We are traveling to Paris for three days in a week and I'm worried about not speaking French. I like to honor the cultures I visit but learning a whole language isn't in the cards for me. How challenging is it going to be in restaurants or shops? Can I use my translate feature on my phone to help with the language divide?
Any words I should learn that would help?
Thank you in advance.
If you know hello (bonjour), good bye (au revoir) please (s'il vous plait) and thank you (merci) you'll be fine. Say bonjour to everyone... and I mean everyone...you encounter. From taxi driver, shop clerks, anyone you intend to speak to. Say bonjour first. I cannot stress this in strong enough terms.
If you just do that, you'll be fine. Most people in the areas you'll be will speak English.
Thank you! This takes a weight off my mind. I appreciate the quick response also.
You will find that in real-time that using a phone translator just isn't practical.
Many restaurants will have menus in English (some with creative translations).
As stated above, ALWAYS start with "bonjour.". "Excuse me..." Is not a replacement for bonjour
Remember that these people generally aren't extremely fluent but know enough to do their jobs well. Be grateful they put in the work and speak simply and clearly as a courtesy.
Before you go, go on line and find a site that gives you a dozen conventional and politeness phrases. You MUST great people on first encounter -- walking into a shop, getting croissants at the bakery, asking for directions -- ALWAYS start with bon jour (or bon soir). and you need to be able to say thank you, please, excuse me and ask basic directions. These are easy to know and there are many sites on line that list them and also will play you a recording to hear how they are pronounced.
Most people at tourist sites will be able to cope in English although again -- you must use the politeness phrases first. In less central spots that is less so. We usually stay on the fringes of Paris and these days more and more people have a little English but even so it is not unusual to encounter those who don't.
The phone translator is not useful in the middle of a conversation usually but you can prepare a question or request or use it to figure out menu items. FWIW. you are usually better off just googling the dish in question than using the translator. T he translator won't be able to translate a dish with a name like Gratin a la Maxim -- or whatever. But google will often show you the recipe and a picture.
I did RS Best of Paris. I did this with only committing to memory the minimum since I had just done the RS Italy tour.
I had a brain fart standing in line once and didn't manage the "bon jour" when I finally got to the counter person. It did not go well.
You will have no problems. Anyone who interacts with tourists will speak enough English to make themselves understood. Saying hello in French and good by will help set the tone. Most restaurants menus will be in both English and French or they may offer an English version. And don't fall for the trap that an English menu is a poor restaurant.
As long as you have the basic greetings and phrases, you'll be fine. I do find Google Translate helpful because I try to prepare in advance. I can manage basic French, but there are often phrases and words in shops and ordering food etc that I like to refresh myself prior to speaking.
I try to speak French as much as possible, as I find it does make a big difference in terms of friendliness etc, but on occasions when ir doesn't go according to script and someone asks me something I can't answer (or sometimes can't understand in the first place) I do find people pretty patient.
Be assured that you won't encounter any problems communicating with the local population.
My knowledge of the language is modest at best, still I don't rely on a translator feature at all, unnecessary.
I once did a classic while changing planes at CDG, going from Florence to Seattle. I greeted the transfer agent with Bon Giorno instead of Bonjour. We had a good laugh. In other words, good faith efforts count for a lot.
When I first visited Paris some 34 years ago, few people could, or would, speak English.
Times have changed. People who deal with tourists will speak some English because they have to. It's not just Americans who rely on English when traveling. it's many people. (English is the most spoken second language in the world.)
But I will also reiterate the politeness issue. Always greet a person with "Bonjour, madame" or "Bonjour, monsieur."
Story out of Paris. A tourist walked up to a waiter in a cafe and asked "toilets." He responded in English, "Madame, my name is not toilets."
Then learn a few other words or phrases...Hello, Goodbye, Please, Excuse me, Thank you, Where are the toilets?, etc.
In Paris, if you are polite in your greeting and at least try a few words in French, you will go far.
You've been battered about the head and shoulders with insistence on starting any interaction with a French person with "bonjour," so I won't berate that.
I will add, though, it's more polite and appreciated to say "Bonjour Monsieur," "Bonjour Madame," or both, if appropriate.
In general, don't use Mademoiselle even if you're interacting with a very young woman -- say, a teenager at a shop. Stick with Madame.
There's a silly film about a businesswoman traveling to France to purchase a Champagne property on Netflix and it was jarring to see her referred to as Mademoiselle a few times early in the film. Admittedly, I've only lived here for over a decade but I've never seen or heard that in real life.
Stick with Madame.
I saw that film on Netflixs and was equally astonished to hear a woman called mademoiselle. Clearly there were sufficient French cast members and staff to have advised that madame would be a much more appropriate term. I suppose the director or writer insisted on mademoiselle for American audiences. However, let's not follow the lead on that, madame is correct.
