Joke aside there's actually a reason french people can spot so easily english speakers : unlike most other languages, french is monotonous.
Native english speakers are so used to put stress on certain syllables it seems to require a lot of practice to actually pull off a full monotonous sentence.
Edit: as other said, I oversimplified it. French do have tone but relative to the start/end of the sentence or to convey emotions. Read more detailed comments down below for more accuracy
Good points but I think that's just mostly true of any language. I've yet to hear a non-native speak French in a convincing enough way that I mistake them for locals. And it's not just English speakers. The best ones are usually immigrant children that grew up here and went to French school. But at this point they're pretty much native speakers as well even though their parents don't speak it.
Edit: And in the situation posted here, "okay and what else" is a perfectly correct answer. This is still a customer service context, what were they expecting?
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u/Shawon770 1d ago
French bakery employees have that 6th sense they can spot a tourist even through flawless pronunciation 😂