Bonjour Diane, je fais partie des personnes qui vont toujours chercher une occasion de pratiquer l'anglais et je n'avais pas réalisé que ça pouvait être ennuyeux pour les étrangers qui souhaitent pratiquer le français. Merci pour ce partage. Je me souviens d'avoir travaillé avec un Anglais dans une centrale d'appel en France, et nous étions 3 collègues à avoir un bon niveau d'anglais et à être sollicité pour traiter les appels en anglais. Donc nous aimions discuter en anglais avec ce collègue anglophone et je me souviens particulièrement d'une conversation où chacun passait du français à l'anglais et inversement. C'était plutôt cool car nous avions des niveaux équivalents dans la langue de l'autre et la bascule se faisait naturellement entre les deux langages. J'ai toujours un ami français avec qui nous discutons parfois en anglais juste pour le plaisir. Ce n'est pas si facile de trouver dans la vie de tous les jours des interlocuteurs qui ont un niveau d'anglais suffisant et qui osent l'utiliser sans que ce soit une question de vie ou de mort... Lol
You provide very believable reasons that people switch and very good advice. On my last trip to France, people switched to English on me twice, both times in Brittany not in Paris. My French level is B2, and according to my French friends, my accent is very good, so I was surprised. I had many dozens of interactions and conversations completely in French during that trip. I think in both cases that they were either trying to practice their English or show off a bit. In the first case, I said "Je préfère parler en français, s'il vous plaît" and he switched back. In the second case, I just continued in French and she continued in English, and we had a five minute conversation in 2 languages. It was clear by her responses that she understood me perfectly well. If you want to play the game that you don't understand English and they ask where you're from, say Albania. Nobody speaks Albanian! A new podcast that I like a lot is "Parler comme jamais" from Binge audio. It's a podcast about linguistics presented in a very interesting way.
Wikipedia tells us that Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and the Albanian diaspora in the Americas, Europe and Oceania with about 7.5 million speakers. So we MIGHT be caught out with the "I'm Albanian" line. And I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that those 7.5 million people are "nobodies!" 😊
@@nancylindsay4255 Of course I meant no disrespect to Albanians. In fact, my wife is part Albanian. What I meant is that extremely few people who are not Albanians speak the language. And 7.5 million is a tiny percentage of the European population. If you choose any other European language you are thousands of times more likely to be caught out. The gamble would work even better if I said I was from the Republic of Nauru, but since I'm a white man, nobody would believe me.
@@thedavidguy01 Salut, David. No worries, I did understand you perfectly, thus the smiley face. I enjoyed your anecdote--the conversation in two languages. Best of both!
I got engage to my wife and we chose Paris as our honeymoon destination. I spent a year preparing/learning the French language. I wasn’t going to be “that “ person who didn’t show respect for the people of Paris by not knowing something of their traditions and language. I knew my French was mediocre at best but was determined to employ it at every turn. I said, bonjour to the French customs person and he didn’t hesitate to speak in English, LOL. Everyone else though, we’re happy that I made the effort and was willing to let me go on in French until they couldn’t deal with it. I had a sort of script for ordering food at it never failed me! Your insights was my( my wife too) experience. 7yrs later I’m still practicing French,it’s slightly better than mediocre,love the language and for our 10th anniversary we’re going back to France, outside of Paris, like the Loire valley, this time. I’m studying so that my language is more polished! I very much appreciate your insights! TY
3:30 From my french native point of view, switching to english is a way to say : "Hey do you see that ? Your language is so famous even people living at the other side of the world learned it." I'm always grateful when I see people choosing France over any other country in the world. Talking your language is a way to make you feel at home and show you we also have some interest in your culture. Ofc, there might be different motivation among different people, but I swear I always did it because I was trying to be nice.
That’s a really lovely point of view. I would’ve assumed you thought I was an idiot. I’ll keep that in mind when I visit. Maybe someone will switch to English because they DO think I’m an idiot, but I’ll tell myself it’s because they want me to feel at home. 😅
Bonjour Diane, I'm from the Netherlands. At school I got Dutch as native language, some French, good English and technical German. Almost every year we go to France for a couple of weeks for the summer vacation. We do this since 1973 :-) In those days French teenagers of my age didn't speak any English, except one pretty girl from Paris that was able to have a conversation in English. So most years I needed to use French in converstions with French people all over the country. I never had any trouble with French people. Bonjour is the magic word, as you know. A lot of people that visited France told me the French were "unpleasant" because they only understood French. Even today all my friends, family and neighbours are convinced French people only want to speak French. Next to that we have the Wallon people of Southern Belgium who plainly refuse to speak something else as French. The last 10 years or so every vacation there are a few people that hear the conversation in Dutch with my wife and ask if I'm Dutch. The next question is ... may I speak English with you? It varies from people in supermarkets, local markets and people on a beach etc. When I tell my friends I should stop French people talking English to me... they will laugh themselfs to death. :-) Impossible .. French people don't speak English! When I'm in need of freshing up my French, I ask the people of the receptiondesks in French language to speak French with me for that reason. I never had any real problem. I'm on vacation, I like to help people and it gives lots of pleasent meetings and converstions. Even people of my age in the Alsace wanted to speak German with me.. and that gave me a great adventure of some days in some fortresses of the Maginot Line :-) we had the same hobby. I'm happy French people now connect to the rest of the EU and the rest of the world people and use English where Esperanto was made for... our general communication language. So I'm certainly not going to stop them. :-)
You are right, but there is many french who to not like the ' english privilege attitude' . You should definitely not go upfront speak english to them , but ask if they do speak english . But first a Bonjour , the basic of french étiquette. Yes in France to be polite is to show respect and not to be overly familiar and friendly .
I really didn't like the "Next to that we have the Wallon people of Southern Belgium who plainly refuse to speak something else as French", that's basically the same assumption your friends/neighbors are making with the French. I'd agree that most Walloons don't speak Dutch (kids can choose Dutch, English or German as a 2nd language at school, so Dutch often comes last), but there's a gap between people not being able to speak Dutch and people refusing to speak something other than French...
Interesting ! I can’t speak for walloons, but in France there has been a major shift in mindset towards English. Europe of course helped a lot ! The possibility to cross various countries with you car amped up the direct interest towards speaking a « common » language (before then, only frontier dwellers made the efforts to learn their neighbor’s tongue). There’s also Internet to factor in as to why new generations of French now learn English. Wether to pilfer series on internet before they’ve been dubbed or simply to use softwares or to play videogames, there’s now an incentive for young Frenchies to better their grasp on English. And these kids quickly realize that English is easy ! Fewer tenses, a lot of vocabulary in common with Latin based languages, a neutral gender for things, etc. Sure, prononciation is still slippery, as it takes some efforts to reposition the whole tongue-throat-lips positions to get the sounds right ; but in general English makes a much easier common language than any other contender in Europe. Add the easy access with internet, incentives of entertainment, games and travel, and you’ve got the perfect bundle to get whole generations into speaking English !
@@joenroute9646 you can go ahead and speak English right off the bat as long as you get the « bonjour » followed by a « i’m sorry, do you speak English per chance » ; or something close.
@@LennyBarre Well, you’re somewhat right from what i’ve observed in Brussels. It seems it has a lot to do with the uneasy co-existence of the Belgian state Languages. Walloon i heard were complaining people from Flanders were haughty and regarded them negatively as somewhat lazy but arrogants and saw themselves as superior, so Walloons appear rather on the defensive towards Flemish. But i’ve noted Walloons had 0 issues speaking Germans or English with foreigners.
As a former worker in a big touristic shop in Brussels where 60% of customers were foreigners and tourists, I can tell you that it was much easier to speak english all the time :p You're right that employees and shop owners don't really have the time to try to understand a broken french. It's also really rude to ask someone to repeat over and over again because you don't understand what he/she want. And also, a lot of employees are hired BECAUSE they can speak english :p So it's their job to switch to english if the client struggle with french. In my previous job, it would have been problematic for me to let customers struggle to speak french because I was supposed to switch to english to help them (and I had others colleagues who were speaken italian, spanish and chinese that I could call if it was better for the customer. ) French is also a difficult language to spoke and to be understood because of all the words that kinda look the same but not really. I saw a lot of situations where a tourist would insist on prononcing a french word and would not be understood because their prononciation was incorrect. If you ask something in a bakery and the employee give you something else because he/she didn't understood you, it would be the employee's fault...so it's quicker and easier to speak english :p But we really appreciate that people try to speak french or just start with "bonjour" ;)
I think the point about getting out of the main cities can extend even to the less touristy parts of the cities (which speaks to what you said about context). For example even in Paris, I lived in the 12th for six months toward the edge of the city, and when my mom and sister came to visit, the shopkeepers seemed happy to let them practice even though they were stumbling through it and making mistakes, and even enjoyed the interaction. They just don't get that many tourists in that part of the city so they aren't annoyed by them and aren't trying to get them through their transaction as quickly as possible. Funny story though....I was having dinner with an American friend in my neighborhood, and both of us speak pretty good French. We communicated with the waiter in French for the entire interaction....until my friend asked to wrap up the rest of her steak and take it home. The waiter immediately switched to (broken) English. 😅
We have visited France from the UK many times but only in the last two years have we tried learning more than basic school French. The last time we visited we stayed in a few B&Bs and only one could, and needed to, speak English. That particular owner was great to talk to, in both English and French. He helped us and we helped him. It was a win-win. We also went to a restaurant where the owner spoke great English but helped us try our French. However, a rude English couple came in and would not try the basic bonjour or merci. For them the owner would not speak English and they struggled to get what they wanted. He came and shared the joke with us when that couple left. Even when the French can speak perfect English, the more French you try the more they like it and will help if they can.
