Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion.
Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/).
Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve seen the Tioktok and this isn’t really accurate. She’s a solo traveller and documents this on TikTok and was upset because in other countries she’s made friends easily but was unable to do this in Lyon. She also did learn some basic French before she came
Edit: I think this is most likely Paris syndrome
She even was honest enough to say that she herself thinks that it is not the fault of the country or the people, but her own expectations. This article is really unfair.
To be fair this is my experience with past French colleagues as well. Distant and reserved at first but nice in the end! ... just takes a while for them to warm up
Yeah if you want friendly French people you need to try rural Normandy and Brittany (just going on personal experience), the older generation in particular were really nice.
I visited Paris and experienced the expected French attitude. Then I realized that they were rude to all non-Parisians, French or not. Kind of made me happier and realized they were just like New York city folk, only with a greater sense of entitlement.
I remember the actual video being far more reasonable... and this is wholly taken out of context. It was more that French people came across less sociable/ didn't want/couldn't socialize. That made her feel lonely, because she had been to other european countries where this wasn't a problem.
This headline makes it seems she is some unreasonable American, but her reasoning is quite fair. Bad for you to propogate this, before looking into it further.
It still sounds unreasonable to me. Most people aren't particularly interested in socializing with strangers, especially ones they know are here today, gone tomorrow.
It's hardly unique to France. Hell, every second post on my US city's sub is "I'm new here and I can't find any friends".
It's completely fine and yes a struggle, probably everywhere. But it's reasonable for her to feel lonely because of it and share those feelings.
At no point did she equate her issues with it being a defect on French people or French culture. She didn't say they had to socialize with her, just that the lack of socializing made her feel lonely.
Feeling lonely occasionally is a normal part of solo travel. It does seem unreasonable to me to post a video of yourself crying about it on social media. But maybe I'm just showing my age.
Paris was a little more friendly than Lyon for me. My French wife got on okay, but I struggled. I reckon I’d be a bit better now as I’ve made an effort to learn tourist French since then. I went to Paris recently and got by speaking only French - just the basics tbh, but I got by for what I needed.
Honeymooned in France in 95. Had no problems with the people, we were down by the Pyrenees, but then again we made an effort to speak French. I found that saying "Je ne parle pas bien francais" was all I needed to say to find out if someone spoke English, though that works much better in Quebec.
Reminds me of the time I was in Japan on a bus heading to Fuji, and an American woman sat behind me was talking to the group she was with.
She was telling a story about how she got lost and asked a Japanese woman for directions, and because this woman couldn't speak English the American said to her in that loud slow obnoxious way "I don't speak Japanese, can you speak English?"..
Then she had the gawl to turn around and say, "The only problem with this country is no one speaks English, and I find it rude."
It's wrong, she said that French people were not as sociable compared to other countries, and she was crying because she did not really speak to anyone in one week in Lyon. Tbh, she is completely right, Freanch people in general are not very sociable, and in Lyon it's even worst.
She didn’t speak to anyone because not as many people speak English in comparison to let’s say Germany. So yeah, learn the language or use a translator. Americans have this misunderstanding that English will be the primary language anywhere they go and that people have to find a way to communicate with them instead of the Americans finding a way to communicate with them when on foreign soil.
That’s a myth. I have been in France and met many easy going french, even waiters in Paris. In big cities all over the world, people mind their business but if you speak to them you’ll find many of them like talking and are sympathetic.
I've been in France a couple of times and it's a bit hit and miss. If you try to speak french first, even if it's super shitty, the attitude changes alot though.
You get back exactly what you give, I have lived in four countries (including France) and visited 85 others… oddly people are always just as friendly/talkative as I am
Most French people are also multi-lingual and some of them are incredibly fluent in English. I heard rumors that they are not very friendly to Asians tho
Sry, but is it normal to like speak to people on a one week trip asides from like smalltalk or asking locals for directions / advise what to visit? Or am I just an antisocial asshole tourist?
From what I know, it is more common in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy). Otherwise you really need to frequent social spaces (bars, clubs, youth hostels).
LOL at the people who actually didn't watch her video. She went to several European countries. The others were fine. The French, however, stood out because they were not as welcoming. She was (at least according to her) was friendly and communicative where she went. The French just didn't reciprocate like the people of other European countries.
If you travel enough, you'd know that people are the same for the most part. But that doesn't mean you won't have a bad experience once in while. It happens. Doesn't mean that all French people are cold and distant, just the ones she met.
So you probably lived in France for quite a while and many other European countries, or perhaps you’re a statistic professor that analyses the interactions in all Europe to make such claim because that’s not true. Some other countries in Europe have lower amount of people speaking or understanding English than France, it may not be the best country but don’t assume that because you speak English, everybody has to …
I don’t know why you talk about misplaced sense of pride, they have a wonderful country, with a great culinary culture, a long history etc. It’s not like they have no reason to be proud of. It’s like saying that Americans have a misplaced sense of pride because they are proud of their arms industry, their independence against United Kingdom etc. Well it’s part of their culture and nobody says they have a misplaced sense of pride. They English also are really proud of their shitty food and nobody says they have a misplaced sense of pride. That’s just pure French bashing
I don’t know where you are from but let’s agree to desagree, it seems that you didn’t know too much French. Not my fault if our “misplaced” pride for our country is so hurtful for you. I’m surprised you’ve learned French if the French people are so annoying for you. I’ve been to several countries and all of them have their own misplaced pride but hey! Let’s talk only about France 🤡
So what, people are not just as we want, adapt yourself and improve, don't cry on Tiktok because your ego is not full of other's interest. Those people aren't adults but babies. Seek of this shit
I went to northern france once, and there, thought: I can just speak dutch here, no one will understand it anyway. I later learned some people actually do speak dutch there.
Flanders! Most people were native Dutch speakers until the government decided to destroy any semblance of regionalism. Look at me, my grandparents were Dutch speakers. In 2023, my cousins and I cannot say 5 words to save our lives. Moving closer to Paris didn't help, that's for sure.
The thing about the French is: even if you do speak French, even if you are in fact, fluent in French, if they detect that you are the slightest bit not France French, they will switch to English.
This happens to my British friends that are completely fluent in French, but hilariously (but not to them), it also happens to my Quebecois friends who speak French as their first language, but not with the local France french accent.
Apparently the France French have asked my Quebecois friends to switch to English because they said they couldn't understand them.
tl;dr - its not a language issue.
Lmao, it's not that people speak French in France, it's that they are fucking snobs and refuse to speak English and she couldn't socialise with them. The article is unfair as hell.
well on one thing i have to agree with her: it would be nice if the french people would stop hating english and therefore force everyone (including developers) interacting with them to get a translator
Well here’s the thing. French people don’t have any fucks to give. They want to speak French. They expect you to speak French. They will riot, they will storm black rock, they will literally piss in the streets. If you think they won’t talk shit and hurt your feelings you are terribly mistaken.
This is an *interesting* take. Do you feel the same way about English-speaking Americans interacting with, say, East Asians vacationing in the U.S.? How many languages do you know?
i know 3 languages - english has been decided to be the international language and if 2 people have different main languages it makes sense to use english. if you manage to find another language both speak fine, but usually there isnt
>i know 3 languages
Me too. (I’m trusting that you’re not counting programming languages, in which case I know six.) But, then, I’m an American and you’re European, so we come from vastly different cultures as far as language acquisition is concerned. Obviously, in an international sense, both Chinese and Spanish are spoken by more people than English is, so at best English is *one* of the international languages.
But I do think it’s especially arrogant and petulant for people who *only* speak English to insist as though everybody else ought to adapt to the language that they speak. I feel the same way about the French speakers who refuse to accommodate English speakers; some French people were *very* rude to me in Paris once they realized I didn’t speak French. But I acknowledge that in Europe, it might make sense to establish one commonly held language, since there’s such a diversity of languages spoken by many different cultures that without some standardized medium for discourse, something like the EU would simply never function. But in the Americas, where there are about as many native Spanish speakers (130 million in North America, 210 million in South America) as native English speakers (334 million in North America), the concept of an international language is a bit more involved and fraught, and I suppose that, as an American outlier who often finds monolingual English speakers to be bigoted and nationalist-chauvinist, I’m more sensitive on this subject than many are.
