France Baby

[Sir Wood]

Well, of the countries I've visited I try to learn some basic phrases before hand and I find that most people are more appreciative of your attempts than no attempt at all.

[fsquared]

Originally Posted by GianGian

I think that the visitors are the one who should get courtesies. If someone goes to your house to have dinner do you make them cook their food?
I think that there is no good reason for receiving somebody rudely. I have nothing against french people, but this is the only country that I have heard about that people do this.
France is a developed nation, I imagine that most people there speak english to the degree of being able to help a tourist.

I've had very limited experience with this (basically one attempt to cross from Gare du Nord train station to Charles de Gaulle airport) so I can't say much personally, but I will speculate as follows: for hundreds of years, French was the universal language of diplomacy and etc. (there's a reason for the term "lingua franca" referring to a common language). It's presumably a point of cultural pride. There's probably a bit of collective cultural pushback at the notion that people tend to treat English as the "lingua franca" these days now, and I'm surmising that it's a point of pride for French people to want French as a language to be treated with a measure of respect by visitors to France (i.e., visitors not traipsing around expecting everyone to speak English).

[Yaceman]

Thats a good point fs, i also would point out that most of the US population is similar to the French. Imagine you live in a busy city, which is a very heavy tourist destination. Not only do most of the tourist not speak your countries language, the expect you to know theirs. You might have to spend your time trying to talk to people, when you have stuff to do work to be done. The additude that is felt be foreigners is universal in all countries. I mean, if you met someone that tried talking to you in a different language, they knew your native language but didnt even get it a shove? You project yourself as very stuck up and one minded by not taking time to learn a little of the native language. With the internet is all over the globe, a 5 dollar pocket dictionary, taking a foriegn language class. These all help when traveling, especially when you've planned the trip way ahead of time. To not learn a little of the language is very arrogent, which is why i really dont want to visit France until i take Français in college (then i want to move there :P).
kbye!

Ren sounds awsome, bring me back some port. Ive always wanted some French vin.

[c-dawg777]

Originally Posted by GianGian

I heard that people are not nice if you don't speak french

Really?... I heard that people arent nice unless they WANT to be nice.

Originally Posted by Renegade

Everyone here is so kind and friendly unlike some people in the states.

You do know the states are made of people from all over the world to begin with, unless you happen to be native American which in any case I would be a little pissy too given the history of things, but thankfull that I'm still allowed to live here after i was conquered.
Anywho, have a good time, though not too good of one unless you remember your latex hats. And watch for the hairy armpits! Eeewwww...

[French Fan]

Originally Posted by puffyrock2

I don't speak french at all, so my biggest fear is being treated rudely. A friend of my aunt's visited Paris a while ago and said she was appalled by how she was treated since she spoke only english. Hopefully this isn't usually the case.

Someone could tell me why when we (french people) visit the US we speak english and when american come in France they don't want to speak french?
Maybe they think that their language is the world's language maybe (and that is true) so they don't need to do effort... American maybe are lazy about learning a new language what do you think about that YOU AMERICAN ?


You see I make an effort in english to talk to you because I respect you but I could speak like that too => Dites-moi les américains pourquoi vous ne voulez pas vous fatiguer à apprendre une langue étrangère? Vous êtes trop paresseux pour ça ou est-ce parce que vous considérez pas cela nécessaire vu que l'anglais est la langue universelle?

[ajaccio corsica]

hi
french from paris are not famous for being specially nice with tourists, it's curious because there are about 27 millions foreign visitors /year, it's probably the most visited city in the world
many ppl speak english there, at least they're able to understand the language
ppl from south of france are generally more friendly
cheers

[Sir Wood]

Originally Posted by French Fan

Someone could tell me why when we (french people) visit the US we speak english and when american come in France they don't want to speak french?
Maybe they think that their language is the world's language maybe (and that is true) so they don't need to do effort... American maybe are lazy about learning a new language what do you think about that YOU AMERICAN ?


You see I make an effort in english to talk to you because I respect you but I could speak like that too => Dites-moi les américains pourquoi vous ne voulez pas vous fatiguer à apprendre une langue étrangère? Vous êtes trop paresseux pour ça ou est-ce parce que vous considérez pas cela nécessaire vu que l'anglais est la langue universelle?

Bonjour French Fan, parce que c'est le langue standard du monde. (Okay, so I used Babel Fish to help me get the spelling correct on a couple of words. That's the problem with trying to learn from an audio CD. ) How else can you explain the number of individual countries represented on an english speaking site dedicated to a French singer?

Anyway, your question has been discussed before under the topic "Simple Question." IMO, the big pond between our two continents has made the US population less prone to be multi-lingo. It's not like our borders are surrounded by various speaking language countries. French and Spanish is widely offered as an elective (optional) courses in our schools. Given the choice and being that to our south are Spanish speaking countries and few speaking French in Canada, people might look more towards Spanish if anything. Even then most people do not travel outside the country, and if they do it would be a once in a life time matter, therefore they believe they do not have a need to learn another language fluently. So, to simplify the answer, it's mostly a matter of geography.

[Youpidou1]

Oh you should also go see the Mona Lisa painting.

[Renegade]

Originally Posted by French Fan

Someone could tell me why when we (french people) visit the US we speak english and when american come in France they don't want to speak french?
Maybe they think that their language is the world's language maybe (and that is true) so they don't need to do effort... American maybe are lazy about learning a new language what do you think about that YOU AMERICAN ?


You see I make an effort in english to talk to you because I respect you but I could speak like that too => Dites-moi les américains pourquoi vous ne voulez pas vous fatiguer à apprendre une langue étrangère? Vous êtes trop paresseux pour ça ou est-ce parce que vous considérez pas cela nécessaire vu que l'anglais est la langue universelle?

Il n'est pas difficile d'apprendre une langue seconde. Il peut prendre un certain temps, mais il suffit de vous mettre un peu d'effort pour lui et je dirais dans un bon 3 ans, vous serez en mesure de parler la langue.

Seriously all you need is a little effort.
Peace Out

[ajaccio corsica]

hi
many americans speak french, the do know it's important to learn foreign languages
most of the californians I know speak french spanish or both
cheers