Hi Ashley,
You've kicked an ants nest it would seem! No, no one will communicate in English with you.
Do you know any arabic ? It might be usefull
Green Park.
I admit to being an ISIHAC addict - I play cds in the car but only when there's not too much traffic about as i'm a danger to other road users...
You see, I can't stop laughing !
One Song To The Tune Of Another is my favourite round probably with the famous Colin Sell or, Less Niloc at the piano.
RIP Humph.
Sorted Bruce.
Just ask for 'Ryba I Frytki' and you will be ok.
I agree with Vero. To be frank whilst I love my life here in retirement in very rural Brittany there are some aspects of my former existence that I miss to a degree. I lived in Central London for decades and had a very active professional, cultural. business and social life. It was not unusual to go to four or five dinner parties a week, let alone the business lunches that were at that time an very important part of making contacts. Therefore I got to know a huge number of people. Many of the dinner parties were very amusing and scintillating. I'm older now but not yet brain dead. Social life here in a village in Brittany, especially in the winter when the suicide rate accelerates, can be quite dull. The only people in our village who seem to have dinner parties are expats or just a few locals, and they are mainly people who have come back after a career elsewhere. Local locals just don't do dinner parties. If they entertain it's a lunch in the summer or an apero. SFN fills a gap and has entertained. At the same time it has provided some veru useful exchanges about life in France.
SFN would be jolly dull if we didn't chase the odd red herring or write as we naturally speak, wouldn't it. Speaking entirely for myself I'd rather have a lively wide-ranging albeit occasionally tangentially relevant discussion than a cut & dried prescriptive dull one especially on such a subjective topic, but each to each.
Mornington Crescent, now you're talking. For those of you who do not know how to play, see:
http://www.mornington-crescent-rules.xtreemhost.com/mornington-crescent-rules.htm?ckattempt=1
For starters; Tottenham Court Road...
I love discovering what French people do and why, according to foreigners, it is very illuminating. I suppose that's deviation again but are we playing Just a Minute? If so we've all lost because there's a fair bit of repetition and hesitation going on as well ;-)
How about a nice game of Mornington Crescent?
The answer to the direct question from the OP would be a short sentence. However the overriding topic opens up many avenues, many of which have been discussed here. In my opinion this topic has brought out the best of SFN, in your opinion perhaps it has brought out the worst. Luckily we are all different. I have particularly enjoyed following the threads and have learnt a lot. I would like to thank Ashley for asking the question and hope that he has found the answer that he needs in amongst the other information. The topic might have gone beyond the basic requirements but does it really deserve, ‘Oh dear!!! oh dear oh dear oh dear’ ? (sic)
They would be terribly short dinner parties if they didn't. In at 2000, dishes in the dishwasher at 2030 and all the topics of the day dealt with.
Whoops, am I deviating again. Shouldn't have had that extra glass of ginger beer :-D
The Bergerac shop went bust after being bought by a crook - the only two bookshops now are Montaigne and La Colline aux Livres, which need support as independent bookshops are really feeling the strain.
Oh dear - dinner-party conversations do tend to deviate - I suppose I shouldn't have talked shop with Frances though, should I, even though it does actually have some bearing on why/when/how French people speak English, or don't.
The question was 'do French people speak English' - well, some of us do and some of us don't and most of us are somewhere in between, for a variety of reasons which have been gone into above.
Couldn't agree more. My doctor speaks better English than me!! (well, almost) But always start a conversation in French. I think it is a matter of being polite in someone else's country!
Oh dear!!! Oh dear oh dear oh dear
The question asked was, "Do they speak English?" It wasn't who has a gripe about the school system and how it is taught nor is an excuse to whinge about pet hates.
To answer the question (trying not to deviate) the answer is some do and some don't. If you assume that "most" French people speak English then you will encounter problems. Unless there is a designated 'English' line then assume they don't. You will need to utilise the help of someone who speaks good French.
If there is an office that you can visit with your query then visit it!! In general I have found that when you phone, the person answering can often be off-hand, vague or downright unhelpful BUT, on the other hand, chatting to a real person; face to face; they cannot be more helpful. Obviously there are exceptions!
The French often wont speak English to you if you start a conversation in English... But if you try to speak French they often open up and want to practice their English. It is all down to approach
Look at some of the UK websites where the contributors are probably younger on average than the expats in Europe. Its far worser in England (sic!). Gratuitous insults are also chucked about with abandon. People who don't agree with the writers' political views are always scumbags which must be the word with most increased usage. I can't remember ever having heard of it for about the first forty years of my life. Was it invented by Arthur Scargill?
