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**Kris Baker**

"Tchiowa" wrote in message
ps.com...

Phoenix wrote:
In article , says...
qu'est-ce que c'est wrote:
[snip]

Overall, I've found the French helpful if you will just take the
trouble to learn a few hundred words of French and use them. OTOH, if
you think that they ought to speak English because that is the right
and proper language, you are likely to get what you deserve. (The
bare _attempt_ to stumble through a sentence in French was enough to
get me smiling help -- in English.)

That's true in any foreign country, as far as I've noticed. Learn to
string together a few sentences and people suddenly start to smile and
warmly help you out. I have no idea why France catches hell for it when
the same is true everywhere.

Because that's not what the French do. I have found (advised originally
by friends and it turned out to be true) that if you are in France and
speak to someone in any language other than French or English they will
happily switch to English (if they can) and help you. But if you
approach them in English you get treated like dirt.

That wasn't our experience at all. We made plenty of goofs, laughed
at ourselves, let them laugh at us, and were treated well.

The *only* rude person we encountered in France was a young man
we asked for directions. He turned out to be from London, who
started in on an anti-French rant, telling us how lucky we were to
have asked him, instead of a Frenchman who'd have answered
rudely. That made a good party story that evening.

Kris