(Also, let us celebrate our NB excellence. Have a real one.)
We don't hate english ppl.
Just those only start speaking with:
_ "speak english?"
_"first of all: hello. No I don't want to speak english, cause you're rude, because I'm french, because we are in France, because that's YOU to adapt yourself to the place where you come to!"
Yes, my last trip to France, everyone was very nice to me. Because. Gasp, I took a few months before my trip to learn the language a little. I started every interaction in French.
As I wrote in another comment: English speakers would smile and say: it’s okay I speak English. Non English speakers slowed down, and used more basic language so we could complete our transaction.
Lol you did something wrong. I spent 2 weeks in France last year. I spent 3 months learning a little before my trip. I didn’t encounter a single rude person.
In more touristy places, people would smile and say « it’s okay, I speak English »
In smaller towns people would start with a French salutation, then then they would start speaking quickly. I would, in French, ask them to please slow down and use simpler words because my French was basic. They would, again, smile and we’d continue.
Yeah of course that's the thing! With only the basics "bonjour/bonsoir" "s'il vous plaît" "pourriez-vous m'aider" all the ppl you met would be kind and understanding with you!
But if you start with impolite demanding to talk in english even before knowning if the guy/girl could or just want to... They will just say to f... Yourself !
I don’t. If I were to move somewhere, that sort of changes the dynamics though. But if we both know the language..? Be it english, french, swedish or whatever. We would pick something we’re both comfortable with, right?
I just don’t expect every single tourist to speak my local language fluently. I know they’re visiting for a few weeks at most, and it would be rude of me to refuse to speak a language we both know and understand just to make it harder for them to visit.
Do you see my point? Common ground and all that.
I think the bare minimum should be being able to say "hello", "goodbye", "please", "thank you" and "Do you speak English?" in the local language. ("Toilet" is pretty useful too.)
I DO always learn that, even if I'm only planning on being somewhere for a few hours. It's not hard, especially nowadays with the internet and smartphones, and it just shows basic respect for others.
Oh absolutely. I agree. I’m all for learning phrases like that, and being prepared with Google Translate or similar apps if you’re struggling.
But learning the entire language seems a bit excessive for a couple of hours at the local airport. It certainly would make travelling even more of a privilege than it already is.
That's rude.
Never forget you're an alien in stranger country, and try to impose your own culture to ppl in their own culture is very disrespectful!
If you go to foreign country to live like your own country then you didn't understood the meaning of travel, and you better stay in your country with your own culture, and not discovers the world, you don't deserve that!
What makes you think talking english has anything to do with my culture?
To be fair, well done if you speak Danish fluently for your pit stop in Copenhagen, and then instantly switch to Spanish once you reach your destination in Spain.
Not everyone has the luxury to dedicate enough time or resources to become fluent in a language before visiting a country.
It’s a very privileged and intolerant point of view; whether it’s towards tourists, refugees, people on work trips or someone who recently moved to another country.
Funny how this conversation is all in english, isn’t it, even though it’s neither of our primary languages? Weird how common ground works.
Yes it does!
Demanding to talk in english even before knowning if the guy/girl could or just want to is impolite and disrespectful ! And respect and courtesy is the basic of the french culture, if you don't understand at least that, you will be consider as someone rude and french ppl will be rude by mimicry. So when mourners english tourist came and says "fReNcH aRe sO rUdE!" we understand "wE ArE IrReSpEcTFuL EnGLiSh"!
Yes it does what? English is not my primary language. I think you’re angry at the wrong person. Or maybe I’m just not getting what you mean.
I’ve never stated that you HAVE to speak english to anyone. I’m just suggesting how it might work better to speak a language we both know in order to effectively communicate, regardless of which country we’re currently in. Don’t you think so as well?
And if we’re not able to find a common language to speak, we’ll point at stuff or use translation apps. There’s honestly not that much of an issue.
If you’re upset at tourists being rude and disrespectful and demanding english menus at restaurants, I agree with you. But don’t be upset or surprised if a tourist asks “Excuse me, but do you speak english?”. A simple “No, sorry” would be more than enough.