What amazes me is the extremely low standard of written English found on one or two of the other expat forums. I’m prepared to believe that the almost complete lack of punctuation, phonetic spelling and misuse of homophones is some knock on effect of text speak but if it really is their ‘best writing’ then there is a real problem. I often wonder how people with such a low grasp of their own language can hope to come to terms with a new one.
My OH's French is fluent. It was her study language because when her time came Ticino had neither university nor specialist schools. So she went to Romande/Deutsch speaking parts. Now her perfect French is still infused with an Italian accent and she occasionally slips into Romande expressions rather than what is used here. A lot of French people do the face you describe indeed, although what she is saying may actually be better French than they use. However, English (specifically English) expats coming to buy houses do a cocktail of things because of her accent. Now, you need to bear in mind that this is a person who had a fellowship in Cambridge then a senior teaching/research post at another university for several years. Students had no problem, she was teaching in English and over 50% on the MAs were foreign students for whom English was not first language. They should have had difficulties because of the accent... But no, people come buying houses and hear an accent so screw up their faces then begin to speak at twice the volume! They seem to think that if they all but shout they will be better understood therefore, by some miracle, they will understand her better. So, who is the worse here? What on earth are they doing coming to buy houses if they expect everybody to speak accent free English anyway?
Yours truly who originally used French when he met her because she did not have the confidence to use her English, in England at that, was used to using it with her. So it was one of the reasons we chose France. A couple of years in and an idiot neurologist pumped me full of drugs against the advice of a cardiologist and almost cost me language altogether. I came out of it able to read normally, write reasonably but with slow, limited speech and to that extent my English is perhaps 80% recovered but my French only 45%. When necessary I explain why I listen, understand, respond and say very little back, that it takes so long to search for words that it is likely the largest part of a sentence is lost before I can construct it. I explain and discuss that. I have not yet met a French person who does not react with understanding, perhaps even sympathy, who will then patiently allow me to get where I am trying to go in their language. However, when either OH's clients, people stranded needing help in supermarkets and all the rest of them who are English speakers without any French find me stumbling and struggling for words to complete ENGLISH sentences I have experienced some things said to me I would not say to my worst enemy in anger! Worse is, when I am doing that to help them out because of their lack of French. No, the French are not per se intolerant, they may be impatient no doubt, but I now go out of my way not to be heard speaking English where there might be people needing/demanding help. So during this two week holiday, out with my daughters I speak French in public, perhaps but not always English in the car.
Here, I too may be being judgemental to a degree but I am trying to be objective about it very seriously. Yes, the French are not doing very well at languages, but then the English are not doing as well. Why not all Brits? Well, I am a Scot and moved here from Wales. In Scotland everybody now needs a smattering of Gaelic and Scots (the actual language as well as dialects) alongside English with or without Scots accents/dialects and the Welsh require at least a little bit of Cymru along with English, neither in absolutely monolingual. Across the border, at least those who 'know' will say, they speak the world language... Oh yeah?
All I can say is that it's a good job that most people in the UK speak Polish.
Can you imagine queueing up for your fish and chips and then not being able to tell them what you wanted!
I suppose if Aleksander and Wiktoria shouted louder they might be understood?
I know what you mean Helen but for my wife it’s not just the fact that the locals sometimes don’t understand her, it’s the way they screw up their bespectacled faces, as if constipated, that gets to me!
Aha, you saw that headline too: Last living French leave Charente!
:-) '-) ;-) :-D
...and I have been using Chapitre since the year dot. It took a letter of enquiry, for which a reply arrived in about a month, then the order with an international banker's order enclosed but by osmosis or some similar means having worked out what the postage would be (based on previous order and a bit of trial and lots of error) and a little extra for the couple of letters it would have cost them. The electronic age was suddenly there in 1997 when Amazon was already biting into them and the whole operation changed. The Bergerac shop is now Forum which is, I believe, owned by the same company who now own Chapitre. In a strange way I liked it as it was and the ability to visit the Paris shop that was a mess like Foyles and Blackstones as they used to be in the original shops, but wow! Only Southbank Book Market under Waterloo Bridge really offers old titles ranging across so many topics, in many languages and just opportunistically open to adventurous buying. Abe, yes, especially having seen a 1989 joint publication of my own up for $2,500 a couple of years ago! All other used copies, including in mint condition, were around £10 - €15!