Je réalise que les temps changent, au vu de la vidéo de Diane. En effet j'ai vécu les années où, habitant Paris, nous étions un peu culpabilisés (ou je l'ai ressenti ainsi) de ne pas nous exprimer en anglais, à une époque où l'envie de pratiquer le français était peut-être moins évidente de la part de nos amis anglophones qui venaient visiter notre pays. Il semblerait donc que le désir de parler français semble plus net aujourd'hui ? À partir de maintenant je répondrai en français à un anglophone parlant français (et c'est pourquoi je ne traduis pas en anglais mon message !). Bravo à vous amis américains ou anglophones de vous lancer courageusement dans l'apprentissage d'une langue étrangère alors que la prédominance de l'anglais ne vous y incite pas. C'est très louable !
There is a paradox in scolding us for trying to speak english and shaming the french for being the worst english speakers in Europe (after the russian) When I switched to english in Paris, I trully assumed that my english was better that their french and they wouldn't be able to keep up with a normal french conversation. And I still believe it. Some of them told me "in french, please" so I carried on in french. That didn't offend me. I assumed they wanted to train their french-speaking skills. I'm pretty sure to this day that they understood me very partially, thou
I disagree with you on the 2nd point. I speak french almost fluently and they switch to English immediately. The reason I say almost is because I did all my schooling in French and even got the French baccalauréat but when I moved to the US , I lost my French a bit but have maintained it with some French meet up. I am from the Dominican Republic and they say that I speak french with an "american" accent. Usually what I do is keep the conversation in French even if they talk in English and after 5 min they switch back.
Maybe I simple. But if you speak french to me, I LL answer french. If you talk eng to me, I would go with eng.. but yes, I can improve my English by watching vost movies etc.. but it s not every day I can speak eng with a native eng speaker . Nothing related to ego or skills.. 🙂
My spoken French is way better than my written. Have had this type of conversation so many times, me in French the French person in English. I just carry on regardless. The elderly lady I'm a homehelp for has been a godsend for me as she's helped me so much with my grammar and pronounciation as she speaks some English (she said when she was younger she was fluent English but has forgotten a lot, well she is nearly 90!). We have a fantastic relationship and talk about all sorts of things.
I also found with the journey into a new language . Is you can have dollar opposite experiences on the same day.. One person will complement you on your ability and then in the same evening someone will send your confidence crashing down to rock bottom. Sometimes it can just be the misprencetion of one word. I've often found it's people who are trained to be personable like hotel receptionists and similar professionals who will bare out bad accents and probably have developed a ear for bad renditions of their native langue. Where as some old bar man with a heavy work load and insular life experiences might not have the ear or the patience. It's funny how it all works and then one day after a long period of humiliation failures and going back to the drawing board. You just open your mouth and a whole day goes by without anyone switching to your native language or looking through you blankly . The you leave the country and go back to your native one and wonder if all the headway you made will still be there, should you visit the country again and want to pick up where you left off.
When I was in university I moved to Ottawa/Hull area. I lived on the Hull side of the river so it was French because it was on the Quebec side of the border. I’m Acadian French. Every week I stopped at the same gas station. The attendant always answered my request for gas in French with his very broken English. I would always answer any question he asked me in French. A few months in, I asked why he would speak to me in English when I always spoke in French. He said “ because you are English. “ I said no, I’m Acadian. He thought because my accent was different than his, it meant I must be English. I said oh no. Je suis française. After that he spoke French to me each time and nicely referred to me as L’acadienne. He was just trying to be nice but he really appreciated my French after that.
You are right the Acadian accent may sound ' english ' for many french speaking people . Anglo- American to be exact , the way you open the mouth wide open with a very particular American rythmn. Where as std french will favour softness and flow .
Have you seen the movie Girl on a Bicycle? It's a cute movie and this is a theme for one of the characters and he is presumably fluent. I studied French for three weeks in Montpellier and almost no one tried to speak English with me. Of course if I had a medical issue, English would be welcome. Smaller towns are the way to go for practicing.
As a visitor to France many times, I see this a lot. In the big cities they go to English most of the time. In the country side my bad French works out.
Studied Russian in college. Messing about with German now. The romance languages? Beyond my abilities. Too bad English penetrance is low out in the boonies. Will just have to wing it when we visit. Excellent videos!
The Parisians also switch to English when French Canadians speak to them. And we actually have the same mother tongue. This happened to several people I know. Edit: Your trick of being rude back to them is appropriate in the situation above.
Maybe they dont like the dialect of Quebec french speakers 😂 I remember trying to speak english in quebec when I was a kid and almost noone speaks english in quebec. Cant be mad at them it's there first language!!
@@joshua6207 So? Quebecers don't necessarily like the dialect of French spoken in France and still continue speaking French to them? It's not like it's impossible to understand, it's just that some French people are a bit snobby. Also, yes, French is the main language in Quebec so it would be wrong to assume everyone just speaks English (especially outside Montreal), just like it would be wrong to assume everyone in France speaks English.
@@sophiepellerin5517 I know it's like someone from New York speaking to someone from texas. It's the same just sounds different. Some people get mad they dont speak english in quebec but you cant because french is there language.
@@sophiepellerin5517 il peut parfois être difficile de comprendre nos cousins Québécois, même si c'est rare. L'accent peut être si marqué, qu'il m'est arrivé à plusieurs reprises d'hésiter, voire de ne carrément rien comprendre. Ajoutez à cela les expressions bizarres et les archaïsmes. C'est comme les Cajuns, pas toujours faciles à comprendre.
Just tell them you are not an english speaker in french especially if u are asian wants to practise french with native speaker. Tell them you can only speak ur own mother tongue and just learnt french.. definitely they will have no choice but to speak to u in french unwillingly.😅
Oui, vous avez tout à fait raison ! Je suis allé à Paris en 2017 avec ma femme et mon beau-fils, juste pendant un week-end pour profiter de la ville. Mais pour ma part, j’ai voulu practiquer mon français, mais malheusement, tout le monde voulait pratiquer son anglais ! En tout cas, jai vraiment apprécié mon séjour à Paris. :)
As a French Acadian from Louisiana, our French is not the modern French of today in France. It’s a bit like going to England and speaking Chaucer’s English. My parents lived in France for several years and managed to speak to everyone despite their “cute” accent.
Wow! I've been told there were very little French Acadians (do you refer to yourself as Cajuns or it's something else) left in Louisiana. Do you still live there? If you have kids, do they speak French? Tell me more!
@@anne12876 Actually there are about 250,000 of us spread out around the country but still quite a few in Louisiana. Like most Cajuns, I’m only half. My moms family was Scottish and Irish. I still live in Louisiana but don’t have kids. My parents lived inFrance when they first married and my sister was born there. Monsignor Daigle produced a dictionary of the Cajun language. We learned French in school but it was Parisian not Cajun. Cajun you learn at home.
@@nikkil764 Wow! That's very interesting. In 2017, I met a Cajun guy in South American but unfortunately, he didn't speak French/Cajun. I'm glad to hear Cajun is still alive in Louisiana. I know it's hard to keep a language and a culture thriving in a minority setting. I'm from Quebec so I have the privilege to speak the language of the majority. But I heard from my Acadian and other French Canadian friends how hard it is, especially with children. I have a friend who moved from Montreal to Chicago and her oldest daughter (14 yo and born in the US) doesn't speak much French even if her mom is a French teacher. Maybe one day when she's older. Are you close to your Cajun roots? Is the Cajun community in Louisiana close knitted? Even though, you and I share parts of our ancestors' history, I feel like I know very little about the Cajun culture.
I enjoy the fact that you are so intelligent and articulate. You have obviously thought about this topic from all angles. It is always important to see any situation from the other person's perspective, which you do in surmising the thoughts and motives of the French who want to speak English. Here's a personal anecdote. Without false modesty, I believe I speak and understand French rather well; En fait j'apprends le français depuis cinquante-sept ans. Many times in France, before I even open my mouth to say bonjour, the French person starts speaking English to me. J'ai sans doute une gueule américaine. I don't wear any clothes that cry out, "je suis Américain. How do they sense that I am American? J'sais pas, moi.
How DOES their 'American radar" still work? It looks like French clothing and many mannerisms have morphed into that very casual American-ish style that used to identify us immediately.
@@Tyranastrasza Comment définir ce romantisme à la française qui me manque? Est-ce que je suis un cas désespéré selon vous? Votre jugement est-il sans appel?
I watch a lot of French movies to learn more of the language. I've found sometimes I can't keep up depending on the area in France the movie is filmed(that's my theory at least). It's the speed of conversation, because it's not my first language. Ive been working on my French for 20 years. It's a beautiful language though.
