Speaking French

Maybe it was just your approach that was bad that you were not self aware of many many years ago; I have never encountered any snobbery, that has always been a myth.

So sorry to hear of your experience, but glad your husband was taken care of!

I have noticed the same thing as you as regards the acceptance of us speaking less than Parisian accented French. Forget it back when I started traveling, now generally tolerated or welcomed. My theory - not subjected to testing! - is that joining the EU brought a number non-native French speakers into the country for jobs and acclimated some of the French populace to other languages and less than native French. At least that was my observation a couple years after the EU had been in place. From my personal travels, I date the new tolerance of less than perfect French to that time. But, I could well be wrong!

In any case, I'm glad that my efforts at French are accepted. I am also surprised to learn that younger people in Amboise were not broadly English acquainted. My recent experience has been mostly in Paris and surrounds.

I guess that's a silver lining to a bad experience for you and your husband. Hope he is doing OK now.

It's not surprising that hospital staff and others didn't speak much English, they don't encounter many non-French people in their work or daily lives. People in the tourist industry are much more likely to know other languages. But your French-first approach was definitely the best one, and brought out their instincts to be helpful -- probably well-developed instincts for those in the health professions.

I hope you got to enjoy the Loire country as well as learn more about France's health care system!

I’m so sorry you husband was ill and had to spend that much time in the hospital ! I am glad that you found caring people both at your hotel and at the hospital. Hope he is feeling much better now.

After over 50 years of travel I will never understand why Yanks assume that English is spoken and understood everywhere.

Why? Is it Because of tourism? Or the assumption after WW2 the English language became universal.

The US is a conglomerate of immigrants. That’s the reality of America.

I’m 83% Spanish. Can I speak the language? Only very rudimentary phrases. Have never been to Spain so no clue if I’d try my Spanish or listen to see if English was used and understood.

In both Cuba and Istanbul younger individuals wanted to try their English with me.

Enjoyable interactions with lots of smiles and laughter.

Whenever I was I’d be respectful of culture and the people.

I have certainly heard a lot of snobbery stories about the French.
My husband was in France around 1990. He says that his high school French was very well accepted at that time, even in Paris. One of his go to stories is while getting a meal at a place that had a sort of buffet line, the server would not give him the food unless he could ask for it in French. My SIL had to make do with eggs and green beans. All in fun!

My French is subpar to my husband's and I didn't make it to France until 2023. I always started in French. I had 3 service people that would not use one word of English with me. One of them was under 25 years old. Two servers and one taxi driver. I did not sense any malice in them. In the end all three interactions were successful. Gestures and mispronunciations worked in 2 cases and Google Translate was needed in the other. I do expect hotel staff to speak some English, but otherwise I try to be prepared as best I can.

I am so happy that OP was able to turn a bad occurrence into a meaningful exchange with locals.

Nice assumption Jazz+Travels :-(. In one instance I walked up to a cop and asked directions to something in basic French. Maybe he didn't like my blue jeans and backpack LOL!

To everyone else, thanks for your well wishes to my husband. We are back home and he is recovering well. And we did have a couple of interesting conversations about the differences in health care in the US and France with the two nurses who spoke some English.

BTW, I've travelled to over 30 countries. I don't go with the expectation that all I need to do is speak English. But with sooo many English-speaking people travelling these days, and with English seeming to be a universal language, it's not unrealistic to assume that people everywhere do speak English. Especially if they work in tourism. One small shop in Tuscany I went in and ordered in Italian. The clerk answered me in English. I said, "no, I want to practice my Italian", and she said "I want to practice my English".

I had your experience when I visited France back in the 70's. I was young and yes, I felt there was snobbery going on at that time. I did try my HS French which was much closer to having had the classes than it is now, lol!

On my France visits since 2014 I do find the folks in Paris are more willing to help me when I start in my pathetic French.
I just am missing the brain chip to be able to speak another language although I'd love to.

