Twenty years ago when we first arrived I would often have to go through a message seven, eight times. trying to hear and understand what was being said. If they left a number that was a nightmare because numbers are often gabbled.
In the past, when I’ve had to ring my car insurance because the car’s broken down, I’d speak to a real person, but not now. It’s robo-voice asking what I now know are 5 or 6 standard questions to which you give one-word answers, more or less, after which you are transferred to a real person.
I couldn’t understand what these questions were so noted the answers when Renault answered them for me the third time I needed assistance.
AI has just now given me those questions and answers which I can keep in the car.
Well, I suspect NOTHING , was discovered, it’s clear this is marketing.
You can contact CPAM through secure messaging and if your French isn’t great tou simply do a translate and you can translate the response. Or AMELI have an English speaking page. Orange equally have an English speaking line.
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Good luck with getting the English service of Orange.
Really, I’ve never had a problem.
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Maybe I’ve been lucky but I’ve usually managed to muddle my way through. My French is not the best but that doesn’t phase me and I use what I’ve got.
Maybe my acceptance of my limitations, and my apparent confidence with what I can do helps. I’m not hesitant and my French pronunciation is ok. I do genuinely think that if you doubt yourself, stumble and stutter, then that transmits to the listener and they too become uncertain in what you’re saying. Sadly, confidence isn’t easily taught but you can acquire it by focusing on what you can do rather than worrying about what you can’t.
I’m digressing (arguably wibbling) I know but I’m kinda fascinated by language and communication. It’s sort of my thing. There’s a great deal communicated that’s not in the words, and both speaker and hearer rely on those extras. Confidence is one of them. If you communicate that you are uncertain then the hearer will share those doubts, and expect/look for errors. We have an incredible ability (as hearers) to auto-correct, we don’t tend to hear mistakes (as a rule). I know I make mistakes (and plenty of them in French!) so I rely partly on that auto-correction.
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like phone calls, in English or French. Mainly because you’re robbed of many of those non-verbal extras. So I have to psych myself up and find my confident place to make them. As a rule, and as I say maybe I’ve been lucky, people have been patient with me on the phone. I do genuinely believe that most people are decent and don’t look to make life difficult for you (some jobs’ worths excepted!) It’s certainly been my experience.
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Wibbling is good. We always enjoy a wibble.
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I’ve found my home!
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Neither have I and they were incredibly helpful when their fraud department blocked OH’s account.
Digressing further. I couldn’t disagree more. Some of us are programmed to hear and see mistakes. I am. OH is. We shout at the TV “WHOM” frequently.
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That sounds more like passive listening. For conversations you are engaged in, you tend not to hear mistakes. Really, not even hear them, they don’t register for you to even correct. I’m sure you know what I mean. Besides, I presume you don’t shout corrections at your friends when chatting 
That! And people saying ‘I’ when it should be ‘me’ and vice-versa gets me shouting too, so irritating.
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There seems to be a real aversion to using “me” and it really gets my goat.
Don’t even get me started on “very unique”!
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Re not hearing mistakes, if you’re really interested in the reality of it then what you can do is record a conversation with friends (permission gained of course!) and then listen back to it. It might surprise you just how many mistakes are made; from slips of the tongue, wrong words, mispronunciations, grammar errors… etc etc. You don’t hear them live, as it were, but they’re there.
When I was at school, we were taught to use ‘myself’ if we weren’t sure if it was I or me.
I really didn’t mean to derail into this conversation. Sorry.
Can’t think why they didn’t just teach the rule that said it must be prevalent as I have had someone write ‘return these documents to myself’ (and it made me want to kill them).
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There are times when it should be obvious that ‘me’ is the right thing to say.
Isn’t it tested by taking away the other person? Rather than you and someone else, which word would you use if it was just you?
I struggle over which annoys me more, incorrect use of of ‘iconic’ or misapplication of ‘sublime’.