Don't worry, it's exactly the same in reverse. Have you heard the scottish or the texan accents ? Absolutly incomprehensible for a non-native speaker (and I suspect for some native speakers as well)
Wait the French do this aswell? I had my expirence with language switchers when I was speaking German in Germany. I would say my German is better now than it was in 2019. No matter what language your learning I would say if your B1 or above few people will switch to English.
approved :-) , it is a level thing. Plus, we're eager to speak english, it's like being on hollidays. i told a friend who's fed up with French people switching to English to him: speak quicky a sentence in gaelic , they'll switch back to french. It's not big deal, TV is your friend, it always speak in french
Be bull-headed and continue en français. They will come around to you speaking en français. I'm an ESL college teacher in francophone Québec. I once coached a French-speaking police officer who had taken a position in an English high school. Everyone wanted to speak French to her. To be polite? It frustrated her. So I spent a few days working alongside her. I showed her if she just stubbornly kept speaking English, the school would get the message. Having an English-speaking policeman/teacher in uniform on her arm certainly convinced people. Part of my tâche is in a policing program. Long story. She got all the coaching she needed; people began speaking English to her 👍. I am an ESL teacher in a local college. During the week my job is to speak English. But on weekends I drive a taxi. It is frustrating when my taxi clients insist on speaking English when they hear my accent. My taxi time is my time to practice my French. So I take my own advice and stubbornly continue in French. They will give in. Unless I make out that somebody really is a bilingual and their English is real English. 🖐️😁🇨🇦
The Québec scene: The same thing can happen in Québec despite Québec government policy and legislation for protecting French and the great lengths to provide francization opportunities for immigrants. Frustration is great when immigrants themselves go to their own great lengths to learn and use French and get responded to in English, even in cases where they don't know English. The assumption in some Québecers' minds apparently being that any accented French means the speaker is an anglophone. My response when I speak French and am spoken to in English is ''En français, s'il vous plaît, il faut faire votre devoir pour la langue française. On est au Québec.'' That helps. And when they say they are trying to make things easier, I respond, ''Si l'on évite des difficultés, on ne fait pas de progrès.'' The France scene: A French Quebecer ordering in French in a restaurant in Paris was replied to in English by the French waiter, who probably assumed that he was speaking with an anglophone because of the Québecois accent.
My goal is because a want. I always go in french because I want to show that level of respect. I think as english speakers, we have this subconscious fear of being pegged as a "rude american tourist" stereotype. It irritates me when i am on the airplane going back to paris and i hear older people saying "everyone speaks english anyway". I think it is so rude. So i feel i overcompensate to try to show not all english speakers are like that. Maybe do a video on that. In Lyon, i never get the scruff when someone hears me speaking to my partner in english like i do in paris. But i fully understand why the french have this ideal. And i also understand why americans do what they do
I am a French working in French administration, with foreign student. Everytime someone is struggling with french I propose 'would it be easier if we switched to English' (or Spanish). They usually accept (and seem relieved)
Oh boy ; if you simply ask « j’aimerais pratiquer mon Français » straight forward and with a smile ; only maybe 2% of nasty people would refuse for no reason Very good reminder you put forward ! Paris isn’t an amusement park, people might be hurrying somewhere or working. If you’re making them run late, they’ll want to give you your answer and be over with, it’s human ! Also, to a French, you’re the rare occasion to use their English. To them, you have a plethora of French speakers you can speak French to.
Honestly, it has never bothered me. In the beginning I was grateful because I had trouble with comprehension. Then when I finally "got it" I had no problem with peoole wanting to practice their English with me.
Merci beaucoup Diane! I’ve noticed airport employees also tend to prefer to only speak French, even though they can speak English. The silver lining of a long line for security/passport control is that its a good opportunity to practice listening comprehension, especially since people who don’t speak French often ask the employees to repeat things.
I'm learning french, so that when I'm in Mexico and people assume i don't know Spanish and speak to me in English, I can tell them I'm from France and don't speak English.
We live in a rural village south of Poitiers and most people don’t speak English. I like to converse in French but understanding some can be difficult if they mumble or speak fast. I understand some well but others no chance. I am looking for a local social group to practise French. The worst is talking on the phone, I have constant tinnitus and hey speak fast on the phone. Some still speak at the same speed even when I ask for them to slow down. People in shops are fantastic, really patient. I keep watching TV to try to train my ears. I got caught out by the pronunciation of wifi when I moved here to France, and alternative words sometimes confuse me eg bagnole.
Opposite for myself. Met a distant french cousin. We were corresponding in written English from him and my emails I translated to french. We finally met in person in France. He spoke no English and I, no french. It was almost a disaster.
Well it's easy When a tourists need help the first thing I ask is " Do you speak English , or French , German... " and after we can talk properly. I didn't knew it was bad to speak in English at anglophones people even they speaking in French. I think we did that just for help in another language than our . We have this bad reputation that we cannot speak another language than France and it's false. Greetings from Paris and take care of you.
You could just find someone you know doesn't speak a word of English in France pay them hundred dollars to be your tour guide boom. If you run into French natives that speak English they will stop speaking English or look like an idiot if the American has to translate to a native French speaker
Has a simular expirence learning Spanish I'd order tacos in Spanish and the counterperson answed in English. Alsways switching to Engliah. Then voila, my Spanish improved enought the'd think I was Mexican. Coumtijg out change in Sanish. Then random people would adddess me In Spanish around town.
I was at a restaurant in Paris that I went to often and the waiter I always seemed to get kept switching to English. I told him I wanted to practice my French and he his English so we ended up with me speaking bad French and him bad English and both were happy as clams.
For all I know it's all about manners and politeness. Speaking a language a foreigner doesn't understand is considered rude. Yeah again manners manners manners manners... So if you need french just say that's okay, don't be shy ^^.
Very helpful. A challenge for anglophones visiting Quebec as well. I suppose the advice to visit Quebec City and not just Montreal would apply here as well. ❤️
The French probably have difficulty in Quebec. I was near fluent back in college and went over the border almost every month. Understanding was fruitless because of the dialect and idioms of Can French. Fortunately, I knew their key swear words. 😆🤪
Love true crime podcast! Will definitely listen to American Coyote. Forgotten: Women of Juarez & To Live and Die in LA, are two really good ones. Keep recommending your favs!
Diane, I love your vlogs. You are one of the best ommunicators on TH-cam. You express everything so clearly and simply. Thank you. I just love to hear you talk and thinking process.
They don't "switch" to English, they blabber a sort of horrible "gobbledygook" , a mix of bad English and bad French with locally Algerian slang ("wesh-wesh ", "biatch", etc).
In Toronto, there was a news show where the woman spoke English and the man spoke Italian. Everyone who understood both found it as cool as those who didn't. I would like someone to speak my own language back to me to confirm that the language i am trying to learn is actually correct.
I think I'm at the same place you described where I can read and speak french but can't decipher it when spoken by native speakers. I pick up words and some phrases but it goes too fast for me to keep up. Was there a time when you were suddenly able to understand natural spoken french?
Hi there, yes that's a very frustrating place to be but trust me, stick with it, keep working on your French and you will get through it like I did. ;-) Little by little you notice you'll understand more and more and then it'll become a thing of the past. The rate at which you get over the hump so to speak will vary on what your level of French is, how much work you put in talking to people, how much you put yourself out there and try to speak, etc but you WILL get there! Bonne continuation!
Cela m'est arrivé plusieurs fois quand j'étais à Paris. Un étranger qui m'aborde pour me poser des questions et mon premier réflexe était "Oh cool, je vais pouvoir pratiquer mon anglais". (je me débrouille pas trop mal en anglais). Seulement une ou deux fois mon interlocuteur m'a demandé de continuer en français. (Ce qui n'a pas posé de problème, honnêtement si les autres avaient demandé, j'aurais probablement accédé à leur requête.)
This happened in Montreal all the damn time. In Paris, they were much nicer and tolerated my high school French consistently in restaurants and shops. Paris for the win 😄 Conversely, when I speak my broken Greek, they always look at my Greek husband to clarify wtf 😂 that is what kills me, even happens in N America, not just when we’re in Greece 🤦🏻♀️
As soon as i hear a foreign accent, i will switch to english. Not to flex or to annoy the speaker that maybe prefers to speak in French, but to make sure that i'm understood...if the person insists to speak in french, i'll switch for one sentence, then go back immediatelly to english rofl...sorry guys..désolé///
Also i don't know what you mean exactly by fluent (i guess it's understanding and being able to converse in 'français courant') But it's actually very rare to meet a foreigner (outside francophonie ofc) speaking really fluent french (familier/courant/soutenu), except for scholars or Jodie Foster...Even for people who lived here for a while...Sometimes it's like talking to a child that has 200 words of vocable..i prefer to switch to english, i find it more respectfull.
When in the 1970s when my family went camping in France rarely did French people speak English so my mother used to make me ask for foods in shops I noticed when I travelled more often to France in the 1990s that there had been a switch in the population and some of the signage in locations were in English (more specifically American English) There was a change from the De Gaulle "Non!" to a we'll give it a go. I had been in Finland a lot and learnt Finnish so my trick was to say I was from Finland because of they could speak Finnish I could bluff my way convincingly.
