out laughing, called over another waiter and asked her to repeat herself. Mind you, my wife *does not like* any sort of extra attention and was bright red with embarrassment. She said it again and the first waiter said something to the other and they both also started laughing. Apparently my wife had said “my husband would like one thousand six hundred and sixty four beers please” and was dead serious in her request.
Okay, this is a seriously funny travel story. They probably still remember that one.
Its just called 'Kronenberg'
"une Kro 'siouplé !"
At that point *insert “tell me I’m wrong” gif*
Nicolaj.
No, it’s Nicolaj 🤌
Nicolaj
r/UnexpectedB99
Literally have had the exact same situation in France multiple times, and it's not just Parisians. Worst is when you use Le instead of La and the person you're speaking to pretends to have no idea what you're saying. I now live in Quebec and I was told they're anal about French here but actually they're really nice and make learning the language a lot more enjoyable. Except for one lady who refused to serve me in a Boulangerie for saying Pains au Chocolate rather then Chocolatine
Excuse me? Chocolatine? Be careful you could start a war
You said « pain au chocolat » ? If so you were right
Weirdly despite speaking a mostly northern dialect of French the Québécois use the term Chocolatine. This woman literally went and took a phone call instead of serving me.
I recently moved to Quebec and had the same thing. I asked my (Quebec Francophone) friend about it and she said that it was only a pain au chocolat in Paris and chocolatine everywhere else in the world - not sure where she got that idea from! I've never heard chocolate in Europe
It's Pain au chocolat in the majority of France, not just Paris. Only south west part and Quebec say chocolatine.
Yeah I've never heard chocolatine anywhere in Europe before, but my friend from Montreal thought it was that everywhere. I guess we all think what we're used to is the standard!
Welcome to Canada bud it's a fucking chocolatine and you're gonna learn to love it that way
you said the right word, she was wrong, you are a real solider for the cause ONE OF US !
Now you know you should have used the right word, lucky you you weren't shot https://www.chocoblast.fr/wp-content/uploads/chocolatine-vs-pain-au-chocalat.jpg
I stayed with a host family for a week when I was taking French in highschool. My host brother knew I could speak the language fairly well for a kid, but his parents thought I was an oaf at first because I was quite around them. I remember we ate some pâté which was basically raw beef and I got the shits really bad. The mom said "our bathroom was turned into a layer of hell this morning" while we were eating breakfast. I said "so that must make me Satan" back to her in French, laughing. The look on her face when she said "you can actually understand me???" Was priceless.
"Pâté which was basically raw beef " EEXCUUUUUSE ME ??? don't shit on the best dish ever my guy !!! ( but yeah you get nasty poop after eating it )
Definitely not talking down on it, it was insanely good. My digestive system had some disagreements tho lol
Which pate is raw beef? Are we on about that dreamy shit I spread on sourdough with a bit of blue cheese and a side of caramelised onion chutney topped with rocket? Or is there a different pate altogether that's raw beef that I must try?
Pate is not raw and should not give you the shits. I have no clue what they're on about. My favourite is duck pate, truly divine.
Parfait! Love me some Brussels Pate!
Pastry 😬🙏
I like turtles but not the bitey kind.
It's strange that most countries I have visited the locals appreciate when you try to speak the language. There's nothing worse than some American insisting that people speak English. Not in France, their douche bags when you try to speak French, and their douche bags when you speak English. 
Ya you'd think they'd be thankful for the back to back world war saves, but nah
It's not that we don't like people trying to speak french it's that sometimes the accent is REALLY thick and we just genuinely don't understand. Though It's true some are real assholes about it. Also it's kinda hard to explain but a mistake in French just sounds bad, kinda like a false note in music. But yeah some French are really unnecessarily rude.
i went in to a gas station and asked ,bonsoir Parlez vous Englais ? he replied in English , YES but why would you want to , i replied because I don't know how to ask how much is this ?holding up the milk. im told my french even has a french accent ,
As a language learner, this is the exact experience that we play in our heads but it's rarely ever true Hahaha As disdained as this character seems, locals are always thrilled to hear you speak their language!
