Trying to Speak French and They Speak Back to You in English? 

I just randomly found your channel (YT suggestion) and loved some of your videos. American, still live in the US, little older than you, and like you, I had to take a language in school, except for me, it was starting in first grade. French or Spanish, and being in the LA area, I made the intelligent choice and learned to speak French. First through twelfth grade, and I also took four years of German in high school. But that was over 40 years ago and I don’t get a ton of practice apart from visits for a week or two (my wife is German and so when we visit her family, it is “Gerlish” or whatever you want to call it). Last trip was in December 2022, right before Christmas, and that was a week in Paris and then two in Germany. My French is very rusty, and I can’t spell worth a crap anymore and my conjugation is terrible these days, so I test out really poorly these days, but I can get by pretty well in real life. But… yeah… waiters are the WORST when you’re trying to speak French to them and they respond in English. Part of it is that my wife speaks NO French, so they just assume. And I’ll invariably just respond in French until they get the hint. But what annoying is when they DO occasionally respond in French and ask me something, and I pause and look up in the air, thinking, and they’ll repeat in English, not realizing that it wasn’t that I didn’t understand them but that I'm simply trying to decide what I want. Others were better; when we checked into the hotel and my wife carried on the conversation entirely in English, I asked the front desk clerk (in French) what the crowd was outside and she answered in French. (It was remnants of a convention that was staying there that was happily leaving) And then there were other conversations where I asked if they spoke English and they didn’t, so the whole conversation was in French. Like when I had to buy a new charger for my Lenovo laptop because I'd left mine at home and I couldn’t go three weeks without a charger. Or when I had to call around and ask if they could replace the battery on my Swiss watch, and none of them spoke a word of English on the phone (and, as it turns out, my specific model watch had to be sent to Switzerland). I did have to cheat a bit there and use Google Translate because I had no idea what the French word for “battery” was. As for “fast spoken French” it is a completely different animal. No “ne” anywhere, and “schwee” meaning “je suis.” I've watched enough videos that I can sometimes KINDA get what someone is saying. Sometimes. Other times, it might as well be Aramaic. BTW, I'm pretty good at hearing accents (even in languages that I don’t understand) and your French accent is quite good.

It isn’t so much your accent. It is the way that you look. When you open your mouth it is apparent that you speak well. I think they are being a bit racist. You seem like an English speaker on the outside! In Spanish we would say, “una gringa.” It isn’t pejorative. It just denotes an American.😂

I use exactly the same technique when people speak back to me in English - I reply in French. It doesn't happen so much for me because I tend to be in the Basque region where most French people's second language is usually Spanish or Basque, English not so much. They are often quite relieved to be able to continue in French. There is, nevertheless, one Spanish server in a bar in France who always insists on speaking to me in English, and I always reply in French. Its been like that for a few years. I think we are both practising our second languages.

I'm a bartender in paris, i tend to do that when i see they struggle with french, so clients feel good and can ask whatever they want to know about this or that liquor, or the wine, without being shy or intimidated. I didn't know thet it was frustrating for y'all ... i'll do differently from now on

Tout à fait d'accord avec vous ! Je dirais aussi que la plupart du temps, ils ne sont pas habitués à ce qu'un Américain leur parle en français et ils essayent de terminer l'échange le plus efficacement possible, d'autant plus si c'est un endroit assez touristique. Personne n'a essayé de me parler en anglais en dehors de Paris, même avec un accent. Bonne continuation !

Hi there, you look like someone who once worked at a place called Upstairs at Greene st.NYC....not sure you're the same!

Bonjour, belle Karen. Mille mercis!