Interestingly, I was recently at a restaurant in Paris with some American friends and the waiter, who spoke English rather well, insisted on addressing the females as lady, such as "Lady are you ready to order". I was going to tell him that madame works very well in these circumstances and that lady is not really a nominative case pronoun, but ultimately, I said nothing. I think I should have.
OMG Bob, you made me laugh!!! :-)
On one of my first trips to Paris - I was barely into my 20s - I was called “Madame” a couple of times on my first day in town and I just SPIRALED into an emo bout of “OMG how old do I look!?!” I was a mess of self doubt and horror.
Luckily the mom of a friend was kind enough to explain what was up, and I was able to calm down and get over myself. :-)
A few random thoughts:
In one week all you can hope to do is drill into your head the excellent advice about learning and using the polite phrases. Try to emulate how you hear the French say these things—but even if butchered, it is better than not using them. It is much ruder to not say "bonjour" at all than to say it poorly. For others, one phrase I use frequently is (after "bonjour" or 'bon soir")
Est-ce que je peux vous poser une question en anglais?
Again, I wouldn't try this if you have no French language knowledge and have one week to go—this is really meant for others. My French is not good at all. I can struggle through ordering in a restaurant, but that is about it. And sometimes it is easier to just switch to English early on and I seem to find this is a good way to ask if this is okay (asking if someone can speak English may be considered rude by some, and this gives them the option to either proceed in English or not). If they are uncomfortable, they will likely find a co-worker who can take over.
And this:
Story out of Paris. A tourist walked up to a waiter in a cafe and
asked "toilets." He responded in English, "Madame, my name is not
toilets."
Brilliant!
The most important phrase to learn, in any language, is "Excuse me, do you speak English?" Nothing screams ugly foreigner like coming up to a stranger and blurting out "where is the train station?" in English. They likely will understand you. But be polite enough not to assume it and to remember the default language for communication is the local language. If you want to depart from that, its up to you to ask.
On our first trip to Europe together, my husband and I went to Italy and I got a tape to play in the car, called 'getting by in Italian' -- it was very helpful and the most helpful advice was that you don't need sentences. You don't need to memorize 'good day, may I inquire as to the location of the toilets?' -- all you need is the noun and a quizzical look. So 'polite greeting, and toilets?????' will work well and the same is true for other needs. 'polite greeting and Louvre??' you can throw in the 'where is' since that is easy, but the main idea is that to communicate adequately if not elegantly, you need very few words.
"Excuse me, do you speak English?"
Are you sure that is what you want to say? What you really want to say is: ¨Hello. Do you speak English?" The greeting is essential, be it bonjour or hello.
The Rick Steve’s phrase book is great I used it on my trips to Austria and Germany. Now I bought one for my trip to Paris next week. It is a great help with many handy phrases for all different situations. It is easy to use especially for someone who finds tackling a new language difficult. It is small about the size of my hand. So it fits in my pocket or day bag easy. My wife bought the digital version so she can enlarge the parts of the book she has difficulty seeing. Have a nice trip safe travels
I am sure my trips to Paris would be enhanced if I spoke French....
But I go annually and with very basic French and being polite... I do well :)
for Christmas I've asked for the new Airpods that supposedly translate in real time for you so hopefully I can understand more but it's not going to help on responses!
Janet, you made me laugh about listening to a tape in the car before you went to Italy. Many years ago, before my first trip to Italy, we listened to a tape in the car too. When we got to Italy, it turned out the only thing we remembered were the words for food.
Tells you where our priorities lie.
"for Christmas I've asked for the new Airpods that supposedly translate in real time for you so hopefully I can understand more but it's not going to help on responses!"
Carol! I want a report on how well these work!
And to the OP....I do not have the brain chip needed for languages. I agree with everyone that the Bonjour/Merci/S'il vous plait basics will be all you'll need.
I also use "Je ne parle pas Français" a lot....after the greeting, of course.
I was having a chat with a gentleman in the Army Museum in October and he used ChatGPT for immediate translation when the conversation got over his head in English. He was explaining about his Great-Uncle who was a resistance fighter and was pictured in the display cabinet in front of us so he had to use the translate feature for some of the words that were not in his everyday English. It worked quite well!!
Have a wonderful time! Enjoy the lights and seasonal decorations and have a fantastic time!
Regarding the earbuds that do real time translation- I was able to try these out a few months ago when visiting extended family in China- where Mandarin was spoken and translated into our ears in English. There was a slight lag, and some of the translation was a little off (the person speaking was able to see a simultaneous transcription into English on their phone, and could see when it had mistranslated), but overall I was very impressed.