I have an American colleague who insisted on giving seminar talks in France in French. The trouble is, when he does, it takes forever (he speaks slowly, he hesitates), and the audience grows impatient. This is a work context, not a leisurely conversation; the audience has other things to do afterwards. We politely hinted that it may be easier if he gave his talks in English (we all understand professional English). I guess this is in the same category as the busy waiter.
Bonjour.... I only found that a person switched to french language only maybe two times. But I did hear them do it often to others. The times it did happen was when i would translate for my husband. The only time i was frustrated was when a waiter did it one day but seemed angry about it. I continued speaking in french with him. I would say my skills are very good. This was in a tourist area though. The second time, I was giving a tour in the catacomes and i mistranslated something, and a guide corrected me. She and I became friends. She was so nice about it. Oh, on the metro, there was a young man who wanted to practice his english, so we did switch for him. He was a very cool kid. He was going to be going off to Uni in Philly that fall. I wonder what happened to him
That's funny. My parents and sister found the same thing happened a lot in Quebec (I'm Canadian). French-speaking Québécois would switch to English as soon as they heard an accent not typical of Quebec, even though my father is from Belgium (French is his native language!) and my Mum speaks good French. The French of Quebec is not exactly like that of Belgium, or France, and they do speak much faster than my Belgian relatives. But if you told them you needed to practice your French they would switch back and many wold slow down to improve understanding.
The Podcast I love is called Tuesday People Podcast - Mitch Albom. He is the Author of a book (from 26 yrs ago) Tuesdays with Morrie where he (Mitch) finds out his old college professor is dying from ALS (also known as Lou Gherig's disease). All these years later, each Tuesday there is a new podcast segment and each time the topics are just on topics that make one think. Sometimes there are specially invited guests, sometimes it is just Mitch giving his take on how one might approach certain situations. Very well done. Engaging. Thought provoking. www.mitchalbom.com/tuesday-people/
If you want to practice then ask. But be prepared to be told "No." And ask someone who's obviously not busy. When I was in university, sometimes East Asian exchange students would randomly ask "Can I practice my English with you?" and sometimes they can be annoying if you're obviously cramming for a test. 🙄
There is a story (could be an urban legend) of an American who went to rural France for an archeological dig. Every day, before he'd go to the site, he would order (in French) a few items from the bakery. They had a tough time understanding him, but managed to get his order. It was tough and they did not seem to happy with him. On the third day, he walked in and his order was ready and all he had to do was pay! They were bright and cheery and sent him on his way. This continued for the next month. It was only on his last day that he learned why they were so nice: he was butchering the French language so much they did everything in their power to avoid having him speak! :-D
@@OuiInFrance Thankfully, not mine! However, when I speak French to my in-laws, their heads all tilt like a dog... utter confusion! :-D My husband repeats what I say (I swear it sounds the same, only faster) and they respond. I keep trying!
I worked in Nice in 1973, my French teacher who was very nice kept asking me questions like, "Peter what does it mean when Americans keep saying get down, does it mean if I get on up on the table and then get off the table, is that what it means?"I told No no , then had to show what it meant, and do a little grind dance she laughed so much! what a laugh.
Great video! I like your ideas about the language. I figure if I like to speak in their language, I'd just asked. If they are too busy or something I'd just thank them & speak english. I also like your favorite thing.💚
as french Learner Ive come across this many times, Ive always been told by the French person, ... its easier for us, whatever nationality you are you will probably speak english and we get to practice english
I totally agree with you Diane, when I came to live in the Netherlands being French I could hardly learn Dutch because a lot of people at the time answered me in French. That was because they were proud to show their level of French. At one point when I started to communicate well in Dutch there were still some who tried to answer me in French because I had a strong French accent. I still found it embarrassing. Now I speak, read and write perfectly this language which even Dutch people who don't know me don't "notice" anymore that I am French. These day’s the Dutch level of French has also skyrocketed dramatically because French has not been compulsory in school for at least 25, 30 years. A generation to tell the truth!
GREAT video Diane! I lived in France for a few years and had similar experiences. I eventually came to the same conclusions that you did, although you expressed it in a far more articulate way than I could. :-) By the end of my stay in France, my language skills were good enough that most French thought I was Canadian (is that an insult to Canadians?), but they stopped switching to English. Ironically, when I subsequently visited Canada and spoke French in rural Québec, the Canadians thought I was French!
Oh no, that's totally normal! Any French who spend enough time in Quebec would be asked if they're Quebecois once they go back to France. I'm Quebecois but I have a slight French accent when I speak. I've been asked regularly by both French and Quebecois where I am from in France, how long I've been living in QC or how far I am in my immigration process.
I feel you forgot an important option/group Diane and that's the bilingual who was raised bilingually and who faces linguistical depression, them switching to english is not for your benefit but for their own well being they know you can understand them fully and they won't mind you answering in French but THEY NEED that english bubble to keep linguistical depression away and as an english speaker you can help with that.
Hi there, good addition and I feel like that falls into the category I mentioned where you can tell a language partner or someone close (ish) what you need from them. Someone who cares will make an effort to stave of the depression you spoke of. But in the case of quick interactions with busy Parisians, the switch wouldn't happen to someone raised bilingually because there would be no issue with communication and no perceivable accent. Thank you for watching!
@@OuiInFrance You're welcome and don't worry I got that the video is mostly focusing on "passers by" more than people here for a longer period of time it's just I wanted to further that sometimes it's REALLY NOT ABOUT YOU lol ^^
My French is quite strong but I'm very obviously foreign, so before the election I usually lied and said I was Canadian rather than American, mainly because it was politically embarrassing to be American, even if I didn't vote for he who must not be named.
I was in Hendaye FR at the train station and had to rebook tickets because of a delay. I started out in my intermediate French with the SNCF representative. She asked me if I wanted to use French or English. I told her French, so she proceeded with the lengthy explanation of the options and the transaction in French. When we were done she gave me a big smile and complimented me on my willingness and ability to do it in French. It really made my day.
I just thought of another reason in Montreal... maybe the person didn't speak French very well. I know people from there speak French but maybe the person you encountered wasn't from there and didn't have a good handle on French. Thx for watching!
@@OuiInFrance There is probably another reason and that is the dialect and/or variety of French that Helene Bickford was speaking might have been different from the dialect and/or variety of French that the Montreal person was speaking. And, this Montreal person might not have been speaking Quebec French either. There is a lot of new immigrant people that live in Montreal that are from other French specking countries like Haiti, Cameron, the Congo, etc. So, this person might have been speaking one of these other French dialects and/or varieties. Also, the accents might have been different between these two people.
Language switching is very common in Montreal. I do it so often it's subconscient. I can have an entire conversation with friends where we keep switching from English to French back and forth. Now that most of my friends are Latinos, we have trilingual conversations.
This happens to me often. I am half French and am practically fluent but I do have an English accent obviously. When this happens to me I say to them in French, “I do speak and understand French.” They then usually start speaking in French again but it always seems to happen. It happened the last time in November in Paris and I was with my mum in a chemist (who is French) and I was talking to her in English and the pharmacist just started speaking to me in French. It really annoyed me, as I never spoke to her in English... Edit: I can speak French well. It always happens in a shop or something and while I have an accent, I have zero problems communicating. I can hold my own perfectly well so that’s why I never understand why they do this to me.
Same here, they say that I speak french with an American accent, but I am from the Dominican Republic. I do live in the US but this happened to me even when I lived in the DR.
The typical french case is : we are speaking french and the foreign person say LE table, so it hurts a lot for us, so we have to correct it : "c'est LA table". That's rather dumb, cause they can't know all object's gender, but it hurts so much the ears god.
People who are bilingual switch back and forth between languages. I think that's a beautiful thing. When my daughter was learning Spanish she would speak to native speakers, boldly and unafraid. That's the way to do it. Just go for it!
Bonjour Diane, je fais partie des personnes qui vont toujours chercher une occasion de pratiquer l'anglais et je n'avais pas réalisé que ça pouvait être ennuyeux pour les étrangers qui souhaitent pratiquer le français. Merci pour ce partage.
Je me souviens d'avoir travaillé avec un Anglais dans une centrale d'appel en France, et nous étions 3 collègues à avoir un bon niveau d'anglais et à être sollicité pour traiter les appels en anglais. Donc nous aimions discuter en anglais avec ce collègue anglophone et je me souviens particulièrement d'une conversation où chacun passait du français à l'anglais et inversement. C'était plutôt cool car nous avions des niveaux équivalents dans la langue de l'autre et la bascule se faisait naturellement entre les deux langages.
J'ai toujours un ami français avec qui nous discutons parfois en anglais juste pour le plaisir. Ce n'est pas si facile de trouver dans la vie de tous les jours des interlocuteurs qui ont un niveau d'anglais suffisant et qui osent l'utiliser sans que ce soit une question de vie ou de mort... Lol
You provide very believable reasons that people switch and very good advice. On my last trip to France, people switched to English on me twice, both times in Brittany not in Paris. My French level is B2, and according to my French friends, my accent is very good, so I was surprised. I had many dozens of interactions and conversations completely in French during that trip. I think in both cases that they were either trying to practice their English or show off a bit. In the first case, I said "Je préfère parler en français, s'il vous plaît" and he switched back. In the second case, I just continued in French and she continued in English, and we had a five minute conversation in 2 languages. It was clear by her responses that she understood me perfectly well. If you want to play the game that you don't understand English and they ask where you're from, say Albania. Nobody speaks Albanian! A new podcast that I like a lot is "Parler comme jamais" from Binge audio. It's a podcast about linguistics presented in a very interesting way.