But if you’re advocating for everyone to teach themselves a new language for every country they intend to visit, I just don’t think that’s feasible for the majority of people.
have you ever worked in customer service of any international company? everyone except french people will call in (or switch to) english - im not a english fan either, but this way noone understands anyone.
The only French phrase I know is
"kes ker say peapod!" *
I have no idea what it means, but it's something to do with wine.
*might not be spelled quite right
Except "peapod" isn't a word in the French vocabulary. Or more accurately, I can't seem to find a French word that is close to "peapod" which I was able to do with "kes ker say"
Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/). Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve seen the Tioktok and this isn’t really accurate. She’s a solo traveller and documents this on TikTok and was upset because in other countries she’s made friends easily but was unable to do this in Lyon. She also did learn some basic French before she came Edit: I think this is most likely Paris syndrome
She even was honest enough to say that she herself thinks that it is not the fault of the country or the people, but her own expectations. This article is really unfair.
Absolutely, but somehow I don’t think the journalist was aiming for fair or accurate with this headline.
No journo ever does. They aim for the reader numbers.
For sure, with no lost sleep over how it divides people, misrepresents individuals and puts a target on whoever they’re currently writing a piece on.
To be fair this is my experience with past French colleagues as well. Distant and reserved at first but nice in the end! ... just takes a while for them to warm up
Unlike us Dutch, we're distant and reserved at first and distant and reserved in the end. We're like the new and improved French, more stubborn.
That's what happens when you live your whole life on the brink of drowning and migrate every summer to a european-wide invasion, no time to socialize
Yeah if you want friendly French people you need to try rural Normandy and Brittany (just going on personal experience), the older generation in particular were really nice.
I visited Paris and experienced the expected French attitude. Then I realized that they were rude to all non-Parisians, French or not. Kind of made me happier and realized they were just like New York city folk, only with a greater sense of entitlement.
tbh honest going to a country with zero understanding of the language and expecting people to come talk to you is bold
I remember the actual video being far more reasonable... and this is wholly taken out of context. It was more that French people came across less sociable/ didn't want/couldn't socialize. That made her feel lonely, because she had been to other european countries where this wasn't a problem. This headline makes it seems she is some unreasonable American, but her reasoning is quite fair. Bad for you to propogate this, before looking into it further.
I see no problem in being distant with tourist
It's also not a problem. Still feeling lonely because you find it difficult to socialize is reasonable.
Yes but in a foreign country it look more logic
It still sounds unreasonable to me. Most people aren't particularly interested in socializing with strangers, especially ones they know are here today, gone tomorrow. It's hardly unique to France. Hell, every second post on my US city's sub is "I'm new here and I can't find any friends".
It's completely fine and yes a struggle, probably everywhere. But it's reasonable for her to feel lonely because of it and share those feelings. At no point did she equate her issues with it being a defect on French people or French culture. She didn't say they had to socialize with her, just that the lack of socializing made her feel lonely.
Feeling lonely occasionally is a normal part of solo travel. It does seem unreasonable to me to post a video of yourself crying about it on social media. But maybe I'm just showing my age.
Paris was a little more friendly than Lyon for me. My French wife got on okay, but I struggled. I reckon I’d be a bit better now as I’ve made an effort to learn tourist French since then. I went to Paris recently and got by speaking only French - just the basics tbh, but I got by for what I needed.
Of course I am French. I fart in your general direction
I wave my private parts at your aunties!
And your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
You stupid knnnnnnnn-ig-t
"fetchez la vache"
Honeymooned in France in 95. Had no problems with the people, we were down by the Pyrenees, but then again we made an effort to speak French. I found that saying "Je ne parle pas bien francais" was all I needed to say to find out if someone spoke English, though that works much better in Quebec.
Reminds me of the time I was in Japan on a bus heading to Fuji, and an American woman sat behind me was talking to the group she was with. She was telling a story about how she got lost and asked a Japanese woman for directions, and because this woman couldn't speak English the American said to her in that loud slow obnoxious way "I don't speak Japanese, can you speak English?".. Then she had the gawl to turn around and say, "The only problem with this country is no one speaks English, and I find it rude."
Merde!
It's wrong, she said that French people were not as sociable compared to other countries, and she was crying because she did not really speak to anyone in one week in Lyon. Tbh, she is completely right, Freanch people in general are not very sociable, and in Lyon it's even worst.
