I once accidentally spoke french to a waitress in Greece then apologised and said I wasn’t actually french. She went on a ten minute diatribe about how french people are the bane of her life because they refuse to speak English with her and just get louder and louder in french 😂
As a Belgian, I noticed that people usually get warmer when they learn I’m not French.
Hopefully the cliche will change over time.
It’s like the Canadians when they don’t want people to think they’re Americans. Some Americans even pretend they’re Canadian for the same reason. I’m French and I knew about these for a long time but never thought of the parallel with France/Belgium. Damn I might start using this and just say I’m Belgian haha.
Lol spanish and italians speak shit english.
It’s not our fault that the Latin-Germanic barrier is so difficult to overcome
If at all. At least in Italy, outside of tourist areas or quite often even in tourist areas, you’d have to point and wave to talk or use a translation app. Even 20 somethings barely understood any english.
I lived in spain for 4 months in a tourist spot(out of season) and they couldnt understand our english. They had shops with signs like “we speak english” but they didnt. At least italian is easier to understand with english than spanish. And then theres the french who speak perfect english but refuse to.
Indeed. This meme is funny because quite disconnected from reality
So do the English.
American English is the only correct English.
The average swede speaks better english than the average american
Americans have worse English than the French.
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English is still an official language of the EU thanks to Ireland and Malta.
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Afaik french officials within the EU commission tried to push french in meetings for a while after Brexit, but didnt have particular success
No, they used French as working language during their council presidency. That’s all, nothing wrong with it, but some people tried to twist it into something else.
It’s about French people sucking tremendously at English.
Source : I’m French, and they don’t even try to speak it most of the time, pretty well known. Meanwhile, I went to Germany and actually had trouble finding someone 35 and less that didn’t speak English.
I was stationed in a multi-nation camp and was astonished about how few French were able to speak basic English. Like most Asian countries had a better english vocabulary then the French.
Do they not teach English in France?
They do. But why should they care ? English really is only present during school classes or for some few words that have made it to common vocabulary.
Kids are taught, but they don’t learn (much). And since they have practical no use for english in everyday life, once they left school, they tend to forget the very little they ever learned.
Excuse me, but not all French people only bake baguettes, do they? Don’t they use the internet and other technologies? Social networks like this one for example? Don’t they become pilots, IT technicians etc. all these jobs that require English?
I guess pilot is some kind of a special thing. They really need to speak english and require some minimal level. They will learn the basic they need for the job. Also, they get constant exposure to English, which help maintain and improve it.
IT people, that’s a different story. I know “many” that don’t speak english or have such basic knowledge that they understand something different than what is actually said or written. Many job in IT will not require english, mostly a bonus. Take microsoft docs for instance, their website auto-translate to french. And even when needed, read/written is often enough. It’s also easier because we mostly learn to read & write english in schools and both language have common/similar words. Tools like google translate are also a blessing. Those 2 categories are in the upper class and I don’t really think they represent even 5% of the french people :)
The real pain point is the accent. Because we mostly learn through text (reading/writing), many will fail to identify the word pronounced because it doesn’t match how a french would read/pronounce it out loud despite knowing the word. Same goes the other way, there were a few times when someone had a hard time understanding me because I failed to pronounce a word properly : brother vs browser. Any french would read out loud those two the exact same way.
And about your point on social media I cannot say. I grew up at a time when they didn’t existed, and I don’t have youngsters around me to see their exposure to english and how they deal with it.
Seems strange to have Italy and Spain here, the English proficiency is usually at the same levels than France.
It’s not that they can’t speak English, the cliché (at least in the past) is that they refuse to speak it. Spanish people are probably worse when it comes to English proficiency these days.
Can’t agree on Spanish people here. Even the younger ones refuses or just really suck at speaking English. I talked to elderly people in Portugal in English and was not a problem. The younger people in Portugal are at least at a basic level. I am learning Spanish at the moment and I would say both languages share a lot of words. So knowing English helps me a lot understanding Spanish words.
I live in Montreal, my experience is that French people speak great English while most Quebecers can’t ask for the bathroom in English. Of course, the French people coming here are generally open minded compared to Jean-Guy from Brossard who not only shoots you a “yes-no-toaster” when you ask him if he speaks English but also thinks it’s the funniest thing he’s ever said.
My experience with the French is that they’re happy to speak English if you say something like “Excusez-moi, perlez vous anglais?” but may pretent to not understand you if you just start in English.
Which is actually pretty fair when I think about it.
Very true. English speakers are sometimes taken aback, but it’s usually a way to show respect to the local language, and acknowledge that you are asking them a favor to speak a second language.