I don't have much to add on visiting France- as with any country, just knowing "hello" and "thank you" will be a very good start.
Dear lenariverswrites,
everyone is correct, you can't go wrong being polite or courteous.
One thing to warn you if you go into stores, greet the proprietor/shopkeeper as soon as you arrive.
Also, if you are in a clothing store, always ask if it's ok to touch scarves, clothing and such before you do so.
They have to refold or rehang the garments after you leave.
Also, some people get really PO'd if you take pictures with them in it w/out acknowledging them first. I don't know why....this is a tourist destination. Have a great trip, Paris is magical.
My first trip to Paris was a December trip. It was absolutely magical! I hope you find it that way too! I'm sort of a Christmas curmudgeon but seeing Paris in December cured me.
Regarding knowing French, I will add onto the others that say greeting who you are speaking to before you ask anything is crucial.
My second trip to Paris, I was departing on the day there was a transit strike. I did some research and thought I was still okay taking the Metro and the RER B back to CDG. However, at some point I was in a jammed Metro station, trains stopped, doors open, nothing moving, constant announcements being made in French that I could barely hear, let along understand. Meanwhile my departure time was getting closer. I found a manned information office. I hurried up to it and I know I probably looked alarmed and frazzled. But I stopped, greeted them with "bonjour madame, bonjour monsieur" and waited for them to say "bonjour" to me. Then I asked "parlez-vouz anglais?" They did. And they were incredibly kind and helpful. They told me how I could get to CDG; one even came out of the booth to point me in the right direction. I "merci beaucoup"-ed them several times and as I left they were both waving at me and saying "au revoir, bonne journee."
When I hear grumbling about Parisians being rude, I remember my experience and how I'm positive taking the time to exchange polite greetings made all the difference.
I agree, I have found Parisiens to be polite and helpful - just try a little bit of French.
I was in a boulangerie once, ordering in French, and feeling good about it. Only to have a very gentleman behind me very politely correct my pronunciation.
Simon is absolutely correct.
I've always been treated well in Paris, and throughout France.
Have a wonderful time.
Everyone smiles in the same language.
My French is about 70%, better after coffee. My wife is from Montreal and thus totally bilingual. We've seldom had language probs in France.
My first career was drumming for a '70s Toronto rock band that experienced some success across Quebec. You'd be amazed at how effective the simple act of introducing our songs in French had upon audiences. We were no better than the next bar band, yet the Quebecois responded with much um, affection.
(sound of slap) OW!!!
I am done. the cultural respect
Six sept
Regards Ron
Not to open a can of worms, but unless you look and act like a local in every respect (clothes, attitude, general bearing), and if you’re in a tourist area, you will quite likely be greeted in English no matter how fluently you say “Bonjour” (which of course you must absolutely do). Americans in Paris are generally pretty easy to spot.
And every country is different. Tge French apparently expect you to conform to cultural norms. Great! Here, well here if you ask a person their name, they will give you their first name which is bending to outside norms. But every place being different is the beauty.
RE: being in a tourist area and being greeted in English no matter how fluent you say "Bonjour...." Not so.
Numerous times in Paris (too) aside from other French cities, let alone small towns, totally off the American visitor/tourist radar , you encounter a local, say the expected " Bonjour, Madame/Monsieur, " "they " reply and will continue in French , not English, unless you switch over , which I see myself having to do at times , but not always, due to my linguistic inferiority in French.
If I can pull it off continuing in French, which also does haltingly take place, why should "they" switch over knowing I am a tourist, certainly spotting me as an outsider to English just to make it easy for me?
"if you’re in a tourist area, you will quite likely be greeted in English no matter how fluently you say “Bonjour” "
Never happened to me - in fact that's the tricky bit - the conversation continues in French, unless it looks like I'm really struggling. Generally speaking I find Parisians expect you to speak in French, unless it's very clear you can't at all, in which case they'll normally politely switch to English.
I actually find this one of the pleasures of being in Paris. And thank goodness they're patient with my halting French!
The basics are essential, but if you want to prepare a little more without launching a full-scale course, try the RS phrase book or even just the back of the Paris guide for a list of basic vocabulary and questions. There are also plenty of other phrase books/guides for Paris tourists. Just visit your friendly Amazon search bar. The more effort you put into it, the more you will be rewarded and appreciated by Parisians. It's not the quality of the accent or knowledge of grammar, it's the effort you exhibit that means so much. You're demonstrating a respect for the French and their culture.
I recently spent a few days in Paris with two people who (unlike me) don’t speak French, and found that as soon as they heard us talking among ourselves in English, service personnel would switch to English for the sake of efficiency, rather than wait for me to explain/translate things for my traveling companions. No one seemed to have a problem with that, as long as I led with French.
