France Baby

[CFHollister]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

True, and to be completely fair one should ask whether a French person visiting Finland (say) would be able to speak Finnish most of the time. English is very close to a global language, so a fairly high percentage of the world has it as a second tongue.

But at the same time, unless the trip is completely spur-of-the-moment (and not that many Americans are that wealthy -- *or crazy Alizée fans who'll drop everything on a month's notice to see Her Grace in person and get an autograph ), it seems to me that learning at least a little of the language, enough to get by on for asking directions and such, should be part of the planning.

*I wonder who you might be talking about there

But yeah, if you're planning a trip, learning a bit of the native language is just prudent and well as respectful.

[lefty12357]

If you do find yourself in a country on the spur of the moment where you don’t know the language, at least try to be a little humble, knowing that it’s your problem, not theirs. Sometimes I think people may act annoyed or impatient because of the fear and insecurity that goes along with being in the dark. Of course some people are just arrogant jerks.

I worked with a Russian woman who had lived in the US for 8 years and she could still barely get by with her English. She told me that she had no aptitude for learning languages and it was a struggle for her every day. She would leave work each day with a splitting headache because dealing with English (and our system of measurement) was such a struggle for her. I felt sorry for her and we all tried to help as much as possible. Both her son and husband spoke fluent English and had learned it when they were young back in Russia. She said that she imagined everyone thought she was stupid because she could only communicate at the level of a child, but I know she was very intelligent. The work we were doing was highly technical and she was good at it. She often felt isolated and left out.

From that experience I learned to be more understanding when encountering people that don’t speak English well, even if they have been in the US for a long time. Some people may not be trying, but some are just not good at learning languages and are doing the best they can. At least making the effort is what counts.

[ajaccio corsica]

hi
it's difficult to communicate with locals when you're abroad, of course you usually try to speak english but it's not sure ppl will understand you
in central and eastern europe russian is more useful because it was taught in schools
same in all ex soviet republics of asia
french is widely spoken in northern and central africa, same in ex indochina in asia (vietnam, laos,cambodia), lebanon and syria because they were french protectorates
ppl in iran speak farsi an old language linked to persan, but this language is also spoken in some areas of afghanistan and turkey
many japanese learn italian argueing it sounds like their own language
cheers

[c-dawg777]

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?

lol... Don't know how many times you've actually been to the US, but to me its not that I dont want to speak French. Hell, if I could go back in time and retake my foreign language class I would've chosen French instead of Spanish (no offense to any of you Spanish speaking freinds, merely stating that I dont use it as much as I thought I would). And, if anybody comes up to me and starts speaking in another language, anything at all, I make an effort to understand them to the point that I'll whip out some paper and start drawing pictures. More so I'd rather llisten to foreign tongues speak foreign languages than have them learn english just to come to America, especially if it is to be a beautifull female. Nothing sexier than a sexy language coming from a sexy lady, honestly why else was this site created? Think about that. Ok I'm done rambling for the evening.

[-MihaiL-]

it's not hard to learn french, in fact it is very captivating when you get into it, it's like opening another new world to your perception. As for english it is a universal language in the world and the world generally needed to use english more often than americans needed to use other languages than english.

[ajaccio corsica]

hi
it's interesting to learn the language if you've planned to live in the country, I import motorcycle parts from asia and I have to use english all the time
however I couldn't live in japan or thailand if I didn't speak the language
the biggest mistake is when you have to move to a country where there are two official languages, foreigners expect locals to speak two languages but it's generally wrong
see canada, most of the ppl who live in the english area only speak english and many french don't speak english
same in belgium, there are actually two separate areas with two different languages
the situation is different in corsica, everybody has to learn the language including foreign ppl
cheers

[Yaceman]

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?

Besides that the Atlantic Ocean is a several thousand mile gap as already mentioned, there are other reasons. English is a dominant language in ambassador relations, mainly because of the US and the UK. I think it has to do with the age we live in. Every era has countries that rise to power, can capitalism and spread their economy. Because the US has recently come to power in the last 200 years, we set a new standard, and therefore forced upon other counties our language. You could say the same thing for France around Napoleon's reign.
But every language and country has its highs and lows. China just pass the US as first in overall Emissions and their economy is booming. With the expansion they're undergoing, i wouldnt be suprised that schools in the US start converting its program to include Chinese every soon. Its just the way the world works. A country becomes head, and the other countries that want to parntership have to cooperate with their language.
A sad point to this is that it is also killing out many native languages. I remember a report on the news that something insane like 2 global languages a day are being extinct. Isolated tribes are being worked into a universal scheme. Its sad because with the loss of the language often is teh loss of tradition. Eventually the human race is gonna end up speaking a single universal language, and all other languages will be thrown in the books... essentially we're becoming machines.

[dreamer]

I think english will continue to be the dominant language. Just think of India, that's enough to keep mandarin down. And english is such an easy language to learn and it's so ingrained in business, diplomacy, science, the internet,...English will continue to be the lingua franca in this century.

[ajaccio corsica]

hi
india is not a good example, most of the ppl speak hindii (light green), tamul (grey/blue] and other local languages
actually, there are very few ppl who speak english
there are officialy 29 languages, about 122 spoken by less than 1 million ppl plus some europeans: portuguese, french in the south of the country
here's the map

the percentage of ppl who are able to speak or understand english is probably more important in france than in india
cheers

[Ricardo]

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.

And we Portuguese speakers are well-known for our hospitality... There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) English tourists in Portugal during the summer and not even one can speak a word in Portuguese? Do we find that offensive? No, because we're used to it, we must speak English and you guys seem to think that everybody speaks it (no offense please). But it still kinda annoys me because no one gives to the trouble of speaking Portuguese when we go to another country. It's sad but true... But yeah, latin languages are so much harder to learn than English...