thanks. I am not a total ignorant. : ) I've been to France a few times and have taken lessons and always tried to speak french with locals to get better.
Not a weapon, it's just if you read through some different forums, you read how some officials can be very stand off'ish to rude. But maybe that is because that person, has not been polite in the first place. And talking face to face would be easier than over the phone.
My grand mother did trace our family name back to France and fought with Napoleon and then became a Noble in England, then came to Australia. If only I could use that to help with a visa : )
Simon - agreed. I read a horrendous pile of racist crap on a French FB page yesterday re the refugee situation culminating in a comment that 'les rosbifs' were all in France to steal their food FOC. Dunno quite how that works?!
That's what I was thinking, but wanted to ask anyway. I have been on a few different forums and have a good mate living in France who has told me a few of his experiences.
Thanks
Yes It has been very helpful. I kind of knew the answer, but just wanted to ask, as you never know what to expect until you actually go through the process.
Very little to do with language. More to do with the design of this site. Facebook does the comments and replies thing so much better. It would have been much better if you just answered the question, if you know the answer of course.
Pete - just to clear something up for you - I'm bilingual French / English and my Spanish is pretty much up there as well. I say this, not to crow, but to highlight the fact that I am recounting my experiences with non-French speaking family, friends, complete strangers and of course my lovely wife.
I have witnessed frankly appalling treatment of 'foreigners' in this country and overhead (a possible downside of being bilingual?!) equally appalling comments about Brits - you know the kind of thing...nice to your face but vile behind your back. Just like some Brits, some French assume that no 'foreigner' could possibly be able to speak their language well enough to understand throw away, derogatory comments. Wrong!
As for your comment about French not being that difficult - tell that to the thousands who struggle on! Tell that to those who use Google Translate before popping down to the town hall.....If it were that easy we'd all be multilingual.....
Your experiences are quite clearly very different in the Languedoc -but they don't invalidate mine.
That is an appalling bit of pedantry. 'They' is self-explanatory because it follows a context in which who they are is said. What it does is point out exactly how imperfect many of us are at our own language, let alone full comprehension of any other.
I’m lost with who is replying to what in this thread. Do you mean that the officials know that there are a lot of English speakers in France?
John, what do you mean?
Who knows that? Who are they this time?
But they do know that there are many English living in France!
i have found multilingual conversations very useful in learning French.
No the French officials don't speak English as a rule though have never met any of these intolerant people, look at it from their point of view they are trying to do there job and someone turns up unable to speak their language in their country.
One of the interesting things I've found is that many French people understand English but are too embarrassed to speak it because they don't want to make mistakes.
How much time a day have you spent trying to learn French and speak it? Its really not that difficult.
Problem is Eddie Mitchell believes he is the bees knees ! He's made millions by not being able to sing !
Why not go the other way and pretend to be an Eddy Mitchell fan. Nobody in this world who is even vaguely sane can like him.
Look everybody, on the language thing. Somebody recently arrived who had no idea that standing at a checkout with a little phrase book is not going to work is one thing but people who have been well over a decade who still look vague in same said queue when told they need to pay €64.28 (in French) or needs something so says 'Do you speak...' is another story. Work took me to something around 40 countries, I am not sure or even remember most of them. I imagine that a large proportion of them use English, French and Spanish as the official language but that is not always the street language, as well they may be many in any place anyway. OK, even if I speak the language I got a UNICEF, ILO, Save the Children or whichever organisation I was working for person to accompany me. However, what I have always done is learn the most basic things, Hello, Goodbye, Please, Thank you and any immediately useful ones. If I did a longer job, like my three months in Beijing, then I try to pick up the main language on the basis of it might not just be this trip. I probably can do those things off the cuff right now if I really wanted to. I am not a great linguist. OK, so I grew up bilingual and chose a profession when languages are a must. Nonetheless I cannot grasp how people living here for perhaps 12 years can go out in the public domain and still not even string some basics together. Bonne journée/après-midi/soirée, for instance, preceding au revoir that people who have been here half an eternity have not yet worked out! It seems like people are just not trying. That's where I lose patience and very often people who are in car that is clearly not properly insured, 'MOT-ed' and so on who then act as though they own the world... A while back one did airs and graces on me and then asked if I was one of those builders who have come to France to live off the backs of English people! I did an air and grace back and said words to the effect of 'No chappie, I am a former Cambridge don trying to live a normal life without being haunted by the worst of English hypocrisy'. You should have see the contortion on that face, actually it looked like he had just done something unpleasant in his trousers. I hate doing such things, avoid like the plague but just every so often it is full broadside. I have had so little I can moan about from French people that I perhaps ought to be disappointed. In fact, when my language all went walkabout I had more people help and be patient than I would have expected thinking back on it. Not just among 'friends' but whenever I got stuck in a lingual corner and had to fight through it. I would say I got understanding.
The ‘they’ being talked about by the OP are not the French in general but the officials he will need to communicate with while sorting out his paperwork.
Pete said : 'and often we have a conversation where I speak French and they try and reply in English'
Yep, I see that happen quite a lot - it's completely nuts and no one learns anything!
Working in London and speaking English is just as important as working in France and speaking French - no surprises there! But that's not the issue here. This is more about the French 'attitude' to non French speakers or those trying to learn French. Generalising, the word intolerant is what I'd use to describe that attitude.
I don't think it serves any purpose to try and defend France (or the French) by constantly pointing out what happens in other countries! That doesn't affect people living in France. The original question was 'Do they (aka the French officials) speak any English?'
Don't even get me started on Google Translate.....:-)
try imagining a French person moving to England and expecting the locals to speak French!
I work with the French Dispora in London and they all speak English and would be horrified at the idea of moving to a foreign country without speaking the language. You miss out on what's going on and surely the point of moving.
I have found the people of the Languedoc friendly and helpful with language and often we have a conversation where I speak French and they try and reply in English. my neighbour insists that we practice French over a glass of wine or three most weeks and after speaking no French 3 years ago I can now communicate easily. If I need to see the Maire I prepare beforehand using Google Translate.
You do have to work at it and in fact I would say learning French should be the priority with at least an hour a day practicing.
What I find hard is listening rather than speaking but then my English friends say I don't listen to them either.
finally we English have a mental block about languages a barman in CROATIA can speak 4 or 5 languages but and educated Englishman only speaks English because he can get away with it! Break downn the barrier is my advice or move to an English speaking country there are plenty of them around the world.
sad face
David - some of what you recount is very familiar to me - sadly it's pretty much a one way street as far as effort goes. I've seen expats recoil and almost disappear from local life, simply because they are sick and tired of making all the running. I'd never really understood expat cliques, wherever they may be in the world, but now I completely understand how they become a refuge for many.