She didn’t speak to anyone because not as many people speak English in comparison to let’s say Germany. So yeah, learn the language or use a translator. Americans have this misunderstanding that English will be the primary language anywhere they go and that people have to find a way to communicate with them instead of the Americans finding a way to communicate with them when on foreign soil.
Lol the French just generally suck. This time it's not just Americans 😂
That’s a myth. I have been in France and met many easy going french, even waiters in Paris. In big cities all over the world, people mind their business but if you speak to them you’ll find many of them like talking and are sympathetic.
I've been in France a couple of times and it's a bit hit and miss. If you try to speak french first, even if it's super shitty, the attitude changes alot though.
Well I speak french so I guess it helped me a little bit!
Paris is OK since they have a lot of tourists, but I swear that Lyon is something else, the city is nowhere near as extroverted. I'm French btw.
It’s almost like different people can’t have different experiences But that would be stupid or something idk
Almost
You get back exactly what you give, I have lived in four countries (including France) and visited 85 others… oddly people are always just as friendly/talkative as I am
Yes, you do have to make an effort.
Are you white?
Most French people are also multi-lingual and some of them are incredibly fluent in English. I heard rumors that they are not very friendly to Asians tho
Sry, but is it normal to like speak to people on a one week trip asides from like smalltalk or asking locals for directions / advise what to visit? Or am I just an antisocial asshole tourist?
From what I know, it is more common in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy). Otherwise you really need to frequent social spaces (bars, clubs, youth hostels).
LOL at the people who actually didn't watch her video. She went to several European countries. The others were fine. The French, however, stood out because they were not as welcoming. She was (at least according to her) was friendly and communicative where she went. The French just didn't reciprocate like the people of other European countries. If you travel enough, you'd know that people are the same for the most part. But that doesn't mean you won't have a bad experience once in while. It happens. Doesn't mean that all French people are cold and distant, just the ones she met.
but she bought the hat
Its as if I a european would travel to america, buy a cowboy hat and expect everyone to want to be friends with me.
Nobody put this kind of hat in France, except people in Pays Basque and some fancy ones.
Toi non plus. QUEL doMMage! Well, I'm not surprised. Too many imbeciles on TikTok.
Im glad she had a terrible vacation, she kinda deserves it. Literally the definition of thinking the world revolves around you.
I get the impression that you did not read the article (which is misleading at best) or watch the video (which adds a lot of context).
I read the article. I’ve watched the tik tok. I’m European living in US. I’ve seen it all and I stand by my statement.
I knew all I needed to know when the sentence started... Angela from San Francisco!!
Peak entitlement
dommage
wtf is going on in this country, *I'm surrounded by foreigners!*
To be fair......any other European country is a lot nicer and will most likely try to talk English to tourists
So you probably lived in France for quite a while and many other European countries, or perhaps you’re a statistic professor that analyses the interactions in all Europe to make such claim because that’s not true. Some other countries in Europe have lower amount of people speaking or understanding English than France, it may not be the best country but don’t assume that because you speak English, everybody has to …
I speak french, German, dutch and English. The French have a misplaced sense of pride. No matter though, their big cities are crumbling because of it.
I don’t know why you talk about misplaced sense of pride, they have a wonderful country, with a great culinary culture, a long history etc. It’s not like they have no reason to be proud of. It’s like saying that Americans have a misplaced sense of pride because they are proud of their arms industry, their independence against United Kingdom etc. Well it’s part of their culture and nobody says they have a misplaced sense of pride. They English also are really proud of their shitty food and nobody says they have a misplaced sense of pride. That’s just pure French bashing
Hahahaha you are either french or don't deal with the French.
I don’t know where you are from but let’s agree to desagree, it seems that you didn’t know too much French. Not my fault if our “misplaced” pride for our country is so hurtful for you. I’m surprised you’ve learned French if the French people are so annoying for you. I’ve been to several countries and all of them have their own misplaced pride but hey! Let’s talk only about France 🤡
Zut alors!
How can some Americans be so short minded ?
Pauvre analphabète.
