A French friend sent me this, with an explanation...
"L'accent de la personne qui appelle la radio est assez prononcé, donc je te situe le contexte : c'est un étranger qui vit en France et qui explique qu'il ne sait jamais à la boulangerie s'il doit dire un ou une, le ou la pour une baguette et il a trouvé un truc qu'il veut partager avec tous les étrangers en France….."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcH8cVk6X7Q
Ditto David, apart from which I have learned to use the indistinct 'n instead of either like people do hereabouts, apart from that it is who gives a ....?
But Brian if I make a mistake with an un or an une these days I just think to myself "who gives a s**t anyway" at my age! If they don't want to sell one or laugh at me I can just laugh at myself. These days I can't remember what to say in English plenty of the time!
Why didn’t he ask the baker whether it’s “une baguette” or “un baguette”? I hope that when they had finished laughing the radio guy explained what to ask for!
The last verse of a Bob Dylan song:
I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood
Whose visions in the final end
Must shatter like the glass
I pity the poor immigrant
When his gladness comes to pass
Then they make fun of somebody from Armenia who has problems buying baguettes! I think this is an overblown story to fill in an empty space, except that it does fit with some peoples' views if you take a look at this: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/09/right-wing-new-reactionaries-stir-up-trouble-among-french-intellectuals
Have people nothing else to do in this world other than laugh at others or effectively demonise them?