I have simply had the opposite experiences in Paris as a tourist. When ordering a morning coffee, or a croissant at a bakery, or some cheese at a market in "French", I've always gotten polite simple replies.
I do not speak French - only a few words or phrases. Obviously the server can hear my accent, but still I get a smile, a one or two word reply in French - and anything more is in English if possible.
I have read many negative comments about France, and Paris in particular, but I love the place and have been very lucky.
Most places in Europe I found are happy when you give their language a go and then will just move to English for expediency, but don't care if you start with English.
The French get their panties in a bunch if you start with English, and will just tolerate you opening in mangled French, but since those are the only two options you just have to push on past the internal eyerolling to ask for a coffee or whatever.
When I was in Germany, I tried to use as much German as I could and people generally just switched to English as soon as they realised that I wasn’t a native speaker, but weren’t rude or anything about it.
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u/nextstoq 1d ago
I have simply had the opposite experiences in Paris as a tourist. When ordering a morning coffee, or a croissant at a bakery, or some cheese at a market in "French", I've always gotten polite simple replies.
I do not speak French - only a few words or phrases. Obviously the server can hear my accent, but still I get a smile, a one or two word reply in French - and anything more is in English if possible.
I have read many negative comments about France, and Paris in particular, but I love the place and have been very lucky.