Thanks for the podcast rec, David! Will check it out!! Good tip about Albanian ;-)
@@OuiInFrance You might also like "Quoi de Meuf" from Nouvelles Écoutes.
Wikipedia tells us that Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and the Albanian diaspora in the Americas, Europe and Oceania with about 7.5 million speakers. So we MIGHT be caught out with the "I'm Albanian" line. And I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that those 7.5 million people are "nobodies!" 😊
@@nancylindsay4255 Of course I meant no disrespect to Albanians. In fact, my wife is part Albanian. What I meant is that extremely few people who are not Albanians speak the language. And 7.5 million is a tiny percentage of the European population. If you choose any other European language you are thousands of times more likely to be caught out. The gamble would work even better if I said I was from the Republic of Nauru, but since I'm a white man, nobody would believe me.
@@thedavidguy01 Salut, David. No worries, I did understand you perfectly, thus the smiley face. I enjoyed your anecdote--the conversation in two languages. Best of both!
You have such a good understanding of people! Very good advice. :)
I got engage to my wife and we chose Paris as our honeymoon destination. I spent a year preparing/learning the French language. I wasn’t going to be “that “ person who didn’t show respect for the people of Paris by not knowing something of their traditions and language. I knew my French was mediocre at best but was determined to employ it at every turn. I said, bonjour to the French customs person and he didn’t hesitate to speak in English, LOL. Everyone else though, we’re happy that I made the effort and was willing to let me go on in French until they couldn’t deal with it. I had a sort of script for ordering food at it never failed me! Your insights was my( my wife too) experience. 7yrs later I’m still practicing French,it’s slightly better than mediocre,love the language and for our 10th anniversary we’re going back to France, outside of Paris, like the Loire valley, this time. I’m studying so that my language is more polished! I very much appreciate your insights! TY
We are the guest in THEIR country. Manners count.
100%
Such good advice. Respect is so important, and it usually brings respect right back at you. Merci, Diane!
3:30 From my french native point of view, switching to english is a way to say :
"Hey do you see that ? Your language is so famous even people living at the other side of the world learned it."
I'm always grateful when I see people choosing France over any other country in the world. Talking your language is a way to make you feel at home and show you we also have some interest in your culture. Ofc, there might be different motivation among different people, but I swear I always did it because I was trying to be nice.
That’s a really lovely point of view. I would’ve assumed you thought I was an idiot. I’ll keep that in mind when I visit. Maybe someone will switch to English because they DO think I’m an idiot, but I’ll tell myself it’s because they want me to feel at home. 😅
Bonjour Diane, I'm from the Netherlands. At school I got Dutch as native language, some French, good English and technical German. Almost every year we go to France for a couple of weeks for the summer vacation. We do this since 1973 :-) In those days French teenagers of my age didn't speak any English, except one pretty girl from Paris that was able to have a conversation in English. So most years I needed to use French in converstions with French people all over the country. I never had any trouble with French people. Bonjour is the magic word, as you know. A lot of people that visited France told me the French were "unpleasant" because they only understood French. Even today all my friends, family and neighbours are convinced French people only want to speak French. Next to that we have the Wallon people of Southern Belgium who plainly refuse to speak something else as French. The last 10 years or so every vacation there are a few people that hear the conversation in Dutch with my wife and ask if I'm Dutch. The next question is ... may I speak English with you? It varies from people in supermarkets, local markets and people on a beach etc. When I tell my friends I should stop French people talking English to me... they will laugh themselfs to death. :-) Impossible .. French people don't speak English!
When I'm in need of freshing up my French, I ask the people of the receptiondesks in French language to speak French with me for that reason. I never had any real problem. I'm on vacation, I like to help people and it gives lots of pleasent meetings and converstions. Even people of my age in the Alsace wanted to speak German with me.. and that gave me a great adventure of some days in some fortresses of the Maginot Line :-) we had the same hobby.
I'm happy French people now connect to the rest of the EU and the rest of the world people and use English where Esperanto was made for... our general communication language. So I'm certainly not going to stop them. :-)
You are right, but there is many french who to not like the ' english privilege attitude' . You should definitely not go upfront speak english to them , but ask if they do speak english . But first a Bonjour , the basic of french étiquette. Yes in France to be polite is to show respect and not to be overly familiar and friendly .
I really didn't like the "Next to that we have the Wallon people of Southern Belgium who plainly refuse to speak something else as French", that's basically the same assumption your friends/neighbors are making with the French. I'd agree that most Walloons don't speak Dutch (kids can choose Dutch, English or German as a 2nd language at school, so Dutch often comes last), but there's a gap between people not being able to speak Dutch and people refusing to speak something other than French...
Interesting ! I can’t speak for walloons, but in France there has been a major shift in mindset towards English. Europe of course helped a lot ! The possibility to cross various countries with you car amped up the direct interest towards speaking a « common » language (before then, only frontier dwellers made the efforts to learn their neighbor’s tongue).
There’s also Internet to factor in as to why new generations of French now learn English. Wether to pilfer series on internet before they’ve been dubbed or simply to use softwares or to play videogames, there’s now an incentive for young Frenchies to better their grasp on English. And these kids quickly realize that English is easy ! Fewer tenses, a lot of vocabulary in common with Latin based languages, a neutral gender for things, etc. Sure, prononciation is still slippery, as it takes some efforts to reposition the whole tongue-throat-lips positions to get the sounds right ; but in general English makes a much easier common language than any other contender in Europe.
Add the easy access with internet, incentives of entertainment, games and travel, and you’ve got the perfect bundle to get whole generations into speaking English !
@@joenroute9646 you can go ahead and speak English right off the bat as long as you get the « bonjour » followed by a « i’m sorry, do you speak English per chance » ; or something close.
@@LennyBarre Well, you’re somewhat right from what i’ve observed in Brussels. It seems it has a lot to do with the uneasy co-existence of the Belgian state Languages. Walloon i heard were complaining people from Flanders were haughty and regarded them negatively as somewhat lazy but arrogants and saw themselves as superior, so Walloons appear rather on the defensive towards Flemish.
But i’ve noted Walloons had 0 issues speaking Germans or English with foreigners.
As a former worker in a big touristic shop in Brussels where 60% of customers were foreigners and tourists, I can tell you that it was much easier to speak english all the time :p You're right that employees and shop owners don't really have the time to try to understand a broken french. It's also really rude to ask someone to repeat over and over again because you don't understand what he/she want. And also, a lot of employees are hired BECAUSE they can speak english :p So it's their job to switch to english if the client struggle with french. In my previous job, it would have been problematic for me to let customers struggle to speak french because I was supposed to switch to english to help them (and I had others colleagues who were speaken italian, spanish and chinese that I could call if it was better for the customer. ) French is also a difficult language to spoke and to be understood because of all the words that kinda look the same but not really. I saw a lot of situations where a tourist would insist on prononcing a french word and would not be understood because their prononciation was incorrect. If you ask something in a bakery and the employee give you something else because he/she didn't understood you, it would be the employee's fault...so it's quicker and easier to speak english :p But we really appreciate that people try to speak french or just start with "bonjour" ;)
I think the point about getting out of the main cities can extend even to the less touristy parts of the cities (which speaks to what you said about context). For example even in Paris, I lived in the 12th for six months toward the edge of the city, and when my mom and sister came to visit, the shopkeepers seemed happy to let them practice even though they were stumbling through it and making mistakes, and even enjoyed the interaction. They just don't get that many tourists in that part of the city so they aren't annoyed by them and aren't trying to get them through their transaction as quickly as possible.
Funny story though....I was having dinner with an American friend in my neighborhood, and both of us speak pretty good French. We communicated with the waiter in French for the entire interaction....until my friend asked to wrap up the rest of her steak and take it home. The waiter immediately switched to (broken) English. 😅
P.S. As always, I love your perspective on life and the lens you use to process your experiences. 💜
We have visited France from the UK many times but only in the last two years have we tried learning more than basic school French. The last time we visited we stayed in a few B&Bs and only one could, and needed to, speak English. That particular owner was great to talk to, in both English and French. He helped us and we helped him. It was a win-win. We also went to a restaurant where the owner spoke great English but helped us try our French. However, a rude English couple came in and would not try the basic bonjour or merci. For them the owner would not speak English and they struggled to get what they wanted. He came and shared the joke with us when that couple left. Even when the French can speak perfect English, the more French you try the more they like it and will help if they can.
Je réalise que les temps changent, au vu de la vidéo de Diane. En effet j'ai vécu les années où, habitant Paris, nous étions un peu culpabilisés (ou je l'ai ressenti ainsi) de ne pas nous exprimer en anglais, à une époque où l'envie de pratiquer le français était peut-être moins évidente de la part de nos amis anglophones qui venaient visiter notre pays. Il semblerait donc que le désir de parler français semble plus net aujourd'hui ? À partir de maintenant je répondrai en français à un anglophone parlant français (et c'est pourquoi je ne traduis pas en anglais mon message !). Bravo à vous amis américains ou anglophones de vous lancer courageusement dans l'apprentissage d'une langue étrangère alors que la prédominance de l'anglais ne vous y incite pas. C'est très louable !
