Every time I try to speak French in paris, as soon as someone hears an accent they immediately try english... ?

Show all answers

Daniel

I've the same problem here in China. I married my solution. When I want to practice my Chinese I chat with my wife. Another solution is to find a friend who wants to learn English and form a cross training relationship. They teach you, you teach them. Its very common here. Part of the problem may be that you appear to be an English speaker and those around you want you to feel more comfortable, so they try your apparent native language. Maybe try pretending you don't speak English, rather some other tongue that no one knows (in other words, speak gibberish, lol) Tell them you'd better try communicating in French. In any case, you have my admiration for trying, good luck!

dr cinoque

repondre a un etranger dans sa langue est une demarche amicale .Si tu veux parler uniquement franÃ§ais il faut aller dans des petites villes car il y a tres peu de gens qui parlent anglais

Rillifane

When you figure out how to deal with this problem let me know.

I learned French in Montreal and spoke it every day for almost seven years to my Francophone girlfriend. But when I go Paris people respond to me in English no matter how stubbornly I persist in speaking French. This has been going on for over 30 years now.

Admittedly, I am usually in the company of a traveling companion who doesn't speak any language but English and perhaps people are usually just trying to be polite by including her in the conversation.

Even worse, the same thing happens in China when I speak Chinese and I AM Chinese (well, okay, only half Chinese) and learned the language, as they say, at my mother's knee.

English has become so popular everywhere that it seems, that even as much as Americans (and Brits) are criticized for speaking only English, if you interact with educated people in non-English speaking countries, they will try to speak to you in English.

Laughing Annabella

You really have to tell people that you want to improve your French ("j'essaie d'apprendre le franÃ§ais", maybe you can say that when you are introduced to someone). I live in Paris and am French and always make it a point to speak French to English speakers who make the effort of speaking French. But that's probably because I am a teacher and know how important it is to practice.

dart

Speaking is always going to be the most difficult. That's just natural.

Three months? How long have you already been there? Not going to be enough, in the best of circumstances, to become fluent.

Try politely asking them to help you perfect their language. They are usually pretty warm to that. Even the French. They just want to practice their English on you.

In fact. I did the exact same thing this evening. A young woman, dark skin, dark hair and eyes, strong accent, asked me to help her...I responded in Spanish. She was Brazilian! We giggled, I helped her find what she needed, and explained that, unfortunately, about the only thing I know in Portuguese is how to ask for coffee! (the essentials!)

Just be firm and polite. Try really hard to get that accent, and they will appreciate that...the French are picky that way.

pinuts35

I think they just want to be polite when they see you have some hesitations. It is not to bother you. You can ask them to let you speak French because you to want to improve yourself.

FRANCES J

This is tricky and not easily solved as others have said. You might just have to put up with it in small, everyday exchanges but if you are in company and potentially have the chance to have a lengthy dialogue say that you want to speak French so that you can practice and insist on answering them in French. Invite them to correct you as well. You will probably never overcome the problem completely - people are usually trying to be helpful and try to make things easier for you. Just persist and you'll get there, it's worth it in the end.

Alex O

Paris n'est pas France et si vous voulez apprendre parler parfait francais, il faut que vous alliez a la sud ou hors de paris....pas dans un grand ville...allez avec AFS quand vous retournez aux Etats Unis....vous parliez bien dans le future si vous y'habitez pour un longtemps

CarloDaHaitian

I've heard about this dilemma often and I imagine it can be a bit frustrating. I'd say my level of French is intermediary, but when I went to Paris I had more French exchanges than English ones. Granted, some people did insist on speaking English with me, most of the time they responded to me in French. Perhaps, try staying away from very touristy areas. As some others have stated don't be offended, some French people simply want to practice her English also, but tell them politely that you insist on speaking French to improve. Try to practice your French/Parisian accent as much as possible. Once some people even hear the smallest hint of English, you lose all your chance of speaking French with them. Best of Luck.

Elaine P...is for Poetry

I believe they do it out of courtesy to try to make people who speak other languages feel more comfortable. My last visit to France was in 2005. I had no problem speaking French. I was brought up speaking the language, but was born here and after a while, you lose proper pronunciation. Nonetheless, once I indicated I didn't want to speak English, everyone, without fail, cooperated. Within a few days, strangers no longer spoke to me in English first, as I re-acquired the rhythms and speech patterns I had lost over the years.

B K

well when someone replies to you in english, try speaking french to that person again, insist on that.
you should consider this to be your lucky day, 10 years ago people would cuss at you in paris if you tried talking to them in anything else but french, now that they have learned to speak a bit of english they can't stop using it,

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: