![]() ![]() Yes, the French love their language and don’t enjoy hearing it butchered. Voilà, they speak English with you! They don’t want to hear your bad French I’ve had this happen a few times (I know because they told me).Įnglish is becoming more and more important for work, travel and daily life in Europe and they may not have a million opportunities to converse with a native speaker. Just as you may be trying to improve your French by using it in public, French people may notice your accent and hear an opportunity to practice their English. It is not out of rudeness, just out of ease of understanding, which is the whole point of a conversation. This especially applies if they can tell your French isn’t great and they know their English is better. If you speak French to someone and they speak English well, they may just assume it is easier to speak English together. If they think you are a foreigner, they will switch to English if they can in an effort to be helpful. The same concept applies to people on the street you may speak to in French. It is their job to make your shopping experience good, so they switch to English out of courtesy to you. Since English is the language of tourism in France, many if not most shop employees speak English. Almost all the employees in clothing stores do this to me. ![]() This is especially true if you are in a shop of some kind. Here are a few motivations: They are trying to be helpful How they decide to answer probably has less to do with them judging you (which I used to think) and more to do with trying to make the conversation work. But don’t freak out, French people (most likely) aren’t doing this because they’re rude or hate you.Įven if your French is good, a native speaker almost certainly knows you aren’t French as soon as you open your mouth from your accent. It’s a frustrating, but common occurrence for expats in France - You ask a question in French and the response comes in English. ![]()
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