There is a paradox in scolding us for trying to speak english and shaming the french for being the worst english speakers in Europe (after the russian)
When I switched to english in Paris, I trully assumed that my english was better that their french and they wouldn't be able to keep up with a normal french conversation. And I still believe it. Some of them told me "in french, please" so I carried on in french. That didn't offend me. I assumed they wanted to train their french-speaking skills. I'm pretty sure to this day that they understood me very partially, thou
I disagree with you on the 2nd point. I speak french almost fluently and they switch to English immediately. The reason I say almost is because I did all my schooling in French and even got the French baccalauréat but when I moved to the US , I lost my French a bit but have maintained it with some French meet up. I am from the Dominican Republic and they say that I speak french with an "american" accent. Usually what I do is keep the conversation in French even if they talk in English and after 5 min they switch back.
I am so happy I found your channel. It’s like watching a friend who just happens to live in France.
Maybe I simple. But if you speak french to me, I LL answer french. If you talk eng to me, I would go with eng.. but yes, I can improve my English by watching vost movies etc.. but it s not every day I can speak eng with a native eng speaker . Nothing related to ego or skills.. 🙂
My spoken French is way better than my written. Have had this type of conversation so many times, me in French the French person in English. I just carry on regardless. The elderly lady I'm a homehelp for has been a godsend for me as she's helped me so much with my grammar and pronounciation as she speaks some English (she said when she was younger she was fluent English but has forgotten a lot, well she is nearly 90!). We have a fantastic relationship and talk about all sorts of things.
I also found with the journey into a new language . Is you can have dollar opposite experiences on the same day.. One person will complement you on your ability and then in the same evening someone will send your confidence crashing down to rock bottom. Sometimes it can just be the misprencetion of one word. I've often found it's people who are trained to be personable like hotel receptionists and similar professionals who will bare out bad accents and probably have developed a ear for bad renditions of their native langue. Where as some old bar man with a heavy work load and insular life experiences might not have the ear or the patience. It's funny how it all works and then one day after a long period of humiliation failures and going back to the drawing board. You just open your mouth and a whole day goes by without anyone switching to your native language or looking through you blankly . The you leave the country and go back to your native one and wonder if all the headway you made will still be there, should you visit the country again and want to pick up where you left off.
I am not even an English native speaker, and some still do that. Usually their English is worse than my French (C1)
Lol same here, they say I speak french with an American accent.. I wasn't born in the US.
Exactly 💯 percent correct at the 8:01 mark, even in the areas that speak French outside of France. Quebec Canada for example.
When I was in university I moved to Ottawa/Hull area. I lived on the Hull side of the river so it was French because it was on the Quebec side of the border. I’m Acadian French. Every week I stopped at the same gas station. The attendant always answered my request for gas in French with his very broken English. I would always answer any question he asked me in French. A few months in, I asked why he would speak to me in English when I always spoke in French. He said “ because you are English. “ I said no, I’m Acadian. He thought because my accent was different than his, it meant I must be English. I said oh no. Je suis française. After that he spoke French to me each time and nicely referred to me as L’acadienne. He was just trying to be nice but he really appreciated my French after that.
You are right the Acadian accent may sound ' english ' for many french speaking people . Anglo- American to be exact , the way you open the mouth wide open with a very particular American rythmn. Where as std french will favour softness and flow .
Have you seen the movie Girl on a Bicycle? It's a cute movie and this is a theme for one of the characters and he is presumably fluent. I studied French for three weeks in Montpellier and almost no one tried to speak English with me. Of course if I had a medical issue, English would be welcome. Smaller towns are the way to go for practicing.
As a visitor to France many times, I see this a lot. In the big cities they go to English most of the time. In the country side my bad French works out.
Studied Russian in college. Messing about with German now. The romance languages? Beyond my abilities. Too bad English penetrance is low out in the boonies. Will just have to wing it when we visit. Excellent videos!
The Parisians also switch to English when French Canadians speak to them. And we actually have the same mother tongue. This happened to several people I know.
Edit: Your trick of being rude back to them is appropriate in the situation above.
Maybe they dont like the dialect of Quebec french speakers 😂 I remember trying to speak english in quebec when I was a kid and almost noone speaks english in quebec. Cant be mad at them it's there first language!!
@@joshua6207 So? Quebecers don't necessarily like the dialect of French spoken in France and still continue speaking French to them? It's not like it's impossible to understand, it's just that some French people are a bit snobby. Also, yes, French is the main language in Quebec so it would be wrong to assume everyone just speaks English (especially outside Montreal), just like it would be wrong to assume everyone in France speaks English.
@@sophiepellerin5517 I know it's like someone from New York speaking to someone from texas. It's the same just sounds different. Some people get mad they dont speak english in quebec but you cant because french is there language.
@@joshua6207 exactly, although an even better comparison would be British vs American English I think
@@sophiepellerin5517 il peut parfois être difficile de comprendre nos cousins Québécois, même si c'est rare. L'accent peut être si marqué, qu'il m'est arrivé à plusieurs reprises d'hésiter, voire de ne carrément rien comprendre. Ajoutez à cela les expressions bizarres et les archaïsmes. C'est comme les Cajuns, pas toujours faciles à comprendre.
Just tell them you are not an english speaker in french especially if u are asian wants to practise french with native speaker. Tell them you can only speak ur own mother tongue and just learnt french.. definitely they will have no choice but to speak to u in french unwillingly.😅
Oui, vous avez tout à fait raison ! Je suis allé à Paris en 2017 avec ma femme et mon beau-fils, juste pendant un week-end pour profiter de la ville. Mais pour ma part, j’ai voulu practiquer mon français, mais malheusement, tout le monde voulait pratiquer son anglais ! En tout cas, jai vraiment apprécié mon séjour à Paris. :)
As a French Acadian from Louisiana, our French is not the modern French of today in France. It’s a bit like going to England and speaking Chaucer’s English. My parents lived in France for several years and managed to speak to everyone despite their “cute” accent.
Wow! I've been told there were very little French Acadians (do you refer to yourself as Cajuns or it's something else) left in Louisiana. Do you still live there? If you have kids, do they speak French? Tell me more!
@@anne12876 Actually there are about 250,000 of us spread out around the country but still quite a few in Louisiana. Like most Cajuns, I’m only half. My moms family was Scottish and Irish. I still live in Louisiana but don’t have kids. My parents lived inFrance when they first married and my sister was born there. Monsignor Daigle produced a dictionary of the Cajun language. We learned French in school but it was Parisian not Cajun. Cajun you learn at home.
@@nikkil764 Wow! That's very interesting. In 2017, I met a Cajun guy in South American but unfortunately, he didn't speak French/Cajun. I'm glad to hear Cajun is still alive in Louisiana. I know it's hard to keep a language and a culture thriving in a minority setting. I'm from Quebec so I have the privilege to speak the language of the majority. But I heard from my Acadian and other French Canadian friends how hard it is, especially with children. I have a friend who moved from Montreal to Chicago and her oldest daughter (14 yo and born in the US) doesn't speak much French even if her mom is a French teacher. Maybe one day when she's older. Are you close to your Cajun roots? Is the Cajun community in Louisiana close knitted? Even though, you and I share parts of our ancestors' history, I feel like I know very little about the Cajun culture.
I enjoy the fact that you are so intelligent and articulate. You have obviously thought about this topic from all angles. It is always important to see any situation from the other person's perspective, which you do in surmising the thoughts and motives of the French who want to speak English. Here's a personal anecdote. Without false modesty, I believe I speak and understand French rather well; En fait j'apprends le français depuis cinquante-sept ans. Many times in France, before I even open my mouth to say bonjour, the French person starts speaking English to me. J'ai sans doute une gueule américaine. I don't wear any clothes that cry out, "je suis Américain. How do they sense that I am American? J'sais pas, moi.
How DOES their 'American radar" still work? It looks like French clothing and many mannerisms have morphed into that very casual American-ish style that used to identify us immediately.
C'est un sixième sens. Vous n'avez pas le romantisme à la française et on sent ça de loin. :)
@@Tyranastrasza Comment définir ce romantisme à la française qui me manque? Est-ce que je suis un cas désespéré selon vous? Votre jugement est-il sans appel?
@@timotheelegrincheux2204 C'est justement cela le problème, ça ne se défini pas, cela se ressent. It's like god, it works in mysterious ways.
I watch a lot of French movies to learn more of the language. I've found sometimes I can't keep up depending on the area in France the movie is filmed(that's my theory at least). It's the speed of conversation, because it's not my first language. Ive been working on my French for 20 years.
It's a beautiful language though.
Yeah, I follow some French TH-camrs and sometimes they speak either too fast or they use a lot of argot.
Don't worry, it's exactly the same in reverse.
Have you heard the scottish or the texan accents ?