I am kind of shocked at some of the replies you've gotten. What happened to Andrew' recent post about being nice or not posting? No need to assume you were assuming anything.

I, too, am glad you are home and that hubby is on the mend. A hospital stay even when you can speak the language is not fun and he must have felt pretty isolated. I'm glad you got help from the hotel and from the caregiving staff as well.

Everybody who speaks English speaks it with an accent. My accent is very different from people born 15 miles from where I was born.

Thank you for posting, and I am glad to hear your husband received good care while being in a hospital while traveling! Also, that your lodging host was very helpful for you! I hope you both were able to enjoy some of that beautiful French region.

naalehuretiree,
This is an interesting thread. I have 4 years high school French and a college minor in French, as well as a husband who is a native speaker, but have made many a faux pas with the false cognate. Fortunately no one has ever been rude or supercilious to me in France. I have given the French family members some good laughs though! (Don't comment on American bread having preservatives in it by saying "preservatifs"!) Google translate on your phone can be a life saver, especially if reading menus is a problem. I find that everywhere I have gone, in other countries too, with maybe one exception, people have been tolerant of my attempts to speak the local language, and somehow or other we communicate, whether with hand gestures, facial expressions, passing a foreign language dictionary back and forth, pointing to some words in a book or map with a questioning expression, or a genuine smile.
(By the way, it does amaze me that some Americans expect all foreign visitors to the US to speak English, yet don't bother to try and speak the language of the country they are visiting. A small minority I think, but "turn about is fair play"! My guess is that because we are bordered by two oceans and just two other countries, we forget that the world is really a small place.)

I just thought I'd add that it's not uncommon to find physicians in France who have pretty good facility with English. It shouldn't be surprising, as a lot of scientific literature -- including medical literature -- is published in English. I've lived in three different parts of France and generally have encountered physicians at their private offices, clinics, and hospitals who speak English fairly well.

Nurses and administrative staff at hospitals are another matter. English capability is less common and generally (but not completely) absent.

I’m so sorry your husband had to be hospitalized but glad he’s on the mend and so many people were kind and helpful.
You certainly got a local experience. We have been very impressed by the French healthcare system and hope you were, too.

But my head is spinning reading so many theories about the evolution of the French language over the years. This has been a country of immigration for many decades, a population that is extremely well traveled—at least those who can afford it, One of my friends has been to Yemen twice! No, Paris isn’t the target accent. LOL

I didn’t have bad experiences when I was first learning French in the 1970s. But I was young, cute, single so may have been given a pass—and it doesn’t last forever. But I do agree that most parts of society have changed, opened up, loosened up, as have many other societies around the world. Glad that it makes it a nicer experience for everyone.

Bob, interestingly the doctor was from Romania and she spoke both French and English. Although her French was a lot better than the English. My husband has trouble understanding accents (probably due to hearing loss), but I was able to understand her just fine and acted as translator. She was very very caring and helpful, as were the nursing staff.

Bets - my last trip (2022) I was traveling with a Quebec native. First language, French. More than once in Paris, when she spoke in French, the response was in English. She finally asked someone why they wanted to speak English when she was primarily a French speaker; she was told it was her accent. Not what was expected - therefore, assume English is the native language.

Similarly, Canadian, by-lingual French/English friends who enrolled their child in the Chicago French School were told not to speak French at home to their young child. They would mess up the "Parisian accent" that was spoken and promolgated by teachers at the school.

Several more experiences with being called out for non-Parisian accent in my travels, but we will leave it there. I have not had similar experiences outside of Paris.

Absolutely gobsmacked by those two experiences.
I would have pulled my kids out of that school so fast and put into one of the other French schools. Insulting to the parents. True bilingualism, when the host country speaks English, is difficult and needs all hands on deck. Did the parents speak like 17th century peasants or something? Incredible. Eventually those children would probably be able to shift accent depending on the situation. (Actually, Tours is the reference accent.)
I have close friends from Quebec but their accents shift depending on the situations. When they’ve been out with us, people ask about Canada. I’ll ask if they’ve run into insults. That’s terrible what happened to your people.
My oldest child is bilingual. My second is about B2. He had one trip where waiters spoke to him in English though he maintained the French. Other trips conversations were in French. His accent is close to native but he speaks slowly in both English and French. I have the English accent in the family but a large vocab and understand 99%. Nobody speaks English with me.
Those are maddening experiences. I’m sorry they were treated like that.

