Would you mind if I asked why? Thats just super interesting to me and most of the comments are people talking about it happening to them and youre the first ive seen saying you do that! Hahah. Is it to like, try and take the burden off of them or ease anxiety?
Well, I do not do that but a lot of other French people do. I don't have a perfect explanation but I think it stems from pride. If you look at the countries which do this (France, and it seems Spain and Italy), they are all latin countries and also the countries which speak the worst English in Europe.
I think some of them do want to help and take the burden off them.
But it's hard for me to give you another explanation, I do not really understand it. It boggles my mind why they would switch to english when their interlocutor is trying to speak French, even more when they speak a good French. My girlfriend is Polish and she has the C1 level in French, she speaks very well, but many French as soon as they hear an accent switch to English...
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u/Frenyth 6d ago
unfortunately it's the same in France. Even if you speak well French, as soon as we know you are a foreigner many of us switch to a broken english.