Absolutly incomprehensible for a non-native speaker (and I suspect for some native speakers as well)
Wait the French do this aswell? I had my expirence with language switchers when I was speaking German in Germany. I would say my German is better now than it was in 2019. No matter what language your learning I would say if your B1 or above few people will switch to English.
approved :-) , it is a level thing. Plus, we're eager to speak english, it's like being on hollidays. i told a friend who's fed up with French people switching to English to him: speak quicky a sentence in gaelic , they'll switch back to french.
It's not big deal, TV is your friend, it always speak in french
Be bull-headed and continue en français. They will come around to you speaking en français.
I'm an ESL college teacher in francophone Québec. I once coached a French-speaking police officer who had taken a position in an English high school. Everyone wanted to speak French to her. To be polite? It frustrated her. So I spent a few days working alongside her. I showed her if she just stubbornly kept speaking English, the school would get the message. Having an English-speaking policeman/teacher in uniform on her arm certainly convinced people. Part of my tâche is in a policing program. Long story. She got all the coaching she needed; people began speaking English to her 👍.
I am an ESL teacher in a local college. During the week my job is to speak English. But on weekends I drive a taxi. It is frustrating when my taxi clients insist on speaking English when they hear my accent. My taxi time is my time to practice my French. So I take my own advice and stubbornly continue in French. They will give in. Unless I make out that somebody really is a bilingual and their English is real English. 🖐️😁🇨🇦
The Québec scene: The same thing can happen in Québec despite Québec government policy and legislation for protecting French and the great lengths to provide francization opportunities for immigrants. Frustration is great when immigrants themselves go to their own great lengths to learn and use French and get responded to in English, even in cases where they don't know English. The assumption in some Québecers' minds apparently being that any accented French means the speaker is an anglophone. My response when I speak French and am spoken to in English is ''En français, s'il vous plaît, il faut faire votre devoir pour la langue française. On est au Québec.'' That helps. And when they say they are trying to make things easier, I respond, ''Si l'on évite des difficultés, on ne fait pas de progrès.''
The France scene: A French Quebecer ordering in French in a restaurant in Paris was replied to in English by the French waiter, who probably assumed that he was speaking with an anglophone because of the Québecois accent.
My goal is because a want. I always go in french because I want to show that level of respect. I think as english speakers, we have this subconscious fear of being pegged as a "rude american tourist" stereotype. It irritates me when i am on the airplane going back to paris and i hear older people saying "everyone speaks english anyway". I think it is so rude. So i feel i overcompensate to try to show not all english speakers are like that. Maybe do a video on that. In Lyon, i never get the scruff when someone hears me speaking to my partner in english like i do in paris. But i fully understand why the french have this ideal. And i also understand why americans do what they do
Oui, j'espère que tu fasses un vidéo ! Je voulais le regarder !
I am a French working in French administration, with foreign student. Everytime someone is struggling with french I propose 'would it be easier if we switched to English' (or Spanish). They usually accept (and seem relieved)
Oh boy ; if you simply ask « j’aimerais pratiquer mon Français » straight forward and with a smile ; only maybe 2% of nasty people would refuse for no reason
Very good reminder you put forward ! Paris isn’t an amusement park, people might be hurrying somewhere or working. If you’re making them run late, they’ll want to give you your answer and be over with, it’s human !
Also, to a French, you’re the rare occasion to use their English. To them, you have a plethora of French speakers you can speak French to.
What About Speaking Spanish To A French Person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!❤️🖤🖤❤️🔥
Same!! Six ans classe de français mais chaque temps…aussi 2) j’ai choisi voire leur practice d’anglais
Honestly, it has never bothered me. In the beginning I was grateful because I had trouble with comprehension. Then when I finally "got it" I had no problem with peoole wanting to practice their English with me.
Merci beaucoup Diane! I’ve noticed airport employees also tend to prefer to only speak French, even though they can speak English. The silver lining of a long line for security/passport control is that its a good opportunity to practice listening comprehension, especially since people who don’t speak French often ask the employees to repeat things.
I'm learning french, so that when I'm in Mexico and people assume i don't know Spanish and speak to me in English, I can tell them I'm from France and don't speak English.
We live in a rural village south of Poitiers and most people don’t speak English. I like to converse in French but understanding some can be difficult if they mumble or speak fast. I understand some well but others no chance. I am looking for a local social group to practise French. The worst is talking on the phone, I have constant tinnitus and hey speak fast on the phone. Some still speak at the same speed even when I ask for them to slow down. People in shops are fantastic, really patient. I keep watching TV to try to train my ears. I got caught out by the pronunciation of wifi when I moved here to France, and alternative words sometimes confuse me eg bagnole.
Opposite for myself. Met a distant french cousin. We were corresponding in written English from him and my emails I translated to french. We finally met in person in France. He spoke no English and I, no french. It was almost a disaster.
Well it's easy
When a tourists need help the first thing I ask is " Do you speak English , or French , German... " and after we can talk properly.
I didn't knew it was bad to speak in English at anglophones people even they speaking in French.
I think we did that just for help in another language than our .
We have this bad reputation that we cannot speak another language than France and it's false.
Greetings from Paris and take care of you.
You could just find someone you know doesn't speak a word of English in France pay them hundred dollars to be your tour guide boom. If you run into French natives that speak English they will stop speaking English or look like an idiot if the American has to translate to a native French speaker
Has a simular expirence learning Spanish I'd order tacos in Spanish and the counterperson answed in English. Alsways switching to Engliah. Then voila, my Spanish improved enought the'd think I was Mexican. Coumtijg out change in Sanish. Then random people would adddess me
In Spanish around town.
This happens in Germany too. It’s annoying because they act really irritated that you tried. And they definitely want you to stop.
I was at a restaurant in Paris that I went to often and the waiter I always seemed to get kept switching to English. I told him I wanted to practice my French and he his English so we ended up with me speaking bad French and him bad English and both were happy as clams.
For all I know it's all about manners and politeness. Speaking a language a foreigner doesn't understand is considered rude. Yeah again manners manners manners manners... So if you need french just say that's okay, don't be shy ^^.
Very helpful. A challenge for anglophones visiting Quebec as well. I suppose the advice to visit Quebec City and not just Montreal would apply here as well. ❤️
The French probably have difficulty in Quebec. I was near fluent back in college and went over the border almost every month. Understanding was fruitless because of the dialect and idioms of Can French. Fortunately, I knew their key swear words. 😆🤪
Love true crime podcast! Will definitely listen to American Coyote. Forgotten: Women of Juarez & To Live and Die in LA, are two really good ones. Keep recommending your favs!
Diane, I love your vlogs. You are one of the best ommunicators on TH-cam. You express everything so clearly and simply. Thank you. I just love to hear you talk and thinking process.
You're so sweet, thank you!
They don't "switch" to English, they blabber a sort of horrible "gobbledygook" , a mix of bad English and bad French with locally Algerian slang ("wesh-wesh ", "biatch", etc).
Now, it might be true, but I'm still feeling a bit offended by what you said.
I wouldn't speak French because mine is so poor! But I'm working at improving it!
In Toronto, there was a news show where the woman spoke English and the man spoke Italian. Everyone who understood both found it as cool as those who didn't. I would like someone to speak my own language back to me to confirm that the language i am trying to learn is actually correct.
Excellent advice, Diane! Thanks for sharing!
I think I'm at the same place you described where I can read and speak french but can't decipher it when spoken by native speakers. I pick up words and some phrases but it goes too fast for me to keep up. Was there a time when you were suddenly able to understand natural spoken french?
Hi there, yes that's a very frustrating place to be but trust me, stick with it, keep working on your French and you will get through it like I did. ;-) Little by little you notice you'll understand more and more and then it'll become a thing of the past. The rate at which you get over the hump so to speak will vary on what your level of French is, how much work you put in talking to people, how much you put yourself out there and try to speak, etc but you WILL get there! Bonne continuation!
Such great advice! Also I love “Things I Love”!
Keep up the incredible work Diane!
Great topic. I agree with you.
Cela m'est arrivé plusieurs fois quand j'étais à Paris. Un étranger qui m'aborde pour me poser des questions et mon premier réflexe était "Oh cool, je vais pouvoir pratiquer mon anglais". (je me débrouille pas trop mal en anglais).
Seulement une ou deux fois mon interlocuteur m'a demandé de continuer en français. (Ce qui n'a pas posé de problème, honnêtement si les autres avaient demandé, j'aurais probablement accédé à leur requête.)
This happened in Montreal all the damn time. In Paris, they were much nicer and tolerated my high school French consistently in restaurants and shops. Paris for the win 😄 Conversely, when I speak my broken Greek, they always look at my Greek husband to clarify wtf 😂 that is what kills me, even happens in N America, not just when we’re in Greece 🤦🏻♀️
As soon as i hear a foreign accent, i will switch to english. Not to flex or to annoy the speaker that maybe prefers to speak in French, but to make sure that i'm understood...if the person insists to speak in french, i'll switch for one sentence, then go back immediatelly to english rofl...sorry guys..désolé///
You realize there are thousands upon thousands of people who speak fluent French with an accent right? (and many of them don't understand English)
@@OuiInFrance when i say accent, i imply that is a foreign one...
Also i don't know what you mean exactly by fluent (i guess it's understanding and being able to converse in 'français courant')
But it's actually very rare to meet a foreigner (outside francophonie ofc) speaking really fluent french (familier/courant/soutenu), except for scholars or Jodie Foster...Even for people who lived here for a while...Sometimes it's like talking to a child that has 200 words of vocable..i prefer to switch to english, i find it more respectfull.