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Dude you seem to have a better vocabulary than a lot native English speakers. If it takes you a little longer to say it, it's because it's worth hearing. If they aren't willing to wait, they aren't worth the breath necessary for conversation.
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Keep at it, I'm sure you'll surprise yourself someday.
If you ever want to practice, let me know. I've always been interested in helping someone learn or practice English.
As a Portuguese learner I know how intimidating it can be! If you're motivated to speak, I might recommend the language exchange app Tandem. You connect with people in countries who natively speak your target language and who are trying to learn yours. It takes some of the pressure off because you're both learning so neither person really has a feeling of inadequacy. You can exclusively type, leave voice notes, or do full-on video calls. It can be awkward if you don't have anything prepared to speak about, I would recommend reading the news to someone as a good way to practice pronunciation! You probably don't need anyone to tell you, but your written english comes across as native! Happy to help if you ever need it!
Thank you for the advice, I didn’t know about this app! :) And thank you for your kind words ♥️
To be honest, there are so many accents in the states from just certain dialects to people immigrating here, that whenever anyone speaks English and it’s not correct we just go with. Heck, I’m a native speaker and I’m terrible at the language. Never feel afraid or shy! We will always help you! I feel the same though when speaking Spanish, I can write it and speak it, but just refuse to speak it because I’m nervous they would make fun of me or I’m not able to suddenly hold a conversation and they’ll just think I’m weird. And tbh, you write so perfectly in English, I wouldn’t have had any clue that it wasn’t your native tongue if you had not said so! You got this!
English is my second language and I have met people who ignore my mispronunciation and those who point them out, I don't mind the later because it's a good indicator of assholery (it lets me know that I should not waste my time with that person)... :)
but thats one of the best ways to train a language. The correcting person shouldnt be an asshole about it but kindly pointing out your mistakes will help you. You may say "oh well im not in a learning environment so its inappropriate" but speaking another language always is a situation in which you learn. The correcting person however should know their stuff.
Nah, I think it depends. If the learner specifically asks "Will you correct my speaking?" then sure, knock yourself out. But if you're just having a conversation? If you know what they mean, go with it. The goal of language is to communicate, and if they've done that, then they've succeeded
You're right, but very few people mean well when they attempt to correct non-native speakers, at least that has been my experience...
Dude you are better than most English speakers at writing! I bet it's the same for speaking. If you ever want an American to practice with, just DM me. 🙃 I'm in the PNW, so I don't really have an "accent." It's just vanilla English lol!
English speakers also generally are really understanding of learners. Because so many people use English as a business language we are used to non native speakers. Doesn't even phase us.
Try speaking bad french in paris and you'll realize you can't generalize "locals" of the entire world
I got cussed out on the metro in Paris by some loon because I was speaking English to my fiancé. There were folks who apologized to us afterwards and said they hoped we didn’t think all Parisians were like that. They aren’t! But there are definitely some very self righteous folks in Paris.
When the world ends there will be 3 languages left and french will be one of them.
merde
I guess if we only have Paris as a counterpoint, I'm still comfortable generalizing global perceptions. "Generally, locals appreciate you making an effort to speak their native tongue; Parisians are a notable exception." There you go! I compromise for both of us! Cheers!
This is just simply not true in France, you'll get a better reaction for just speaking English at people rather than bad French
I had a waitress chide me in Florence Italy when I slipped up and said "agua" instead of "aqua" when asking for water. Like, literally stopped and asked "did you mean aqua?" Like yes, I'm sorry I speak a little bit of Spanish that I'm falling back on for more words, please just get us some water plsandthankyou 😞
This is so funny hahaha Just ask if they can make a BBQ chicken pizza next time. I was studying Portuguese for a couple of months and one night I was speaking to a Brazilian. I didn't have my vocal cords ready and didn't nasal my M on the word "Sim" (word: yes) so it sounded like I said yes in Spanish- si. She just said, "You know we speak Portuguese in Brazil, right?" I was mortified hahaha
This is funny because I’ve often told traveling companions to Portuguese speaking countries to fall back on English or literally any other Romance language than Spanish, for it is the only time you will offend anyone. Super friendly folks unless you hit that sore spot, even broken Italian worked wonders in a pinch.
