True or False? French Stereotypes 

Thank you for sharing!

True 😄

Thanks for the info! 🙏🏼

Thank you for your comment! Well, I guess university professors should be fluent in English or am I wrong? It didn't happen to me that often because I mostly spoke French there but I heard such stories from other people who didn't speak French and waiters wouldn't even try to speak English to them even though it's Paris, a very touristic place

Actually, no, there is little reason why university professors should be fluent in English if they teach in French in a field where the scientific publications and the colloquia are in French, which not so long ago was the case in a large share of disciplines (literature, humanities). They took English classes in highschool and forgot about it because they never used it, the same way that people forget about mathematics. University professors in disciplines where the norm is to publish in English in international journals and to give talks in English to international audiences of course tend to speak English, at least the English they need for their professional needs. The part about learning things in school and then forgetting it also applies to clerical staff, waiters and so on. Add that the traditional way of teaching English emphasizes pointing out errors in pupils' speech, and that if a pupil speaks English too well he or she risks being mocked by other pupils as being pretentious, and thus not only have people forgotten what they learned in school, but they often did not learn much usable English in the first place. Thus I think you are attributing to malice ("they speak English but don't want to because they want to be mean to foreigners") what is more easily explainable by lack of abilities and fear of being ridiculous.

Well, I didn't say that they wanted to be mean to people. In my opinion it's more about history since French used to be an international language and now it's English. And if we take into consideration everything that happened between France and The great Britain for instance - it becomes clear why some French people didn't want to speak and learn English (I noticed that it's more frequent among elderly people and 30-40 years old people). However, when people work in touristic places - they're required to speak English and if they don't do it - it's at least weird. That's why foreigners have this feeling that some french people chose not to speak the language.

Again, I think the reason why elderly people don't speak English is that they are far removed from their school days, have never used English in between, that when they were growing up there was little English material available. These simple reasons have probably more to do with it than geopolitics. Again, it's like wondering why 50 year old people do not recall highschool mathematics when they don't work in scientific fields. People forget what they don't use. "When people work in touristic places they're required to speak English". Assuming of course the restaurant or café managed to hire people who speak foreign languages at the pay that they offer. These days, there is workforce shortage in these areas; work conditions and salaries are so bad they can't find people to hire.@@AnnaSandersonEng

I see. Thanks for sharing your opinion!

Alors là mon gars, je me suis levée à 5h 30 du matin pour aller travailler et j'ai travaillé toute ma vie. Arrêtez de juger tout le monde et je pense que ce sera mieux que vous. Les magasins ferment plus tôt en Grande Bretagne .... Vu et constaté et j'en passe .... Votre outrecuidance me semble sans limites , cher Monsieur.