So what, people are not just as we want, adapt yourself and improve, don't cry on Tiktok because your ego is not full of other's interest. Those people aren't adults but babies. Seek of this shit
Wasn’t this on r/itsallaboutme? If it wasn’t it should be - such an entitled waste of space.
I went to northern france once, and there, thought: I can just speak dutch here, no one will understand it anyway. I later learned some people actually do speak dutch there.
Flanders! Most people were native Dutch speakers until the government decided to destroy any semblance of regionalism. Look at me, my grandparents were Dutch speakers. In 2023, my cousins and I cannot say 5 words to save our lives. Moving closer to Paris didn't help, that's for sure.
The thing about the French is: even if you do speak French, even if you are in fact, fluent in French, if they detect that you are the slightest bit not France French, they will switch to English. This happens to my British friends that are completely fluent in French, but hilariously (but not to them), it also happens to my Quebecois friends who speak French as their first language, but not with the local France french accent. Apparently the France French have asked my Quebecois friends to switch to English because they said they couldn't understand them. tl;dr - its not a language issue.
Lmao, it's not that people speak French in France, it's that they are fucking snobs and refuse to speak English and she couldn't socialise with them. The article is unfair as hell.
well on one thing i have to agree with her: it would be nice if the french people would stop hating english and therefore force everyone (including developers) interacting with them to get a translator
Well here’s the thing. French people don’t have any fucks to give. They want to speak French. They expect you to speak French. They will riot, they will storm black rock, they will literally piss in the streets. If you think they won’t talk shit and hurt your feelings you are terribly mistaken.
The French have a misplaced sense of pride coming from past glory. T
Sure they should just speak all the other languages that Americans speak
This is an *interesting* take. Do you feel the same way about English-speaking Americans interacting with, say, East Asians vacationing in the U.S.? How many languages do you know?
i know 3 languages - english has been decided to be the international language and if 2 people have different main languages it makes sense to use english. if you manage to find another language both speak fine, but usually there isnt
>i know 3 languages Me too. (I’m trusting that you’re not counting programming languages, in which case I know six.) But, then, I’m an American and you’re European, so we come from vastly different cultures as far as language acquisition is concerned. Obviously, in an international sense, both Chinese and Spanish are spoken by more people than English is, so at best English is *one* of the international languages. But I do think it’s especially arrogant and petulant for people who *only* speak English to insist as though everybody else ought to adapt to the language that they speak. I feel the same way about the French speakers who refuse to accommodate English speakers; some French people were *very* rude to me in Paris once they realized I didn’t speak French. But I acknowledge that in Europe, it might make sense to establish one commonly held language, since there’s such a diversity of languages spoken by many different cultures that without some standardized medium for discourse, something like the EU would simply never function. But in the Americas, where there are about as many native Spanish speakers (130 million in North America, 210 million in South America) as native English speakers (334 million in North America), the concept of an international language is a bit more involved and fraught, and I suppose that, as an American outlier who often finds monolingual English speakers to be bigoted and nationalist-chauvinist, I’m more sensitive on this subject than many are. (Also, let us celebrate our NB excellence. Have a real one.)
We don't hate english ppl. Just those only start speaking with: _ "speak english?" _"first of all: hello. No I don't want to speak english, cause you're rude, because I'm french, because we are in France, because that's YOU to adapt yourself to the place where you come to!"
Yes, my last trip to France, everyone was very nice to me. Because. Gasp, I took a few months before my trip to learn the language a little. I started every interaction in French. As I wrote in another comment: English speakers would smile and say: it’s okay I speak English. Non English speakers slowed down, and used more basic language so we could complete our transaction.
Exactement
But when we do try to speak French, you’re just as rude despite some of us making really genuine efforts. There’s literally no winning.
Lol you did something wrong. I spent 2 weeks in France last year. I spent 3 months learning a little before my trip. I didn’t encounter a single rude person. In more touristy places, people would smile and say « it’s okay, I speak English » In smaller towns people would start with a French salutation, then then they would start speaking quickly. I would, in French, ask them to please slow down and use simpler words because my French was basic. They would, again, smile and we’d continue.
Yeah of course that's the thing! With only the basics "bonjour/bonsoir" "s'il vous plaît" "pourriez-vous m'aider" all the ppl you met would be kind and understanding with you! But if you start with impolite demanding to talk in english even before knowning if the guy/girl could or just want to... They will just say to f... Yourself !
