I'm German and had the same experience when I went to France, everyone was smiling everywhere but once I asked them anything in English they just didn't want me there anymore.
At some point I started asking if they speak German first, if I switched to English afterwards they stayed happy.
But yeah fuck them for that, makes you feel super unwelcome...
Most of us are just so bad at english it's embarassing, you're probably just making them stress tbh, that or you're in Paris and if that's the case, well.. it's just Paris i guess
I feel like that's so much more of a non-issue nowadays since we all carry smartphones anyway that aren't just dictionaries but can even translate shit if needed.
Let me tell ya this was so much worse 20 years ago when you are somewhere with your broken, basic language skills and a fucking paper dictionary trying to ask the railroad employee whether you're just about the board the wrong train 🙈
Similar. We went to Paris in school, we spoke to the locals in french but due to our obvious accent, we were treated pretty badly. Best case we were ignored. Others told use to fuck off. Some 40 year old fucks figured it's a good use of their time to follow us 16-17 year olds around for 20 minutes to harass and mock them.
I'm sure that Parisians don't even like to hear other accents of France. I've never went there, but I wonder what they would have to say about my Swiss French accent.
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u/travturav Jul 20 '25
Visually, I can pass for French. I saw so many big smiles change to angry frowns when I started speaking. Assholes.