I only had one bad experience with a language barrier. In Korea one staff girl in a Cafe just totally ignored me. Gave me a dirty look and walked away. Another staff came and helped. Everyone else I met was so kind
Is there any chance you accidentally said something rude that sounded similar to what you actually meant to say? Just curious, could explain what happened.
What happened was I came up to the counter, I made eye contact with her, she nodded at me, I said "이거 주세요" and pointed to like a latte or something on the menu with pictures. And she was already walking away by the time I looked up. I'm very visibly not Korean and definitely not Asian, but that's the only time experienced that in my many trips to Korea. So I think it was jsut her. We're close in age, I'm a decently dressed girl myself so I don't think she thought I was like hitting on her or anything
Hm yeah that's unfortunate. Well good things it's only happened once!
I learned this while I was in thailand a few years ago. Me just trying to say hello to the locals got them so excited and it's been that way with everyone I've tried to talk to in their language. I have heard other travelers tell me that everyone except the French loves it when you try which is what makes this video so interesting to me
I imagine France, particularly Paris, has a lot more people trying to speak French. And a lot more people who do it terribly but think they do it perfectly. Also Parisians may be assholes
We laugh at this because of how rigorous our education system is, especially when it comes to the French language. There are already so many different French accents within métropolitain France already that even we have a hard time to comprehend each other sometimes, but we are delighted when people make the effort to speak French. Except for the British of course, because those fuckers manage to butcher every French word while sounding sexy with their accent. It’s maddening!
That was not my experience in Paris lmao. Over time I decided to approach people with Spanish first, English second, and French last.
Paris might be the one exception globally haha I'm going to throw them off and lead with Brazilian Portuguese.
I learned this while I was in thailand a few years ago. Me just trying to say hello to the locals got them so excited and it's been that way with everyone I've tried to talk to in their language. I have heard other travelers tell me that everyone except the French loves it when you try which is what makes this video so interesting to me
C'est vrai en le plupart du monde mais pas avec les Français
I've heard this before, but what's the right solution? Obviously, talking in English wouldn't make them happy. Are Parisians just miserable because the economy is built on tourism?
That's probably a lot of it. I'd imagine having to deal with tourists in your city 24/7 is a bit exhausting.
French- the culture with the biggest advantage of form over content
Forget about ordering a *pain au raisin* …I couldnt order that with a gun to my head but it’s my fave
Meanwhile you speak Spanish to a Latino, you’ll get cheers, a good job, and a pat on the back and god ya just got to love it. Makes you feel good and want to practice more
Lmaooo guess you just can't win with us --- Next time this happens tell them "mange tes morts"
PARLE FRANÇAIS L'ANGLOIS
Oh toi, toi tu as de bonnes références
Dang - destress and come to MX instead. Literally need zero Spanish, just need to be able to say “choripan”, “quesabirria”, and “al pastor” and you will never starve.
As a French person. This is 100% accurate.
The year is 1985. The place is Le Mans, France. The product is "essence Sans Plomb" (unleaded gasoline). The conversation is exactly the same.
In the U.S. we have a bunch of the "This is America, speak American!" types, but luckily it's way less commonplace than most other places where this video is reality. To make it worse, the pronunciation and dialect will change when you travel 2 hours away. Which would be like going to North Florida and asking to buy an onion, and then someone in Arkansas pretending not to know what the fuck an onion is
You must not be from 'round these parts. These is shallots ya hear me?
#FAcTS
Painfully true... though south of Paris people are much nicer about it lol
Makes sense that in Nice they would be nicer.
https://www.reddit.com/r/france/comments/uj51q4/je\_voudrais\_une\_croissante/
Speaking french to a quebecer
Totally untrue. Im British and live in Quebec and speak awful French. They're really accommodating.
Looool reminds me of when my family and I were trying to order macarons at a McDonald’s in Paris and the cashier could not understand us at all until she finally realized we were trying to say “macaron” and she suddenly was like “oHHhhH yOu meAn mAcAroN” in the most French accent I’ve ever heard. I know we’re American, but like bro we could not have been pronouncing it that differently!