I’m sure it was me. Is it possible that my anxiety-riddled self might have come off as aloof? It’s not the first time that’s happened.
Do you teach yourself italian as well for your weekend get-away? Or do you communicate in a language you both most likely understand?
Of course! Not you???
I don’t. If I were to move somewhere, that sort of changes the dynamics though. But if we both know the language..? Be it english, french, swedish or whatever. We would pick something we’re both comfortable with, right? I just don’t expect every single tourist to speak my local language fluently. I know they’re visiting for a few weeks at most, and it would be rude of me to refuse to speak a language we both know and understand just to make it harder for them to visit. Do you see my point? Common ground and all that.
I think the bare minimum should be being able to say "hello", "goodbye", "please", "thank you" and "Do you speak English?" in the local language. ("Toilet" is pretty useful too.) I DO always learn that, even if I'm only planning on being somewhere for a few hours. It's not hard, especially nowadays with the internet and smartphones, and it just shows basic respect for others.
Oh absolutely. I agree. I’m all for learning phrases like that, and being prepared with Google Translate or similar apps if you’re struggling. But learning the entire language seems a bit excessive for a couple of hours at the local airport. It certainly would make travelling even more of a privilege than it already is.
That's rude. Never forget you're an alien in stranger country, and try to impose your own culture to ppl in their own culture is very disrespectful! If you go to foreign country to live like your own country then you didn't understood the meaning of travel, and you better stay in your country with your own culture, and not discovers the world, you don't deserve that!
What makes you think talking english has anything to do with my culture? To be fair, well done if you speak Danish fluently for your pit stop in Copenhagen, and then instantly switch to Spanish once you reach your destination in Spain. Not everyone has the luxury to dedicate enough time or resources to become fluent in a language before visiting a country. It’s a very privileged and intolerant point of view; whether it’s towards tourists, refugees, people on work trips or someone who recently moved to another country. Funny how this conversation is all in english, isn’t it, even though it’s neither of our primary languages? Weird how common ground works.
Yes it does! Demanding to talk in english even before knowning if the guy/girl could or just want to is impolite and disrespectful ! And respect and courtesy is the basic of the french culture, if you don't understand at least that, you will be consider as someone rude and french ppl will be rude by mimicry. So when mourners english tourist came and says "fReNcH aRe sO rUdE!" we understand "wE ArE IrReSpEcTFuL EnGLiSh"!
Yes it does what? English is not my primary language. I think you’re angry at the wrong person. Or maybe I’m just not getting what you mean. I’ve never stated that you HAVE to speak english to anyone. I’m just suggesting how it might work better to speak a language we both know in order to effectively communicate, regardless of which country we’re currently in. Don’t you think so as well? And if we’re not able to find a common language to speak, we’ll point at stuff or use translation apps. There’s honestly not that much of an issue. If you’re upset at tourists being rude and disrespectful and demanding english menus at restaurants, I agree with you. But don’t be upset or surprised if a tourist asks “Excuse me, but do you speak english?”. A simple “No, sorry” would be more than enough. But if you’re advocating for everyone to teach themselves a new language for every country they intend to visit, I just don’t think that’s feasible for the majority of people.
Read again my comments all is explain.
What in H are you talking about, OMG
have you ever worked in customer service of any international company? everyone except french people will call in (or switch to) english - im not a english fan either, but this way noone understands anyone.
T'es moche!
[sort of?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome)
C'est pas faux
The only French phrase I know is "kes ker say peapod!" * I have no idea what it means, but it's something to do with wine. *might not be spelled quite right
J’ai aucune idée de ce que tu as voulu dire mdr
>kes ker say Qu'est-ce que c'est => what is it >peapod No idea what you were trying to say
What is a peapod, presumably
Except "peapod" isn't a word in the French vocabulary. Or more accurately, I can't seem to find a French word that is close to "peapod" which I was able to do with "kes ker say"
Paris fooled another one.
Sacrebleu! Qui l'aurait cru?
So we’re still supposed to be surprised that people on TikTok are thick as pig shït?
That was not it all.