When in the 1970s when my family went camping in France
rarely did French people speak English
so my mother used to make me ask for foods in shops
I noticed when I travelled more often to France in the 1990s
that there had been a switch in the population
and some of the signage in locations were in English
(more specifically American English)
There was a change from the De Gaulle "Non!"
to a we'll give it a go.
I had been in Finland a lot and learnt Finnish so
my trick was to say I was from Finland
because of they could speak Finnish
I could bluff my way convincingly.
I have an American colleague who insisted on giving seminar talks in France in French. The trouble is, when he does, it takes forever (he speaks slowly, he hesitates), and the audience grows impatient. This is a work context, not a leisurely conversation; the audience has other things to do afterwards. We politely hinted that it may be easier if he gave his talks in English (we all understand professional English). I guess this is in the same category as the busy waiter.
Bonjour.... I only found that a person switched to french language only maybe two times. But I did hear them do it often to others. The times it did happen was when i would translate for my husband. The only time i was frustrated was when a waiter did it one day but seemed angry about it. I continued speaking in french with him. I would say my skills are very good. This was in a tourist area though. The second time, I was giving a tour in the catacomes and i mistranslated something, and a guide corrected me. She and I became friends. She was so nice about it. Oh, on the metro, there was a young man who wanted to practice his english, so we did switch for him. He was a very cool kid. He was going to be going off to Uni in Philly that fall. I wonder what happened to him
That's funny. My parents and sister found the same thing happened a lot in Quebec (I'm Canadian). French-speaking Québécois would switch to English as soon as they heard an accent not typical of Quebec, even though my father is from Belgium (French is his native language!) and my Mum speaks good French. The French of Quebec is not exactly like that of Belgium, or France, and they do speak much faster than my Belgian relatives. But if you told them you needed to practice your French they would switch back and many wold slow down to improve understanding.
The Podcast I love is called Tuesday People Podcast - Mitch Albom. He is the Author of a book (from 26 yrs ago) Tuesdays with Morrie where he (Mitch) finds out his old college professor is dying from ALS (also known as Lou Gherig's disease). All these years later, each Tuesday there is a new podcast segment and each time the topics are just on topics that make one think. Sometimes there are specially invited guests, sometimes it is just Mitch giving his take on how one might approach certain situations. Very well done. Engaging. Thought provoking. www.mitchalbom.com/tuesday-people/
If you want to practice then ask. But be prepared to be told "No." And ask someone who's obviously not busy. When I was in university, sometimes East Asian exchange students would randomly ask "Can I practice my English with you?" and sometimes they can be annoying if you're obviously cramming for a test. 🙄
There is a story (could be an urban legend) of an American who went to rural France for an archeological dig. Every day, before he'd go to the site, he would order (in French) a few items from the bakery. They had a tough time understanding him, but managed to get his order. It was tough and they did not seem to happy with him. On the third day, he walked in and his order was ready and all he had to do was pay! They were bright and cheery and sent him on his way. This continued for the next month. It was only on his last day that he learned why they were so nice: he was butchering the French language so much they did everything in their power to avoid having him speak! :-D
Oh no!!! Please tell me it's not a personal anecdote!
@@OuiInFrance Thankfully, not mine! However, when I speak French to my in-laws, their heads all tilt like a dog... utter confusion! :-D My husband repeats what I say (I swear it sounds the same, only faster) and they respond. I keep trying!
I love "things I love"
I worked in Nice in 1973, my French teacher who was very nice kept asking me questions like, "Peter what does it mean when Americans keep saying get down, does it mean if I get on up on the table and then get off the table, is that what it means?"I told No no , then had to show what it meant, and do a little grind dance she laughed so much! what a laugh.
Great video! I like your ideas about the language. I figure if I like to speak in their language, I'd just asked. If they are too busy or something I'd just thank them & speak english. I also like your favorite thing.💚
as french Learner Ive come across this many times, Ive always been told by the French person, ... its easier for us, whatever nationality you are you will probably speak english and we get to practice english
I totally agree with you Diane, when I came to live in the Netherlands being French I could hardly learn Dutch because a lot of people at the time answered me in French. That was because they were proud to show their level of French. At one point when I started to communicate well in Dutch there were still some who tried to answer me in French because I had a strong French accent. I still found it embarrassing. Now I speak, read and write perfectly this language which even Dutch people who don't know me don't "notice" anymore that I am French. These day’s the Dutch level of French has also skyrocketed dramatically because French has not been compulsory in school for at least 25, 30 years. A generation to tell the truth!
Hi Noel I think you mean 'plummeted' or 'dropped' dramatically, instead of 'skyrocketed'
Brilliant!! Merci beaucoup!
Des conseils judicieux.
GREAT video Diane! I lived in France for a few years and had similar experiences. I eventually came to the same conclusions that you did, although you expressed it in a far more articulate way than I could. :-) By the end of my stay in France, my language skills were good enough that most French thought I was Canadian (is that an insult to Canadians?), but they stopped switching to English. Ironically, when I subsequently visited Canada and spoke French in rural Québec, the Canadians thought I was French!
Oh no, that's totally normal! Any French who spend enough time in Quebec would be asked if they're Quebecois once they go back to France. I'm Quebecois but I have a slight French accent when I speak. I've been asked regularly by both French and Quebecois where I am from in France, how long I've been living in QC or how far I am in my immigration process.
I feel you forgot an important option/group Diane and that's the bilingual who was raised bilingually and who faces linguistical depression, them switching to english is not for your benefit but for their own well being they know you can understand them fully and they won't mind you answering in French but THEY NEED that english bubble to keep linguistical depression away and as an english speaker you can help with that.
Hi there, good addition and I feel like that falls into the category I mentioned where you can tell a language partner or someone close (ish) what you need from them. Someone who cares will make an effort to stave of the depression you spoke of. But in the case of quick interactions with busy Parisians, the switch wouldn't happen to someone raised bilingually because there would be no issue with communication and no perceivable accent.
Thank you for watching!
@@OuiInFrance You're welcome and don't worry I got that the video is mostly focusing on "passers by" more than people here for a longer period of time it's just I wanted to further that sometimes it's REALLY NOT ABOUT YOU lol ^^
My French is quite strong but I'm very obviously foreign, so before the election I usually lied and said I was Canadian rather than American, mainly because it was politically embarrassing to be American, even if I didn't vote for he who must not be named.
Happy to guess that you are now feeling much better.
I was in Hendaye FR at the train station and had to rebook tickets because of a delay. I started out in my intermediate French with the SNCF representative. She asked me if I wanted to use French or English. I told her French, so she proceeded with the lengthy explanation of the options and the transaction in French. When we were done she gave me a big smile and complimented me on my willingness and ability to do it in French. It really made my day.
Diane, what is the name of the TV show you mentioned? I did not understand. Thanks.
Lupin (on Netflix)
A few french learning channels are doing "lupin". Where they play a clip and discuss the french used in it. Seems to be the big french show right now.
This has happened to me in Montréal as well! I was very fluent in French at the time.
I just thought of another reason in Montreal... maybe the person didn't speak French very well. I know people from there speak French but maybe the person you encountered wasn't from there and didn't have a good handle on French. Thx for watching!
@@OuiInFrance There is probably another reason and that is the dialect and/or variety of French that Helene Bickford was speaking might have been different from the dialect and/or variety of French that the Montreal person was speaking. And, this Montreal person might not have been speaking Quebec French either. There is a lot of new immigrant people that live in Montreal that are from other French specking countries like Haiti, Cameron, the Congo, etc. So, this person might have been speaking one of these other French dialects and/or varieties. Also, the accents might have been different between these two people.
Language switching is very common in Montreal. I do it so often it's subconscient. I can have an entire conversation with friends where we keep switching from English to French back and forth. Now that most of my friends are Latinos, we have trilingual conversations.
This happens to me often. I am half French and am practically fluent but I do have an English accent obviously. When this happens to me I say to them in French, “I do speak and understand French.” They then usually start speaking in French again but it always seems to happen. It happened the last time in November in Paris and I was with my mum in a chemist (who is French) and I was talking to her in English and the pharmacist just started speaking to me in French. It really annoyed me, as I never spoke to her in English...
Edit: I can speak French well. It always happens in a shop or something and while I have an accent, I have zero problems communicating. I can hold my own perfectly well so that’s why I never understand why they do this to me.
Same here, they say that I speak french with an American accent, but I am from the Dominican Republic. I do live in the US but this happened to me even when I lived in the DR.
The typical french case is : we are speaking french and the foreign person say LE table, so it hurts a lot for us, so we have to correct it : "c'est LA table". That's rather dumb, cause they can't know all object's gender, but it hurts so much the ears god.
People who are bilingual switch back and forth between languages. I think that's a beautiful thing. When my daughter was learning Spanish she would speak to native speakers, boldly and unafraid. That's the way to do it. Just go for it!
Generally it's a "girl thing" it boosts their blooming egos. I ve never seen much guys do that.
this one sounds a little agressive.i felt like i was being scolded
Living On The Delta...Remember, it’s not all about you!