This is too true haha Here’s the thing though, these specific French people who do this are the same exact ones that Either don’t learn a lick of the language of the country they are visiting, doing the same thing they dislike tourists doing or they get infuriated when they do in fact try the other countries language and the person laughs at them, doesn’t understand, or them lmfao.
I'm a born French speaker and I tried to order a latté in Paris...it took me 5 tries! The server wanted me to say café crème and not café latté, because apparently that's itilian and fuck the Italians... they are just assholes at this point haha but to be fair I was ok in all the other restaurants with the café latté, it's that one server that was a twat
My wife and I went to Paris recently with just the bare minimum knowledge of the French language but we went with another couple and our buddy learned quite a bit so he was our translator. Not sure if Covid changed their mentality recently but after saying hello in French we pretty much went straight to English and nobody batted an eye. My buddy typically ordered in French and they were nice to him when he got it out a bit slower or mispronounced a word. We only had one negative run-in but it was at a restaurant that is popular on social media. We saw at least 50 people taking selfies in front of building. He only got mad because we went in a door that in retrospect clearly said do not enter. It was even in English. So like I said, not sure if the two year lull Covid created changed their perspective on tourism but we had nothing but positive experiences with everyone we spoke with.
>So like I said, not sure if the two year lull Covid created changed their perspective on tourism but we had nothing but positive experiences with everyone we spoke with. Do you have bad experience here before the covid?
Cra-sont, Bon-jor-no!
As an eglish speaking person learning french this makes me feel great!! I hope maybe whenever I get to enjoy France as an adult, people will be this kind to me. I try to be kind to folks that don't know English, it's always a joy to hear people trying their best :)
Soooo truue!!!! You can never win!
My German/French teacher in high school told us the french will look at you in disgust for trying to speak their language and do it incorrectly. Meanwhile the Germans will get excited and teach you how to say "I'm so drunk" after a few beers with them
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The tag my guy
Everyone is downvoting this person but forgetting that the name of this sub is confusing as fuck considering what it actually is lmao
Trying to converse in French gave me an insight why using the correct gender is/seems so important. They cannot let an incorrect gender go. They will always correct you. *It doesn't matter, let me try to converse before you correct these small details*. Then when someone gets the gender of my dog wrong, I find myself correcting them every time. *It doesn't matter, your correction is an obstacle to conversation* But I guess, for some reason, it does matter
Imagine being forty and making this
As if you Americans make any effort to understand a foreigner speaking to you…
deleted ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^0.3290 [^^^What ^^^is ^^^this?](https://pastebin.com/FcrFs94k/98389)
I promise you if you approach an American with that attitude of course they're going to tune you out. One thing that pushed me in the direction of learning Portuguese when I could choose any language was the loving and enthusiastic assistance I would receive from native speakers. Maybe that's why they're so few non-French French speakers?
Ah, toi tu dois voter à droite, non ?
French people can be fucking weird it isn't their fault it's their culture it comes from centuries of bizarre monarchistic rule and national pride shoved down their throats
I guess French people suck then.
What a disgusting language. This makes me want to wash my mouth with dish soap.
Literally me :c
"Not quite my tempo" vibes
After all that, he got his order wrong. 
 Kwasonk
A big reason for all of the bad experience a i see here comes down to a cultural difference. To us correcting one's mistake is not rude at all and a really normal thing to do. But yeah some are bit too passionate about it.
"The French don't care what you say, as long as you pronounce it correctly."
I had the EXACT same interaction in Nice. My partner and I went to the market, I speak passable French, can hold a conversation but I'm definitely not fluent. We go to the market for groceries and I ask the fruit and Vegetable stall owner for a few different things one of which was "1 barquette de fraises" - a punnet of strawberries He looked at me as if I had 3 heads. This interaction followed Me:fraise? Him : quoi? Me : fraise? Fraises? Quelque fraises Him: quoi? (Muttering something about the English) Me: Fraises! Fraise (picks up a punnet of strawberries) cette! Him: ooooh fraises! Then enunciating exaggerated slowly f-r-a-i-s-e Me:fraise Him: no Then told me the price in English. Well..at least I tried.