i haven't had much experience with French people, the only French person I've ever met was actually a pretty kind person. I'm aware this story very, very likely fabricated
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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My experience being stationed in Germany with the US military, about 30 mins from the French border:
A coworker of mine complained about his visit to Paris because every single French person he tried to speak to either ignored him, turned their nose up at him, or was just rude to him. He only spoke English and they all seemed offended when he tried to get their attention in English.
My wife and I took several years of French in high school, and whereas neither of us could hold a proper conversation, we knew enough to ask directions, order from a menu, or request help.
Every time we started off a conversation in French, the French people would immediately switch to English and help us out. They were very kind to us.
We learned that if you make an effort to speak their language, most French people are very helpful. But if you just assume they'll speak English, they're likely to be offended and won't help you out.
One time in Berlin, my wife tried to speak German to a guy at a tourist shop and he immediately switched into French. Apparently, my wife has a heavy French accent to her German. She was able to finish the conversation in French.
Kindness is not how I would describe my experience in Paris.
I went to Paris once, but ze waiter ignored my attempts at speaking French when I tried ordering something to drink. And when he deemed me worthy of a little bit of his attention, he insulted me (the French friend I was with was appalled by what the waiter said about me). We left without getting anything to drink there. Instead opted for a bottle of water from a supermarket.
They say we Dutch are rude, but we pale in comparison to French waiters.
You're not the first person I've heard this from. It seems to be a pretty universal experience, particularly in Paris.
Personally, as someone who took French in school, when I went to France I wanted the opportunity to practise it. And I found the French to be very friendly with it.
My wife's biggest frustration in France was that she wanted to practice her French, but everyone picked up on her American accent and immediately switched to English. She rarely got more than a sentence out.
We Germans are worse, we also see it as an opportunity to practice our English on a native speaker.
I had the same experience in Italy. Since they hear an accent they want to help out by switching to your language. This doesn't help if you want to experience.
Honestly, I make an effort to learn some basic phrases in the language of any country I visit, in no small part to simply not get put in the same category as those who don't bother.
That and some of the more fun holiday memories I've got over the years started by me fumbling through the local language—as you say, most people are magnitudes more friendly if you don't give the impression you think everyone should speak your language
I don't get why people care about that, i mean sure if a foreign visitor shows up speaking actually good swedish i'd be pretty impressed but otherwise it kinda just feels a bit pretentious and cringy.
It's not like speaking english means you're from an english-speaking country, and assuming that feels really anglocentric, ironically.
The only exception I’ve heard to this is that supposedly Parisians are dickish. But that’s only two people who had that experience ¯_(ツ)_/¯