Good technique @Mik_Bennett . We more-or-less do the same thing although it has never occurred to me to ask for their name!
I particularly agree with the face-to-face approach as, if you can get them on-side, they are much more likely to want to help.
Generally speaking, if it’s someone I haven’t dealt with before, you can see the “oh no - they’re English - this is going to be hell” expression as you approach, so just starting by speaking in French (and never using English) helps a lot!
Having said all that - I do wish I didn’t look so English. I had an appointment at a mairie I wasn’t familiar with the other day and was waiting for the fonctionnaire to be free when a bored little girl, age 4 or 5 at the most, came up to talk to me. After exchanging a few words, she said “Tu es anglaise?” Even a little tot sees it…
An additional technique is to carry a lot of paper work We have an “it’s all in here” file which we take. It contains births and death certificates, IDs, pet passports, Dad’s demob papers etc. Just to show that we really know what we are doing, a recent EDF bill on top.
Absolutely! So do we - everything they might possibly want and loads more besides. Definitely agree about the EDF bill.
EDIT: AFter having tried to apply for naturalisation, we now carry around translations of things like birth certificates too. Never been needed but they are reassuring.
Somewhat off-topic, but I used to used that technique with Turks & Caicos Customs.
There was a $400 duty-free allowance, after that it was 35% import duty.
So I filled out the form listing tons of little stuff - CDs, clothes, toiletries, books, etc, along with a fistful of receipts from Target, Walmart, CVS Pharmacy etc (I only shopped at the best places).
By the time they had looked through that lot they waved me through and didn’t inspect my suitcase in which resided something naughty such as an expensive camera or a video projector.
Arriving on the last flight of the day helped too, as they were keen to get home to Mrs. Customs Official and the Customsettes…
Don’t think I ever picked up the accent, but am aware of having absorbed some pronunciations - always try to stop myself from casually saying, “Thenks”.
Yes, very clipped, I was going to say Sout’Efricents but expect I am nowhere near, but I am interested in the sometime confusion between SA and NZ accent wise. You would expect NZ to be more like AUS, ans Aussie once told me that they say feesh and cheeps whereas NZers say fush and chups. Pretty poor I know but you get the drift I think.
Found Publix very expensive this summer compared to Kroger. Trader Joes is lovely so got all my spices and bits and pieces to bring home from there and its not expensive.
However, there used to be an SA budget airline called Kulula that was well-known (amongst other things) for its informal safety announcements. I remember a Kulula air-hostess stopping her announcement part-way through to say something along the lines of ‘because we’re flying overland to Cape Town you might think you don’t need to listen to where your life jacket’s stored, but let me tell you we’ll be flying over hundreds of dams on this trip and if we come down in one, you’d better be able to swim.’