I speak French fluently (as in fluid, fast), but with a horrible American accent.

I have been shocked over the years at how generous the French (and most of my experience is in Paris) have been to me and my bad accent over the past 20 years. Whether they are people I’m meeting in a commercial setting, in a professional setting, or a casual setting — if it comes up, they really go out of their way to tell me how “charming” my accent is and how the French love the American accent (I can assure you that my accent is NOT charming and when I hear an American with my accent speaking French - for example, on the radio - it makes my skin crawl).

I can think of one time a few years ago when a cashier at a chicken place was mocking my accent in what i felt was an unkind way. But that experience stuck with me because it was so much the exception. Of course, if that interaction was the first day I got here on a five-day visit to Paris, it would have impacted me in a very different way.

I took classes in French 20+ years ago. The teacher (a Frenchwoman) explained to us that the French were not snobbish, just more formal in their interactions with strangers. And that they were fiercely proud of their language, and assumed that you would want to know the correct way to say something.

But the point about the approach makes sense to me. If you just go up to someone assuming they want to talk, without the initial pleasantries and prepatory phrases, they dont know if you're just rude, drunk, or a potential thief. I grew up among immigrants and witnessed many, many times where Americans were purposefully rude to people whose English was not perfect. Not everyone feels obligated to make the effort to understand you.

Funny, I had a similar thought about the difference of my experience with the French.

I just returned from our European trip. We were one week in Paris and I loved it MORE than when I was there at age 16 (over 30 years ago).

Back then, I thought the Parisians were difficult and standoffish even when I tried to speak French. This time, it was totally different. Thankfully much of my French came back, enough to make a solid effort.

I realized, taking my teen girls there, that it was more likely my immaturity that judged the Parisians back then. Teenagers are not much for courtesy and respect; Parisians and adults are! It's not that the French have gotten better, it's that I have. ;) Perspective!

melT, you make a very good point.

I think both the French and Germans are less tolerant of hearing their language spoken badly because they are just not as used to it as English speakers are. English is spoken everywhere to varying degrees of proficiency and English speakers are just very accustomed to hearing, understanding and conversing with people who don’t speak the language very fluently.

ORDTraveler and Bets

Last year in Paris, we met a couple from Montreal (French speakers) and the wife shared with us the exact same experience that ORDTraveler’s friend had.

Her English was quite good, but not fluent.

C’est la vie. Vive la difference.

While we were in the Loire and the Dordogne, we met many locals or visitors who lived in other parts of France and whose English was …

… comme notre francais. Nous avons parle ensemble, un peu en Anglais et un peu en Francais. Ca va assez bien.

My experience wasn't that the French are snobs about the language as much as they are "snobs" about polite conversation. A polite conversation starts with a formal greeting (yes, even to a 17-year-old convenience store clerk). After that I usually ask, in French, if they speak English. If not, I stumble through with my awful French. A polite conversation also ends with a pleasant, "thank you, goodbye". It doesn't need to be in French. Using those two simple rules will net completely different results.

North Americans often start a conversation by approaching a stranger and asking a question, which the French consider very rude. They are likely to ignore you - you haven't even acknowledged them as a person. We then consider them rude for refusing to talk to us.

Google translate works, but it's usually an imperfect translation - enough to get the idea across but not really correct.

There are certainly other cultural differences that create disdain on their part (not enough ice, free coffee refills, etc.) but you can go a long way and be very surprised how helpful the French will be if you simply pay attention to polite conversation rules, even in Paris.

I've met the occasional jerk in Paris, but the rest of France considers Parisians pretty awful too.